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Thursday, May 2, 2013

What next!

It's for sure going to freeze here tonight. In May! I don't imagine it'll kill anything but the deciduous stuff will lose their leaves, and what will migrants find to eat? I would expect insects to be real scarce. I'll get up around 5 AM and sprinkle what I can and hope it helps, but with the raging wind, any warmth the water provides will probably be displaced immediately by frigid air. Oh, well, what is, is. Maybe the rest of May won't be over 100° every day, or maybe I'll get a May rain. Gotta be a break in there somewhere.

That screech owl is driving me crazy. On Apr 29 it sat all day looking out the nest box for the whole group to see and enjoy. The following day, Apr 30, no sign of it anywhere. A large group left disappointed.

This morning a group came really wanting to see the owl and no sign of it. So, after they left, a party of 3 arrived and said they were hoping to see the owl. I went into a long explanation of why I didn't think the owl was still here. Then, just to be sure, I checked all the nest boxes that it's known to use, and there it was, staring out at me. So they were happy to see it, but I was so frustrated that the earlier group missed it, not to mention the group on the 30th. I'm glad it's still around though.

It's so windy and miserable outdoors that I probably won't take any photos today.

UPDATE: Way too miserable outside for me. I couldn't even get my car door closed against the raging wind. But some birders, tougher than me, at the oasis came up to the house and told me the birds that were down there, which included a Northern Waterthrush, so I went down long enough to photograph it.
















































2 comments:

  1. Carolyn,
    I hope for the best.Wunderground is showing 23 for Alpine and 36 for Terlingua. Maybe you will be just miss the freeze. I know your higher than Terlingua but maybe the farther south will help. We are having terrible weather in the Texas Panhandle this spring...snow showers this morning. Our average last freeze should have been three weeks ago and we are looking at 23 tonight. Good luck to you and the birds.

    Marlin

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  2. Thanks, Marlin. I'll need more than luck to escape tonight. Experience has taught me that my lows almost never vary more than a couple of degrees from Marfa's, although my highs can be significantly higher. There's no possibility it won't freeze here tonight. The question is, how much damage will it do? Stay tuned.

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