Another hiatus on the way
Tomorrow I head off on another long (longer!) trip, and may or may not be posting for several weeks. Don't know how much internet access (and time) I'll have.
Thanks to kind friends, I do have a simple, lightweight little digital camera this time, and if I get some good shots, will try to post them here and on my website.
Meanwhile, from Saturday's walk on the land...the great pump debacle. The solar-powered pump at Owl had quit, and as it was bright and sunny, we knew something was wrong. Turns out that the aquatic plants in that part of the water had decided to anchor themelves on the pump, over the winter, and had breached its protective shield (a fabric wrap intended to keep gunk out) and killed the pump. At first, we couldn't even *find* the pump. Had to pull out the entire mass of water lilies and pickerel weed, and break apart the root mass, excavating for the pump.
About half the root mass has been broken off at this point and the pump was still camouflaged in a mass of roots. The frogs now living in the pump-hole (a round, prefab pool) were not happy to have their vegetation disturbed.
And here's why the pump didn't work. The roots had gone right into the innards and probably burned out the motor. Fences, pipes, and pumps are constant maintenance issues for country dwellers...
This little Lesser Goldfinch male was not happy to find that his usual drinking place had gone dry...there was plenty of water downstream, but it wasn't flowing from the "spring" that the solar pump produces. I turned on the filler hose from the storage tanks, which put a little water flowing over the lip of the tub below, and in a few minutes he went down there. Many birds prefer to drink from what seems to them like "the source."
Thanks to kind friends, I do have a simple, lightweight little digital camera this time, and if I get some good shots, will try to post them here and on my website.
Meanwhile, from Saturday's walk on the land...the great pump debacle. The solar-powered pump at Owl had quit, and as it was bright and sunny, we knew something was wrong. Turns out that the aquatic plants in that part of the water had decided to anchor themelves on the pump, over the winter, and had breached its protective shield (a fabric wrap intended to keep gunk out) and killed the pump. At first, we couldn't even *find* the pump. Had to pull out the entire mass of water lilies and pickerel weed, and break apart the root mass, excavating for the pump.
About half the root mass has been broken off at this point and the pump was still camouflaged in a mass of roots. The frogs now living in the pump-hole (a round, prefab pool) were not happy to have their vegetation disturbed.
And here's why the pump didn't work. The roots had gone right into the innards and probably burned out the motor. Fences, pipes, and pumps are constant maintenance issues for country dwellers...
This little Lesser Goldfinch male was not happy to find that his usual drinking place had gone dry...there was plenty of water downstream, but it wasn't flowing from the "spring" that the solar pump produces. I turned on the filler hose from the storage tanks, which put a little water flowing over the lip of the tub below, and in a few minutes he went down there. Many birds prefer to drink from what seems to them like "the source."