Float

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again. Alexander Pope The weather is being ideal for plant growth, cottonwood dispersal, and toad courtship. Temperatures are good, with some moisture and slight winds. This means the ecosystem is thriving now, with plants growing, attracting insects, which in turn bring birds into the Corrales trees.

This insect is the larval form of Orchestes steppenis. common name Elm Flea Weevil. When elms in the US began to become affected in 2003, the culprit was actually undiscovered in it's native Europe and it took a graduate student's thesis in 2018 from Ohio State to figure this all out.

The weevil larvae starts feeding by a process called "leaf-mining. Where it eats the leaf from the inside, effectively walling itself from the outside world of dehydration and attacking insects such as praying mantids and parasitoid wasps. When it matures in the hot summer is seems to drop to the ground and go into a torpid state until the following spring.

There are many predators of the weevils that keep things in check. Spiders are a common one and not often recognized for their services to gardeners. This spider has two names, depending on the fear it inspires, either the cupboard spider, or a false widow. Both names belong to the genus Steatoda and refer to the same insect

""The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by showing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency and purity of the water."   Alexander Pope

irrigation is a very old form of land management and is still used in Corrales. It not only irrigates fields for crops, but can also be used to prevent weeds from forming. The muddy water from the surface water chokes out kochia and other weeds that grow, letting the farmer chose when and how the plants should grow. The depth of water, clarity, composition, and temperature all help decide which seeds grow and which will wilt. Here you can see the short grasses geting flooded while the floating water plants such as Didymosphenia geminata continue to grow in the sunlight.

Other plants grow preferentially in the shallows. The succession of plant growth from pond to meadow are quite well known and often start with tall grasses, such as rushes. As detritus collected between the plant stems the ground rises until it is dry most of the time. Here you can see a surface sheen that looks pearly, this is a mixture of dust and pollen that slowly over time forms a fossil record of the plant activities of past seasons.

Pollen is released by insects but also on the wind. These are the catkins of the coyote willow. They don't look much like typical flowers but are able to send out large clouds of pollen when the time is right.

Ants and wasps are part-time pollinators but come in a dazzling variety of species. This ant is actually a small wasp. There are probably about 40,00 unrecognized wasp species but this one is probably a braconid genus..

Most people fear wasps but often forget the insect eating abilities of those such as this scolid wasp that hunts for underground beetle grubs to use as living larders of the eggs.

"All nature is but art unknown to thee; / All chance, direction, which thou canst not see." Alexander Pope

Woodhouse toads need flooded fields, with semi-permanent water and night time temperatures above 60 degrees. In a few weeks their little progeny should be jumping all over the ditch banks as if by magic.

"Truth needs not flowers of speech." Alexander Pope

The range of plants is quite staggering. Its not surprising really as they have been evolving for about 140 million years. This flower is called a paintbrush and produces heavy amounts of nectar to attract hummingbirds. They are a hardy plant used often in xeric landscapes, however they are hemi-parasitic, dependent on host plants and react poorly to transplanting. Oddly, it is used to produce a black dye for deerskins

This delicate flower is called an evening primrose, but it is not related to those species. They are drought hardy and have many medicinal uses ascribed to them. It only has four, heart shaped petals which are semi-transparent.

The salsify flower is a rugged species of aster, much like a dandelion but much larger. Its full name is Tragopogon dubis and is another introduced European plant. Apparently the cooked roots taste like oysters. There is a paradox in that we have an almost infinite variety of choices of what we eat and consume but the easiest, is the one that takes the least thought and effort, always the choice that others are selling to us.

Many people are fascinated by birds. They seem to express something that human seek within themselves. They are exquisitely adapted and also endlessly adaptable. Often they seem so smart in how they look for food, how they migrate and how they present themselves to the world. This wren shows the classic thin beak of a insect catching species.

After the rains many birds examine the lay of the land. This finch has a large beak well designed for many feeding tasks. The brief monsoons have unleashed a large number inf insects that birds spend most of the day looking for and catching. Later in the year this same bird will switch to a diet of fruits and seeds as it can find them.

The red wing blackbird relies on water and swollen acequias to provide nest cover for the female. The male uses a loud voice and a pair of flashy epaulettes to draw attention away from her and towards himself.

    For a land dominated by dry grassland, fresh rainfall moisture can certainly change how the bosque operates. The plants insects and animals all go into a sort of overdrive as the hot dry road of time continues. Often I wonder why humans don't appreciate the stability of the world around us. We focus on the negatives in our own lives but the vast majority of the world seems to amazingly be able to spin around without any kind of intervention on our behalf at all.

Shine

Even though the weather is acting up, late April is the time when "gardening" begins for most home owners and farmers. The soil temperature is increased and the humidity has risen. Many people will have noticed the increase in insects. Likely this was not with the attitude of awe that they deserved.

A common isopod is a good example of why things need to examined closer. This creature is not quite an insect, but a relative of the crustaceans of the sea and first evolved 400 million years ago. This particular species (heavy, and able to roll into a ball) arrived from Europe around the 1500's. It quickly became the dominant isopod. Most other species are more fragile, living in specialized niches, such as the Socorro Isopod, found in only one thermal spring in Socorro, NM. The biggest isopod is found ,much like its ancestors around 3,000 feet down in the sea off the gulf of Mexico and can weigh up to 3.5 lbs.

Insects had learned to fly by about 350 MYA, vasty increasing the ecological niches they could occupy. One of the first niches was learning how to digest and burrow into wood with the aid of symbiosis with fungi, bacteria and protists. Every spring the first warm, humid day brings out flying termites. These are not as fearsome as many pest control companies would have you believe.

Insect hatchings drive many animals to risk an early foray into the unknown. The cold air at night still makes the amphibians slow, but the drive to feed and mate allowed this female bullfrog the impetus to try to gain some residual daytime heat from the denuded dirt roadway on Andrew's Lane.

Mayflies are relished by any fish and bird able to catch them. While they are not particularly nutritious, their large numbers and ease of capture makes them very sought after by many small animals. They can often be found in the early morning resting on the stucco of people's houses.

AS the weather warms up many problems come to the fore that residents of Corrales often forget about. The acequias need constant, but also low grade maintenance and are sadly in desperate need of saving. Each year more and more of them are filled in and abandoned due to many reasons. The permanent loss of the Siphon of Corrales is really more of a symptom than an actual cause of the decline of this communal web-way of water courses that used to bind the people to the land.

We use the land differently now, and what used to be a source of flood protection is now a traffic hazard for the unwary. Sadly, there are many in Corrales who don't see anything bad about paving over this area and installing pipes for irrigation control, fire prevention, and other neighborhood damaging infrastructure projects that bring in cash for the village or residents. 

Lizards in the bosque don't attain the impressive size, colors and jaw muscles of the desert species, but they are out there in impressive numbers. They take advantage of the solar rays to improve their digestion of the small insects. Not many are in a mating mood yet, but the early lizard still gets the best basking spots.

Common carp prefer to spawn in clear, shallow pools that have only just formed from lateral irrigation drainage from the farm fields. After swimming in from the Rio Grande, they migrate to the shallow pools that have only just become submerged as soon s the water covers the vegetation. Each gravid female is attended by several males who stand guard to fertile the eggs as they are released.

Dandelions are modern miracles of plant evolution. They reproduce by apomixis. They clone themselves and rapidly repopulate an area as soon as they can produce seeds. They are 100% indestructible yet people keep trying.

It's hard to believe, but people actually want to fly-fish for carp. It makes sense if you like a good fighting fish that is challenging to interest and also to land. I still have some trouble wrapping my head around the concept of fishing, however. Especially as so few people in New Mexico seem to like eating local fish.

Some time around 400 MYA these sun spiders separated from true arachnids and scorpions. Today they are arid systems specialists, using heavy jaws to catch prey rather than webs or poison fangs.

Earwigs are fascinating insects that can actually pincer with those two projections at the end, just not very well. They were more often found in houses when wallpaper and the  edible wall paper paste existed. The pincers on this female are straight, but also asymmetrical, which is unusual in the insect world. You can also see the wing casings over the back, but they don't like to fly.

Its one of the odd thoughts about humans that we like a plant that is vigorous and healthy, until we don't. Siberian elms are a perfect shade tree. Tough, adaptable and easy to grow. They were deliberately introduced for exactly these reasons. They are also prolific and usually considered a weed for exactly the same reason. This one is growing up through a tiny crack in the concrete, and even if pulled up, the chances are good that the sapling will resprout. Already the seeds of the next generation are about to sprout in the damp soil.

This poppy is growing through the asphalt in Albuquerque, it is a remarkably prolific and useful domesticated plant. Used as a source of drugs as well as food. They are a common emblem for war grief due to appearing in many Belgium muddy fields. No one gives the dandelion as much credit.

The cross flower (or blue mustard) is only out for a short time and very inconspicuous, except for the smell of...well, it seems to be different for different people. I think it is subtle and sweet, but others think it is strong and foully pungent.

An easy way to tell how long a bird has been in an areas is to see how shy it is. This night heron is recently arrived and seems to be a bit hesitant in coming down from the trees to fish. They usually prefer to come out in the late evening, so this also explains the behavior.

Wood ducks are beautiful little birds with anxious personalities. In spite of their appearance they are less stately and more "anxious chihuahua" especially when you hear their worried squeaks.

The ditches in Corrales are quite amazing. The still, deeper water (>1 foot) and the shallow (0-5 inches) tangled water plant roots are completely different habitats and contain totally different species of plants and animals. Littoral areas are shallow, deeper areas are called limnetic and are rarer in our ditches.

Anyone noticed that the insects in the city are very different in numbers from those in the country? Cockroaches exist, but lead a much more precarious existence and are far fewer. This is not due to humans killing them, but because of the many predators like lizards and sometimes hawks and mice that will snack on them. With all these predators removed from the city by people, many cockroaches thrive well in concrete and steel pipes in the dark and dank corners.

Small ants also thrive better in the city, mostly due to their diet of basically anything humans eat. There are many more carpenter ants in Corrales and they can be seen carrying the many seeds from cottonwoods and elms that are blowing around right now. In the summer they often switch to feeding on insects, like beetles and grasshoppers.

Vultures and hummingbirds are arriving in Corrales now. The turkey vultures are probably heading on soon, but the hummingbirds might stick around a little longer. Neither species is a big fan of flying in the rain, but are able to well enough.

    Other birds stick around. This is a poor picture of the red shouldered blackbird, found wherever there is shallow ponds and cattails. They have distinctive trills, but the females are well hidden in the reeds. Tall trees help these birds announce their claim to territory and prevent costly misunderstandings.

Gardening is a costly territorial effort to control the fate of a whole ecosystem in miniature. Sometimes to learn about the whole, other times as a vanity. 

    In both cases it is not a bad thing, while your fingers are in the damp dirt, to think about all those things and creatures that went before, to allow you the luxury of this illusion of control.

Dark

"When we consider we are bound to be serviceable to mankind, and bear with their faults, we shall perceive there is a common tie of nature and relation between us."

Marcus Aurelius

It is always so easy to find fault with things and so much harder to see common ground. So when Corrales residents have to share the bosque with both nature and a wide variety of natural space actors it can lead to misunderstandings. It probably helps to reflect on how all the people benefit in open spaces in these situations.

"No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms."

Marcus Aurelius

Winter can be a decidedly unfriendly time of year for mammals to be outdoors. An upside is that we can see the many types of birds who thrive in these chilly conditions. While mallards are common in our ditches, ducks like these green winged teals can provide an aditional splash of color in the bleak landscape. This male is very fancy in his colored stripes, but exactly how this fancy but clownish feather display is alluring to other birds is always a bit obscure.

"Nature has given to each conscious being every power she possesses, and one of these abilities is this: just as Nature converts and alters every obstacle and opposition, and fits them into their predestined place, making them a part of herself, so too the rational person is able to finesse every obstacle into an opportunity, and to use it for whatever purpose it may suit"

 Marcus Aurelius

Birds in general have some remarkable adaptions. Thise feathers a pressed into service for many uses. The wings shapes in the picture shows how a simple change in shape of an aerofoil allows migration in a much more refined way than those noisy jets that ceaslessly roil the skies.

A flight feather is pretty stiff, with a curve, witth interlocking barblets and a specific form and function. They overlap to provide a shape to provide lift. Even the color has a direct purpose, dark feathers are denser in melatonin, a protein that provides toughness and also is used to create beautiful designs on the birds themselves.

Below the flight feathers are the insulation feathers, which are designed to trap air, preventing the cold from reaching the delicate skin of the actual bird's corpus. These feathers are much more fragile, and need the overlapping scales of the stiff flight feathers to stay dry and clean. Humans have been using feathers for insulation since prehistoric times, but have still not found a material with better insulation for the weight and compressibility.

Feathers can be used for many other purposes, a true multi-tool. This woodpecker uses extra stiff tail feathers to prop itself against a tree truck, examining old wood for insects and nesting potential. The tail feathers use a strong, symetrical central shaft, or spline, to act as a third leg to brace and allow for hammering.

Cinnamon teals don't have the same green stripe on the face, but I don't think this is a cinnamon teal. There are three species of teal in north America green and blue wings on the east coast, with the cinnamon teals in South Amercia but visiting the western states from time to time. Like most birds they are very mobile and like to stay here for the winter. Many writers have discussed their habits.

"For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility"

Marcus Aurelius

Mallards are a large and vexacious duck, which has been easily domesticated. They are boisterous and skittish around humans until they acclimatize to a location and settle down to uniquely mallard enterainments, which seems to mostly involve squabbling and showing off to each other.

Robins vist the bosque in the fall and winter as they wait for a chance to return further north. This bird is actually a thrush and looks or acts nothing like a European robin, other than having an (almost) red breast. A pretty robust bird, they have the latin name of Turdus migratorius and there are about 370 million of these turds in north America, the most numerous land bird on the continent.

"Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills."

Marcus Aurelius

Raptors return to the bosque in the winter, likely simply because the birds they hunt are here. The Coopers hawk is a bird specialist and often can be seen watching the bird feeders during the winter. Who knew the feeders are doing double duty?

Smaller raptors like the American kestrel catch pretty large insects, but in the winter they also hunt small mammals or the occasiona bird. The bosque concentrates the prey animals into a small area, making ambushing easier. This one is staying warm, with its feathers fluffed out in the morning sun.

"Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts."

Marcus Aurelius

Red tailed hawks seem to prefer the larget prey; rabbits or large birds like ducks. They often are found roosting in tall trees overlooking open fields.

Tree stumps in the bosque seem weird because they can be very hard to remove. Other times they are placed as bumpers. The tire track in the dirt show that a truck was stopped by driving into this stump at low speed. The stump waas dug into the ground by the impact, one can only wonder at the state of the truck's axle...

But then again, look at how far from the road the tracks were. It seems like judgement was delivered here.

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself"

Marcus Aurelius

Grey heron are solitary birds and always seem very judging. They rely on lightening thrusts of their bills and very mobile necks, hunting small, unwary fish in shallow water. They are often around when the water level drops, or there is a recent Game and Fish stocking of disoriented fingerlings.

Mallards are able to feed on almost anything, as well as being able to beg for bread at the nearby tingley ponds. They need the ditches to do typically duck things like preen, dabble and pair-bond.

"When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger"

Marcus Aurelius

It is coyote mating season, so these canines are out doing things to get noticed and be generally outragous. They now spend more time examining things carefully, such as dog walkers. They are far less aggressive than the average off leash dog, but it takes quite a few seasons before people get used to being scrutinizd by those topaz eyes. They are prey for large animals such as cougars, bears and wolves, but most people just assume they are wolf-like, which is quite untrue.

"Nature does nothing in vain, and so whatever is, is for the sake of something else"

Marcus Aurelius

Rabbits are not really seen as very philosophical subjects,  but the reason of their amazing fecundity is a secret of how they can adapt so easily to human adapted environments. They have amazing bursts of speed, and easily change their behaviours to be less visible to humans and dangerous activities such as crossing a road. While they can live up to ten years, the vast majority never make it past 1 year old.

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privelege it is to be alive-- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love”

Marcus Aurelius

Porcupines are much less active than rabbits. They are usually seen sleeping in trees as they try to conserve their meager energy stores by resting during the winter.

"Sum Up: The body and its parts are a river, the soul a dream and mist, life is warfare and a journey far from home, lasting reputation is oblivion"

Marcus Aurelius

Open water is usually the most stable, temperature wise, during the cold nights and the hotter afternoons. This is where the first insects and green vegetation usually begins to grow again as soon as the conditions allow. Even in January the flowing water contains many species that are thriving, from bacteria, to insects and green plants

"The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it"

Marcus Aurelius

One of the tings that snow brings to New Mexico is dust. Each snow flake forms around a particle which then is brought to the ground. This atmospheric dust is actually a source of nutrients for desert adapted plants. Sometimes the dust has travelled from places like the Sahara desert. A surprisingly large variety of microscopic creatures can survive frozen conditions, ready to come back to "life" when conditions are right.

"Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground"

Marcus Aurelius

The dust and debris in the atmosphere conspired with the thin atmosphere to produce these spectacular susnsets that New Mexico is quite famous for, usually on windy evenings. The particles found in the atmosphere is severely understudied, but contains many spores and likely microplastics.

"All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you."

Marcus Aurelius

Gardening is a strange pastime, where humans try to show they understand Nature by producing a poor fascimile of it. In the process they learn how efficient and interrelated the process of biology actually is. This fruit is a crabapple, these trees are planted as a way to produce shade and reduce dust in New Mexico strip malls. They are pretty hardy, but do drop fruit that attracts crows and other birds. The crows have learn to vacate the area during business hours. Naure in harmony indeed.

This is a wasp, one of the seriously understudied Chalcid species that are insect parasites. They are small and difficult to study. Pictures are hard to get also, as macro photography is definitely not as easy as the professionals make it appear.

"What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?"

Marcus Aurelius

The afternoons are often warm enough to encourage insects to warm up to operating temperature. Exothermy is an ability to reduce calories in cold weater, but means they cannot continue to stay active in cold weather periods. So when the temperatures heat up just enough, the insects rush out to start activities as soon as possible before the bigger insect eating repitles also get a chance to get out.

Dragonflies usually can't fly in cold weather periods, however there is a strong pressure to be active as soon as possible. Meadowhawks specialize in being out in the brief warm afternoons. They are usually the first to lay eggs. They can vibrate muscles to raise their internal temperature as they strive to warm up. It helps that they are small because less heat is needed to raise their hemolymph to a certain operating temperature.

Marcus Aurelius was a roman emperor who was an avowed stoic philosopher. This school of philosophy emphaised the value of using adversity as a source of growth and the Corrales bosque likewise faces a range of challenges that can help development, but only if challenges can be overcome. His writing contain a lot more than just the college 101 ideas of growth through self denial. He often stated that Nature holds a beauty in not fighting what is its nature. Humans who spend time examining their own surroundings can often see this wisdom in our bosque after a short period of reflection, too.