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.

Deep

 

"Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know." J. R. R. Tolkien

This coopers hawk was spotting trying to work out how to catch a roadrunner that would keep darting into the bushes. After 20 minutes of swooping and diving, it gave up after only catching tail feathers.

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can" Tolkein

The cold weather is quite bitter, but is the perfect temperature for the sandhill cranes who are visiting while the weather is to their taste. They travel north in the summer, following the cold as far north as Russia.

Plants do not travel. The cold spell this year started earlier than most trees were ready for. Leaves falling from a tree are actually following a very complex process called abscission. A special layer of cells has to be formed by the influence of hormones which then are broken down by enzymes. This year the leaves were still on the tree when the snow came, breaking branches from the extra weight.

The enzymes cellulase and polygalacturonase were missing this year, causing marcescence.

"War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all" Tolkein

This is some kind of mint species, often become a weed because it can persist growing during a mild winter. It is likely catnip. This plant is not actually planted because it gets cats "high" (it only works on about two thirds of felines) but because it is shown to repel mosquitos.

The top of the catnip plants show the flowers after they have died back, their function fulfilled. The seeds remain and are shaken out by natural processes like wind blowing, or rain. The are quite prolific and often can't be eradicated once planted.

"but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” Tolkein

Asters are a very hardy flower and persist long after other species have died back from the cold. There are very few typical pollinators around now, but there are still some. Especially beetles and flies.

“He told them tales of bees and flowers, the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the Forest, about the evil things and the good things, things friendly and things unfriendly, cruel things and kind things, and secrets hidden under brambles.” Tolkein

Mammals are very effective at staying ot of sight of humans. This is likely a raccoon track because of the large, well spread out, long toes. These animals spend much of the night time following mud tracks looking for anything edible.

The size of this footprint suggests it is a squirrel. The plantigrade (heel print) print shows that it is a rodent of some sort, not an animal built for running like a dog or cat.

cats tend to have very circular paws shapes, unlike the more oval pattern of the canids. They have a much softer footfall, so they often are much less likely to leave a pattern in hard surfaces, especially as they don't have extended claw marks to help did into the ground.

Rubber rabbitbush is a very common plant throughout the southwest. It is ignored mostly because it is not preferred by livestock. Apparently it has a high concentration of rubber. It is also an aster species, producing flowers late into the winter season. It is heavily browsed when other food is scarce, one of the crucial "starvation foods" that so many wild animals rely on as a reserve.

"

The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command." Tolkein

This is probably Mentzelia involucrata. The blazing stars are of interest because of their pretty flowers rather than any utility they have to humans. Still, the flower industry in the US is estimated this year to be worth 52 billion dollars. These flowers are usually found near to a water source like a spring, or a arroyo in the hills.

"I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?'"Tolkein

Kingcup cactus are fascinating because they are not known for their beautiful flowers, but they should be. They are nectar powerhouses and produce occasional bright, very showy flowers. The rest of the time they just look like a prickly pebble, of course.

Silvery lupine is a shrub with beautiful flowers that is native to the western US. It is a member of the pea family, and grows in poor soils which it supplements with nitrogen produced in its own roots.

one of the many ipomopsis species this is called many flowered. It is a native of north america and is in a family of plants called skyrockets. They are very attractive to hummingbirds and bees.

One thing gardeners prize as much as a beautiful flower is endless, diversonary variety. This is another species of ipomopsis known as flaxflowered because of similiarity to flax flowers.

"But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass."" Tolkein.

Like many others, I suspect that the public's scapegoating of coyotes is a symptoms of a much deeper malady of negative self reflection. Putting the blame of our own ills toward pet ownership and fear of our place in the natural world into a convenient guilty party. The problem is that the scat of a coytoe in Corrales is almost excusively vegetable matter. An obligate meat eater, like a cat, produces scat like the one above, dark and oily from digested blood and fat.

"I may be a burglar...but I'm an honest one, I hope, more or less" Tolkien

Flat top broomrape is one of the many maligned parasitic species. This plant seed lies dormant in the soil and forms when the molecules of a suitable plant species is detected. Some bloomrapes are specific to one plant, but others can link with and subsume nutrients from many species of plant root. In a monoculture like farming these parasites can completely destroy a crop, just like a small enclosed space like an aquarium, or a chicken coop can foster viruses, or fungal growth, or bacteria.

"Some of my kin look just like trees now, and need something great to rouse them; and they speak only in whispers." Tolkien

In evolutionary terms, both humans and fungi belong to a larger group called Opisthokonta, we both have a 12-amino-acid insertion in the translation elongation factor 1α gene. This shared characteristic indicates a common ancestor, placing fungi and animals closer together on the tree of life than either is to plants. This mushroom is the reproduce apparatus of a distant relative, who is feeding on the trunk of a very distant relative.

This mushroom is called the Destructive Pholiota. It is not edible and prefers cottonwood trees. It is not actually a Pholiota species of mushroom. It is not often found this far south.

"To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed" Tolkien.

I am still trying to find the identy of these mystery seeds, found out in the hills on BLM land in New Mexico. I doubt they were transported there by people but its possible. It is odd that no matter how long a person can study something like nature in their own backyard, them more questions arise, than answers.

A common weed in the Corrales bosque is one of these amaranth species. This is doubly odd as the amaranth has been cultivated by people for about 8,000 years, just not in the last few generations. Humans actively encouage its evolution into a rapid growing, hardy species that can take heavy mowing and thrives in marginal growing conditions where there is no competition.

The unique conditions in the Corrales bosque seems to encourage visitors, but not many of those stick around. There are many species of raptors who come and go as they travel along the Rio Grande river. The cooper's hawks seem to be the most at home, having learnt long ago that bird feeders feed them as well.

The large herons are often around when the water levels in the clear ditch are rising or falling. They seem to be very good at predicting when things are about to change.

The mallards feed well at carrie tingley ponds on white bread from people who like ffeding ducks. They also feed in the ditches of Corrales, but here they aeem more intent in feeding for the purpose of bonding, or just because dabbling is what ducks like to do.

"Therefore with my eyes you shall see, and with my ears you shall hear, and nothing shall be hidden from you." J.R.R. Tolkien

The dry flowers often hide all sorts of insects that seem to recover on warm days in the winter . This is a soldier beetle. They have forewings that are leathery, instead of the more common tough elytra covering of a typical beetle.

grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness.  J.R.R. Tolkien

Dry sunny days in winter seem to encourage some of the hunting spiders to come out and stalk about a little. This is a Western Parson Spider, and is nowhere near as scary as a spider's reputation would lead us to believe.

This spider is also in the group Gnaphosidae, like the Western Parson Spider above, but it is very difference in appearance. Spiders are hugely diverse and are not even classified as insects, which are in a different subphyla; Hexapoda

It is quite unusual to still be seeing ants outside. This is a pretty common species the bicolored carpenter ants. In fact, they are often sold as an easy to grow colony and know for having docile natures. Their diet and habits are quite varied but they live in the soil and hibernate for 2-3 months of the year in the coldest part of the year.

""It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule."" J.R.R Tolkien

These ants are one of the types that farm insects that produce honeydew secretions. Not only aphids, but also scale insects and whitefly. These ants also collect fallen seeds, like cottonwood and elm seeds. In the summer they are quick to scavenger fallen insects, such as grasshoppers. Their wide range of behaviors means they have a wide range of habitiats they can thrive in.

Many plants spread their seeds during the cold winter months. The cattails appear to use their fluff to make it difficult for birds to cllect the tiny seeds. The downside to this is that the seeds do not have much time to survive poor conditions, but this does not seem to be a problem for them most of the time. The vast number of seeds produced (220,000) means that usually some plants will spread as long as conditions are favorable.

The Corrales bosque is a very managed environment, with land built up, river courses stabilized and vast amounts of soil shifted about to control the lanscape. This is not always easy to see. The protective levees reduce property damage and are pretty solid in this part of New Mexico. Of course, the last big flood event in Corrales was only 10 years ago, at the end of July, 2013. I t is illuminating to read the reports from back then and how the journalists talked about the "post dam" era after Cochiti dam had been built. I reflect on this as the El Vado dam repairs are pushed back to at least 2026. The new step off dam feature at the Corrales siphon is likely to have unpredictable effects as well.

Uncertainty can cause predictably confused results. As part of the issues seen in Albuquerque's south valley's notoriously inadequate earthern levee, increased attention has been paid to the levee protecting Corrales from the kinds of flooding seen 1868, 1874, 1904, 1929, 1941, 1962, 1975, 1988, 1991, 1999. Even though the risk of flooding in Corrales is deemed slight, it includes 43% of Corrales properties as of the current flood maps. As usual, this is somehow translated into removing more trees. The link is well argued, but still turns out to be a bit tenous.

"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set" J. R. R Tolkien

Corrales is a difficult place to understand when looking under the hood. A place that appears to be wild and carefree can also be seen in the context of different societies riven from within and threatened from without by divisions and fracas. It is nonethe less held together by a band of shared interest. How we use this land is clearly seen differently by differnt groups. We are still the stewards of our place of residence, whether we are directly involved, or not. 

    It may not be easy to figure out what is right, but at a minimum, ask yourself who is responsible for picking up the dog poop bag shown in this picture?