Mountains tall, valley wide

The family went to the mountains today for an outing as a break from the quarantine and self isolation.

The news is pretty monotonous, and it was time for a change. The trip up was a pretty off road track, and it was interesting to watch people dragging their city vehicles over ruts, but everyone made it okay.

Once in the heights and forest, it was interesting to see the mountain stream, very noisy and with sandy soil. It is just a different behavior than the languid stinky black mud pit that the Rio Grande looks like once it is down in the flood plain. Up there, the pussy willows

are just putting out nectar being enjoyed by a myriad of small butterflies, bees and flies. The bees are tremendously varied, from big bumblebees to tiny sweat bees.

I noticed the butterflies preferred to be above 10 feet, while the rest of the insect world were much closer to the ground. Large clouds of insects were disturbed as the cars passed them on the steep track. (there were a lot of cars). Many of the same butterflies are there as down in the river plain, but the ratio is reversed; much fewer cabbage whites and many of the big, black ones with brown trailing edge stripes (sorry, not much of a butterfly guy, and didn't have the right apparatus to catch and identify them).

The first of the irrigated fields have started flooding in Corrales, and while in the mountains I noticed that even the small stream was bursting its bank and creating areas of lush grass with edges of wet leaves where insect life was thriving. Several years ago I noticed out at Los Poblanos open space, that this was the ideal time to catch small lizards, the cold water slows them down and the water removed their hiding places out in the field. Usually the whiptails are faster than lightening. Be gently and patient catching lizards though, they are more fragile than they look, and break off their tails when stressed.

The shield bugs were in the middle of a mass matting period. This often a strategy employed by animals to reduce depredation, but these bugs are not palatable, so there is probably some other reason

Weirdly, they seemed to prefer the asphalt of the parking lot, which was empty due to quarantine closures. They are bright red colored and when they fly, the bright orange thorax (butt) is prominent as a warning and also advertisement.

I noticed the water-striders are out. These ubiquitous insects fill the roles of spiders at the water's edge and are often the first insects to colonize a desert water hole There were spiders too, but they stayed in the abundant wood piles. I noticed the ants preferred to be under the canopy of the forests

Down in the valley, the carp are still stranded. I tried my luck at (quietly) trying to catch one, but they are much bigger and more powerful that they look. I might try again another day.