legacy

Several years ago I showed the location of triops near a busy road to the whole world, or at least,those whose use the Inaturalist app.

Today, 3 years later, I met a person likely using that data to find the same creatures that I found years ago. Luckily, triops are not in danger of extinction. Also, the stagnant water in muddy tire ruts on the side of the road do not count as a secret, protected location. Still, it kind of feels like I let out a big secret that can't be untold.

A new big secret on this blog now, is that the spadefoot tadpoles have finally hatched. They never stop moving, so pictures are still hard to come by. Of course, lots more pictures to come.

The flowers

After the rains, the hot sun seems to get the yellow flowers blooming. I like the cactus flower photo, because it shows the bud and the bloom together.

Sunflower picture shows a beetle on it in the shadow.I'm not too sure what this beetle is yet, but I have found many hiding in the floss of the flower buds.

I noticed these sunflowers on the ditch are not aphid infested yet. I wonder if this is because of all the beetles. It could just be they haven't found this stand of plants yet. I'll be keeping a close eye over the next week or two.

I notice the clear ditch is having large hatching of water striders. These weird Insects live on the surface of the water, and can change the size of the wings of their prodeny; depending on changing needs.

Aspects of Bank

 Steep bank sides are not found much in nature and this picture shows an unusual side effect of this. The sides act like hills and now have "aspect" or how the sun heats and lights them. south and east sides get more sun than north and west sides. The two sides of this ditch have one side with heavy growth, and one side with lighter growth. Trees and grasses use the different conditions on each side differently, which changes how animals and things like erosion are also affected. I notice almost all fishermen prefer to use the sparsely vegetated side!

Russian olive

 There are more fruits coming out in the bosque, both in the feral trees and on the farms and orchards. The russian olive is considered invasive, but its fruits are edible by people and birds.

I'm still examining the picture, but some apps call this common burr producing plant American licorice. Many plants are edible, but the work involved is not usually worth it, and the safety issues means no-one who is smart is going to recommend chomping on wild plants. Licorice candy is flavored with a plant not native to north america.

Crows in bosque for fruits

More birds are coming back into the bosque. You can see crows and rock pigeons and others (not the morning doves) moving back into the bosque to take advantage of early ripening fruits. The hummingbirds, of course are furious and dive bomb all big birds constantly.

desert

Cracks in clay

The first monsoon has passed, leaving a few puddles that are going to rapidly evaporate in the desert. Some might be colonized by tadpoles, but these are unlikely to survive until they grow legs. As the clay dries, salts dissolved in the water form crystals. If the crystals are magnesium, the volume doesn't change. Mostly the crystals are sodium, and they shrink in volume. This pulls the damp clay into these classic three way cracks. A network of cracks forms the usual hexagonal pattern of dried desert lake beds.

The composition of the dirt goes from fine grained clay to coarse grained sand and these materials contract as they dry at different rates, causing a curling effect that small desert froglets can use to escape the hot sun for a little longer.

Frog eggs in clay

    The science of frog eggs is surprisingly complex. Fine clay in water can hide eggs from predators, like insects, but can also suffocate the delicate embryos.

Puddles create bird oasis in the desert

The short term standing water is surprisingly full of life, which attracts predators. Here is a track of a roadrunner, with two toes pointing oforwards, and two pointing back, making a classic "X" pattern.

This is a classic pattern of a small passerine bird, probably looking for insects, like beetles. The side by side pattern is from the hopping they do because of the unique pattern of their gripping legs

Seedlings in clay

 Some seedlings need soft mud to grow in new areas devoid of competition

Other seedlings push up through a firm cap of mud and sand that prevents new seeds germinating in an area. this growing seed must have been laying dormant for at least one year.

Other ephemeral pools have no clay. Often backswimmers fly in to feed on dead floating insects on clear, still water that is likely to stick around for a season. The soil here is usually black from plant and animal acids and algae. Ants and spiders patrol the wet edges for moths and winged insects that are attracted to the light reflecting off the water surface.

For some reason, the pollinators, like the butterflies and bees have moved on. The only insects left are a few bumblebees, flies and cicadas. This buck-eye was too weak to fly.

gardening

Looking at some wild sunflowers nearby, I was pretty startled to see a whole bunch of ladybird beetle larva. These critters are not usually breeding in the wild. Usually the adults are released by gardeners to protect roses. Looking closer I could see a whole lot of cast off aphid skins. There were also flies and ants "licking" the leaves, and lacewings nearby.

I knew there is a whole ecosystem around aphid farming. Ants protect them from predators like wasps and ladybugs.

Just because they excrete a sugary waste juice. Many insects want this sugar, but most need another creature to open the plant for them. Ants and wasps use humans for preference.

This colony of hindwing moths used a brood of jewelled beetle to bite through the thick skin of a sunflower stalk. Then the moths could suck the juices out. Beetles are amazing at all sorts of life skills.

Some bite openings like this beetle, others just copy bad tasting bugs while going about their normal business.

This broad-nosed weevil looks like a ladybug to a bird, especially when I'm the company of other ladybugs.

Of course, large beetle are going to bring out predators. I was very happy to get a big, female bullfrog in the road this evening.

These amphibians are very happy to pose at night provided you are shining a bright light on them and not touching. It is pretty rare to see one this far from the water's edge.

uses

Nothing natural about the ditches

Walking up the middle ditch in Corrales showed me a bunch of new micro-environments. One thing I saw was this awesome flower. It is a pea plant, just like the ones used by Gregor Mendel to understand genetic inheritance.

this picture shows the high levels of clay sediment being washed into the Rio Grande by the rainfall. The mind blowing thing is that there is a good chance some of it is dust that was blown into the Americas from a large cloud from the Sahara. the effects of clay is widespread and weird. Mostly, it stops people walking their dogs along the ditch while it rains. Which is good due to all the dog poop not being picked up. The clay is impervious to water and can help, or hinder seedling growth.

crayfish behavior

Crayfish are not natural to the riparian habitat, bu they are here to stay now. They show amazing abilities and here we watched them overcome a man-made barrier to their daily migrations. They use their claws to pull themselves up the smooth concrete where the alga has gained a foothold. They take turns to push across swift moving streams. The smallest ones are faster, but less strong and seem to take the lead choosing routes. They seem to watch the progress of others of their species.

Missing toads

    I'm a little worried that I have seen nothing like the woodhouse numbers that have been in this area in past years. I am a little hopeful that this is just a part of the natural cycles, I also know that not seeing toads does not necessary mean they are not out there. But still, they are not out in anything like the numbers they used to be. Most woodhouse I have seen are dead adults, which is concerning.

migrations

The rains are a confusing time for the new lizards that are growing fast. They are easy to spot as they try to navigate terrain that is suddenly wet, and different than it was one day ago.

Crayfish migration

Walking along, we ran into this crayfish. He sort of advertised his presence by rearing up suddenly from the undergrowth. He is hard to miss with his threat display and bright red color. He is a horribly invasive species with an insatiable appetite and the ability to travel anywhere (where it's raining). These guys do actually breath water, but they keep their gills under the hard carapace of their back, and can stay out of water for a considerable amount of time.

Snail and ant wars

    Ants do not like water and avoid the rain. Land snails do not even come out unless there is a lot of rain around. Normally these two tribes do not meet...except just after a night monsoon. We got to see a snail bubbling copious slime onto a nest of angry biting ants. The ants are fast and bite, but the bigger snail has thick, confusing slime. It seemed like a stalemate, but I suspect the odds were on the side of the ant.

Fine clay particles

    The irrigation ditches were full of water that was warm, and loaded with a fine, cloudy sediment. This water had run off the sandy hills in the heavy rain. it is very different from the water that normally was piped from rivers and reservoirs from the north during the drought. In standing water, the finest clay particles settle out last. As the water evaporates, the slick, soft, alkaline clay is the perfect medium for seedlings like cottonwoods to grow in. Especially with a ll the dog fecal material that is washed off too...

Squashed frogs

    Migrations of insects, crustaceans and amphibians are going on all around us in the rain right now. This has many consequences; both good and bad. I think about this as I see yet another squashed toad on the road. Usually drivers are not out in the middle of the night when these guys travel most, but we live in a 24/7, fast paced culture. Roads and pets are a high lethal forms of wild animal control.

farming

Blackberries and other crops are a unique habitat for animals.

Wild seedlings abound in the shade of the cut grasses, as the rains start a new cycle of plant growth.

In the shade of the tall crops, fungi fruit grows too.

Corn borer moths are constantly kept at bay with poisons. These ones were collected from private plot of corn. Because they are insects, they actually only have six legs, the other appendenges are called "prolegs" and have no joints. The green caterpillar is a younger form of the corn borer.

    The produce from farms now is nothing compared to what it will be by the Fall, but there is still a lot of food coming out of the fields around Corrales. Picking corn early helps to keep pests out of those perfect ears of corn the public expects from farm produce stands.

Caterpillar frass

this caterpillar is using his true legs to manipulate the climbing thread it is using to reach the ground. The thread is amazingly tough silk, and very versatile

A young caterpillar and a current sized bagmoth/bagworm same scale.

    The strangest stories come out of paying attention to those things that make no sense. The stories that tell themselves through observation and unfold over time are the best. The bag worms are now huge and the frass, or caterpillar excrement they throw out is prodigious. These guys hatched into little guys the size of millimetre or so. Now, they are about 2 inches long. I have talked about their behaviors before. I have found out there is an amazing little amount of scientific study about their habits.

So, here is what I know; Their poop is collected during the day of eating into the bottom their little silken sleeping bags. They release it about once a day or so. It is ejected as pellets and is very dry and solid. The frazz size grows as the caterpillar grows. the interesting thing is what happens when it is soaked in standing water.

These pictures show a time sequence as water is absorbed into the mass. It separates into a proteinaceous clear jelly, and bite sized chunks of black, presumably leaf bits. Note the wings of an ant drone being caught in the drying jelly.

oxygen

It's weird watching oxygen bubbles popping on the surface of the ditch. This is because most floating vegetation traps these bubbles. The algae that produces them, however, needs sunlight to produce the bubbles.

Of course, that was before the monsoons started on Tuesday. The skies are overcast now, and the algae has stopped producing oxygen bubbles. The floating algae nets are no longer buoyant and are sinking to the mud to create a bacteria rich, anoxic mass of sludge. The influx of cold rain water is driving away the large beetles as they succumb to infections and parasites. The walkways along the ditch are now clay rich, slippery and muddy slip and slides.
While the dog walkers are muttering about the mud, the ants are suffering so much more. Standing surface water is a real problems for all ants, but they have some behaviors to help counter the problem. They also benefit a lot from conditions as the waters recede.

There are many different ant species in Corrales. They have many different styles of adaptions to wet conditions; both physical, and behavioral. On of the common things that is pretty easy to see, is the ant hills that are built to prevent ingress of water, and to remove sticky clay particles from inside the nest that can trap water and prevent drainage. 

Many insects, including ants use high humidity as a cue that its time to mate and migrate. There are two pictures of ants. The species is probably the same, but the one on the right is a drone looking for queen pheromone trails.

 Around the farms, the snails and warrior beetles are emerging. The garden snails come out of the undergrowth, while the beetles are emerging from the roots and giving up their grubbing ways.

Many animals like this season. The geese and feral turkeys are returning to the empty parks and their fields of bugs and grass. The photogenic bullfrogs are surprisingly quiet, but are probably migrating back into the quiet, still waters of whatever wetlands they can find.

lizards

This is a juvenile great plains skink. A very different critter than the usual whiptails and fence lizards. This inexperienced little guy was chased into the shallow ditch by a dog (mine). Because the ditch had been recently shaved, the lizard had no ground cover to hide in. This one opted to try swimming. Luckily the ditch was empty, because, as it found out, lizards can't swim. Not only that, but the water comes from underground and is cold and flows fast, which does not work for a land dwelling ectotherm. This one survived with just a grumpy look.I have rescued my fair share of these whiptails from irrigation ditches, they have no buoyancy and drown pretty fast. When the ditches first open and flood the fields, they usually catch many lizards off guard, especially in big fields like Los Poblanos Open space. This is a great time to catch the usually fast and tricky little desert whiptails, but they don't make as good pets as tadpoles do.

There has been many birds fledgling and learning to fly. This little goldfinch will likely be fine once he figures out what he needs to do to fly. You can take birds to Wildlife rescue Inc. , or locally "On a wing and a prayer" rescue. My personal advice; mostly leave everything alone, This guy figured it out before a pet was able to get him.

Animal behaviors are funny things. I noticed this morning that the hummingbirds that are so aggressive and buffons in the mid day are quiet and thoughtful in the early mornings, preening, feeding and vocalizing. Of course, once the heat got higher, I also saw them harassing Cooper's hawks and doing aerial displays like I was used to. The early morning was also a good time to see rabbits interacting in our garden, they were a lot more active than I'm used to seeing during the day. I have noticed a lot of squirrel activity too, but those guys seem to prefer showing off during the heat of the day

Picking tomatoes, I ran into a dragonfly I hadn't seen before. A clubtail; very apropos.