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.