melting

 

The world is melting into the mud and slush that unpaved roads are known for to dogwalkers everywhere. The melting can also help a keen mind see new things. For example, this picture shows a band of early morning ice that marks where the frozen ground  hides a buried irrigation pipe. It shows how well the ground keeps its heat. This also explains why the submerged ditches are preferred to the river by our feathered residents; the water is less exposed to the cold air than the river, because of the warmer levees on each side.

This little pool was build by a local kid to save catfish fry and tadpoles. I helped translocate a few of those to permanent water to build a little karma. Unfortunately, this water is supplied by the water table, which was depleted faster than it was refilled. My dry period didn't fill the aquifer, and the sprinklers were working overtime draining it to keep the lawns in Corrales green. I sill have a handful of those formerly doomed tadpoles in my kitchen.

Thinking about the environment is not just some abstract thing. Humans are part of this nature too. Our wells must reach into the water table, but our septic systems must be above it. We live in that small dirt region between the top of the aquifer and bottom of the atmosphere.

This photo shows many things but the point here is the effects of humans. Those trees are a thicket of invasive species, crowding out the cottonwood saplings. Humans can remove them easily with the application of steel. In this case to make a multi use trail through the tangle. 

But in the foreground you can see the ground is denuded and compacted; icy, and turning to thick mud as the snow melts and it is trampled. When it rains in the summer, the mosquitos breed in the small pools formed in the thick clay and the constant trampling prevent tadpoles from predating those irritating mosquito parents.

Because everything in nature is connected, human solutions to problems always perpetuate the cycle in a different way.

Birds in the bosque are flocking, but many are also solitary. This female duck is using the ditch to feed and build egg laying reserves. She probably would prefer to be solitary, but a suitor has attached himself nearby. They will spend the winter away from the raucous , but safer flocks of younger, unattached birds.

While she has amazing camouflage, he stands out like a sore thumb. If he survives the winter she might consent to mate. But I have heard that duck social politics get very complicated.

There heron tracks give insight in their behaviors. They stalk the banks just before daybreak and choose a spot away from fishermen and dogwalkers and where the water changes depth quickly. They take up station on the edge of heavy plant growth in the water and just wait. If they are disturbed they do not go back but fly into the trees and try to find a new place. The stalking process seems to take 3-4 hours before they can ambush fish again.