crops

 New Mexico is actually known for pecans and chile crops. Corrales village has a few old pecan trees scattered around the residences, but nothing like the the groves of nut trees there used to be in the farming communities. The pecan uses quite a few layers of tough shell to protect the meat inside and has suffered from the pecan weevil. The ravens seem to pick at the nuts but never seem to seriously be trying to eat them.

I noticed this morning there was a light "snow" falling and on closer inspection found that the Elm trees were shedding their bud casings in large numbers. The next day, of course the temperatures plummeted as the winds picked up.

                           

Many trees will bud in the winter if the daytime temps get high enough. It has something to do with abscisic acid (AHA) plant hormone. Many trees will loose their buds if there is a sudden cold snap. Last year many fruit trees did not produce fruit because the buds they form from froze during a late freeze.

There are many diseases and parasites that attack trees. Here is broad leaf mistletoe living on a young desert cottonwood. Unusually, you can see the aerial roots of the parasite reaching down. the plants are poisonous to most animals except birds, which transport the seeds from tree to tree on their feet. In the winter, these plants stand out as the only green things with leaves on the tree.

we saw these "snake trails" by the river. It took a while to spot the footprints connected with them and followed them to the edge of the river where we where able to see how the beaver had dragged small logs up stream to a hidden food larder under the water. The large hind feet, along with a wide tail dragging behind makes these marks distinctive. Most large mammals respond to human presence by becoming fully nocturnal, like skunks, raccoons, muskrats and beaver. So tracks like these are often all we can see for most of the year.

Many birds roost in specific places during the winder as they wait for fish. There are four heron at the end of Andrews Road, and they all sit in the same place each day, making them easy to spot. They also pose well for photos