dead

There are a lot of things related to life associated with spring. But as biology will always show, with everything connected there will also be death too.

While we got very little rain from these thick clouds, the grim skies give very dramatic tableaus, especially in the mornings.

The skunks are thick in the north end of the village around the apple orchards and horse corrals. Unfortunately that means every summer the main road will have at least one of these dead road markers most of the time. Around midnight there is a wide variety of active mammals on the roads, but the skunks and raccoons are the most obvious from a car. They have learnt to become nocturnal because of humans. Very few rabbits and squirrels this year so far.

There is some sort of fish die off in the clear ditch. All species are affected, even the hardy mosquito fish. This carp has signs of lesions on the fins and gill covers. This isn't actually an uncommon event in nature and is part of why wetlands are so diverse.

Many ditches have russet colors in them, a sign of young, fast growing plants. These plants will quickly turn green as they mature and there are more chloroplasts produced.

These plants use an extensive root system to grow from established locations, usually mud from last years. the roots are going most of the work converting sugars and starches into energy for growing. The long white tendrils underground/underwater trap sediment and make next year's patch more widespread. Multiple types of enzymes are hard at work converting a stimulus of heat into plant energy. In the 1940's the river flooding would scour the banks and allow the grass islands to establish new cottonwood seedlings. Now the fine silts have vanished and man uses large mechanical aerators and plows to encourage grasses to grow.

Many other plants grow rapidly in free standing water, quickly crowding out other plants and creating a haven for insects and amphibians. These plants can quickly cause eutroptication, or by keeping down other plants, they can prevent it too.

this cultivated plant has many adaptations for desert living, including thick, leathery leaves and silvery hairs to reduce evaporation. Notice also a thin band of red along the edges which botanists (not me, I know nothing) say contain increased anthocyanins to reduce insect chomping.

Right now the mallards appear to prefer the small side channels and are after mostly grass roots and invertebrates

This red tailed hawk did circle us a few times while we were out walking our small dog. I suspect the lack of squirrels and rabbits is making it fiercely hungry. Eventually it moved on to less pampered prey.

All the birds right now are literally never still, making photography pretty challenging. They have territory to defend, courtships, plus feeding and preparing nesting sites. This nuthatch will never give a good photo, but this picture shows off its fine, insect catching tweezers beak

I think this is a downy woodpecker, but I have never seen one before so I could be wrong.  Corrales often has weird animals that haven't read the manual. I understand there are many woodpecker species in this riparian habitat. The very common flickers are related.

The male wood ducks have red eyes and beautiful plumage this time of year. They are also a lot more bratty right now and are found out in the open channels wanting to see and be seen. This is very different behavior from their usual secretive and flighty nature.

While there are fewer seagulls about, a flock still travels between the dump and the water treatment plant on the river.

Many animals use humans to enhance their food. This tiny phoebe is waiting (impatiently) for me to move away from the monitoring pipe that concentrates all the insects around a patch of wet, cool ground, making it much quicker to feed on the gnats.

An awesome picture here. Mallards are so successful around people because of their amazing adaptability and complex behaviors. But, there is a cost, this mallard couple is...confused. This could be 2 females, or an atypical male and a female (in back). They are nesting is an unusually open location, the mallard does not have the typical green head and doesn't usually sit on the nest, especially not at the same time as the female. This could be a low fertility hybrid, the males have unusually large genomes allowing high fecundity to occur. The small feathers are pulled from the chest to form the nest lining. this couple has been together for about 2 weeks.