mountains

Spending some time in Alamogordo. The mountains are a very un-Corrales. There is too much...verticality. The trees are varied but mostly evergreens. But I did find a small cottonwood in the desert-like Salado Canyon.

I was surprised to learn that pine forests have very little animal life in it compared to our riparian landscape. But there are...many evergreens out there, divided into pines, spruces and firs.

This is not a pine tree because the needles do not grow out from bunches from a single point.

This is a pine tree. The needles grow out of a single point. The pinyon pine grows 2 needles from each point, and is unique. The other pine species have 3 or more needles.

That being said, there is a lot more to pines, but on to other things...

This spider was hiding under a limestone rock. He was not too mobile from the cold, so we put him back gently. I suspect this species is not too common. Montane forests produce a lot of shade. In Corrales you can see this looking under the trees like cypress or a line of evergreens that people plant in their yards.

These ant colonies are very common in forest undergrowth. They are not the type that swarm around like most ants found in built up areas. Pine needles produce the deep, friable earth that actually allows logs to decompose in. Which wood can do, only much, much more slowly in the alkaline clays of our river basin. These decaying logs are rich in insect numbers.

The creeks running at the base of the mountains come out in a Chihuahuan/Sonoran desert ecosystem. This desert is full of special plants adapted to low water and moderate heat (for a desert). The animals and plants found in the creek seem to be imported. This Physella acuta (maybe) snail is ubiquitous and a few were in the water with the snotweed and cattail stands likely brought in on human equipment. The native plants did not seem to even notice the creek ecosystem.

This is a creosote plant. It used to be used to preserve wood. Most the trees in the area were removed to become railway trestles and construction supplies.

The crown of thorns doesn't produce leaves. This is likely to reduce evaporation rather than to prevent browsing. There are tiny leaves sometimes at the base of the thorns.

If this is also crown of thorns, it's weird. Of course it could be something else entirely.

The long, thin ocotillo is a pretty easy to identify plant in parts of southern NM. It has spines and leaves and pretty small red flowers in the right season.

I think this is a strawberry hedgehog cactus. Cactus respire at night instead of during the day to reduce water loss. They are pretty rare to see in these canyons.

The creek teems with insect life. Like these huge water striders.

This is some sort of predaceous diving beetle. They store air on hairs on their thorax to last through the short dives. There was mosquito larvae in the still waters, but I couldn't get a focused picture.

The ubiquitous robber fly. Often found at higher elevations, they are a cross between a spider and a dragonfly, often catching flies and eating them on the wing.

This is some sort of wasp, looking to dig a tunnel for nesting.

This is a very brave fly that lives around all these predators. This fly belongs to the cluster fly family.

This little crab spider was pretty feisty for some not much bigger than the letter "m" on the keyboard!

This wolf spider was hunting among the reeds, both above and below the water surface.

We don't see turkey vulture in Corrales until the fall, but there was a pair here that circled us for a short quite, and then left to look for something more dead.

Back in the mountains, the local golf course provided more wildlife encounters. Inaturalist showed the local ponds held gambusia and carp. I don't think this is gambusia though...

This local squirrel was being very vocal, likely about another squirrel.

The local ravens (pretty sure this IS a raven) were forming mating pairs and screeching about humans from the tall trees.

I don't know if it is hunting season still, but this half-antlered mule deer was the only male I saw. There were many deer and maybe elk body parts scattered along the valleys beside the roads, however. There was also large amount of deer and elk scat around the gardens.