Holes

 All live has needs that must be met in order to thrive. When the environment changes, the needs must continue to be met, but often in a different way

 

 This muskrat is moving into new territory and away from the quiet beaver dams. Most aquatic mammals spend a hours on the ditch bank grooming to keep their fur waterproof. They can't do this in areas where there is high disturbance from people. Either the muskrats will adapt to not being bothered, or they will have to find somewhere with less people. This wary new immigrant is still deciding...

 

 Muskrats build well concealed holes into the sides of the ditches, this one was kind enough to show me his front door. I was a good visitor and only took this picture at x160 zoom to minimize stress.

 

 This red tailed hawk was also keeping its distance, but was far more focused than I was. As long as the muskrat stays close to water, it should be safe... This awesome perch is an old dead cottonwood that likely will be chopped down soon.

This photo shows three trees. on the left is a cottonwood, not yet in bud. In the middle is an elm, budding and shedding seeds. The ornamental pear tree on the right flowered ages ago and is ready to make the tiny fruits.

 

 Here, the elm on the left is shedding seeds, the cottonwood on the right is just starting to make leaves and buds.

 The new elms all produce leaves as soon as they can, and also make the seeds at the same time. They are the scrappy go-getters of the bosque.

Something in the Bosque is making a whole bunch of holes and digging up roots. I can't tell if they are after the roots themselves, or the beetle larvae munching on those roots. probably the latter.

While the hole making turkeys are good at pest control, the gardener of this grass patch likely has already got a bad white grub problem

racoons, squirrels and skunks are definitely getting active in the new, wetter ditches. These tracks show the struggles of a raccoon trying to deal with the new mud.

That raccoon is after these holes, made by crayfish as they burrow into and out of the soft, life giving silt brought by the irrigation water.

 

 There must be new birds in the bosque. Just like the turkeys show when the white grubs are present, the birder groups can be used to indicate where rare birds are.

The ants species are very obvious right now, ther are so many types, but to me there are harveter ants with their big gravel nests, and the road ants that dig into the clays found under the road ways.

 

The fish are practising making nests. Usually they prefer sand substrate, this means the plant material and mud has to be cleaned off. Often this is an important courtship ritual for attracting mates.

 

Today, the whole river resounded to the sounds of airplane engines. There were two airboats on the water, either in exercises or on a rescue. They have a very shallow draft and can quickly travel shallow water, but damn they are intrusive.

 

I couldn't get a good shot of these recently arrived cormorants fleeing for cover before the boats arrived. They are poor fliers but good at fishing underwater. While they made a lot of fuss, they will be back quickly

This male coopers hawk is a lot more sensitive to the noise, as so is his prey, so he likely will find somewhere else to hunt for the day.