trees

 The cold snap is behind us and the gradual warming and drying trend continues. The trees seem to have literally exploded into green leaves, and life seems to move so much faster as things change and adapt.

 

The coopers hawks should be more visible to worried small pet owners as they adapt to the season. You will notice them swooping low over the fences in a shallow dive. I think they are trying to surprise nesting and ground feeding birds from an ambush. They need a eight foot fence and a bare tree to watch from, as well as foliage to find their prey in. This one is watching a nest location pretty intensely. People's pets are totally safe from these small raptors, unless you have a hamster outside, maybe.

 

This is the ideal prey for a Cooper's hawk.A new bird begging for food from the parent that is in the foliage to the upper left. Very noisy, and pretty defenseless.

 

The mallards are out of the safety of the water and likely looking for a nesting site. They do this in the evening mostly, less chance of their particular nemesis; red tailed hawks being around.

 Of course, not all nesting birds are defenseless. The hole in this tree has a female great horned owl in it, she's looking away from the camera. A coopers hawk would do well to avoid this area, especially as the male is nearby, watching closely for ravens that might hassle the nest site.

The topic of Rio Grande cottonwood trees has been in the local news lately I have noticed that the tree itself is remarkably versatile. Here it is in a retention pond near the Intel plant. The trees have also been found on the sand dunes of inner white sands national park. They have a lot of unusual quirks and are well adapted to deserts.

Here is the seeds of the cottonwood, packed tightly into cotton pods, ready to fly in the wind and stick to wet soil, or form huge drifts as they blow along the dusty road. Strangely, this plant structure is pretty rare to find; there seem to be many more male trees in the bosque than female ones.

There are young cottonwoods in the bosque too, they thrive where the water table is close to the surface, the ground is not trampled, and there is shade that is not from trees like olive or tamarisk. The ideal habitat seems to be the ditches right outside the southeast side of the elementary school (point to notice for Ursula's nature journal group)

I have been wondering why all the trees have these male pollen stamens. I quick search shows that the internet mostly only sells male trees, because the "cotton is messy to yards". Have these tall trees been planted deliberately? Maybe the trees near human paths are planted and all male? There is a female tree near my house, that just started shedding cotton fluffs, but I haven't located her yet.

The elm seeds, however are doing great. The seeds have an amazing ability to naturally collect in hollows in the ground, and also to slide over dry impervious surfaces like rocks and roads. In the ditches, they float in still water, and sink in moving water. After a few days the wings swell and turn gummy. The translucent leaves show the endosperm pulling out the first shoots to begin the downwards search for nutrients. The process seems simple, but I have not been able to grow a seedling past the first set of leaves (cotyledons)

 

The level of water in the bosque has been rising as the water in released from the dams in response to a complicated formula involving minnows, farmers, indigenous water rights, urban dwellers in Albuquerque, and also Texans. The battle ground is the law courts and has been going on for many years, it is tangled and the legal argument assumes there is 50% more water resources than actually exist. At the end of the day, the habitat needed for my amphibians is right here, at the popular bosque beach location. It likely will be perfect this year.

The world's most amazing plant is the cockle-burr, the plant that inspired Velcro. One of the runners up would be the yellow lily, the first shoots of which are coming out now, and will produce some awesome flowers this summer. With this plant's help, the red azolla and duck-weed might not suffocate all plant life in the scuzzy ditch. Of course, some homeowner introduced it into the wild from a nearby pond.

This flower is identified as a golden currant. Not all plants are poisonous, the currants of this bush are delicious ( but get to know your plants and DO NOT eat anything you are not familiar with, we have deadly nightshade out there, too)

This flower looks very different to me, but is also listed as a currant bush. The location is also a site that has ringed pheasant tracks, and calls, I have spotted that bird here, but it is notoriously difficult to get a photograph of (not coincidentally, there is also a large coyote den nearby). The birds like the shelter and food,and so do the coyotes.

Dandelions are another amazing plant, nature's true survivors. Their seeds are ready to go, and they will be releasing more of these seeds for most of the year.

This periwinkle is beautiful, a study in symmetry. This one is from the wild, and the green is beginning to poke through the under story growth in the bosque. This is a sign of rising water table activity

This I think is another apple blossom, they really are in-your-face pretty, but are really there for a serious purpose, not just to be pretty. The flower equivalent of a modern, high powered movie star.

This is a type of dandelion, but that is all I know about it. These flowers are so brazen for being so small.

this is a willow species, but not the native coyote willow. Showy flowers and large size is not what we usually see near the river. this tree is cultivated just to look pretty.

The start of the dreaded foxtail season that is a bane to hairy dogs and socks everywhere.

The rabbits are slowly making a comeback after the disastrous last couple of years. They are irresistibly drawn to young grass shoots.

A few seconds earlier than this picture, the sun was illuminating the trees green and yellow, and the mountain was red, with the blue sky. a full rainbow. I enjoyed the scene for a few seconds too long and here is a poor reproduction without the yellow light. Professional photographers could have captured it, but I am happy with the memory. Honestly, you really still have to be there. Second hand is not the same thing for a good sunset.

these annoying crane flies are a great sign that the temps are just going to keep going up now. Long and gangling they seem to scare the beejesus out of people, for some reason.

So many people expect these guys to be red fire ants. So did I, but many pictures of the same ant hill later (yup, I am a little obsessive about answering some questions) the answer is this these guys are just another harvester ant species. (Note the guys on the left coming out carrying small rocks out from the nest with those impressive jaws). I have seen yellow ants, also green ants, many black ants, but the color red definitely freaks out people when on an ant.

This little bee is so cute, luckily it is so small no one will see it as threatening, or even see it. Personally, I am a big fan of all the big hornets and their larger than life behaviors.

The vast majority of insects barely interact with humans at all, and as a result they aren't noticed. The few that carry a knife to the gun fight seem to represent all winged critters than aren't even looking for a fight.

All these critters are the base of the food chain and a source of everything we love about the bosque. And we know almost nothing about them, other than chain stores showing us rows of insect repellents, lotions and snake oil creams to prevent bites and buzzings. The pest control companies offer nothing more than temporary solutions to problems we never even knew we had

The warm weather has started to bring out the real stars of the bosque show. This little whiptail is shedding over the hips and ready to compete with the birds for the insects. I often see these guys getting into difficulties with the cold ditch water on irrigation fields. They are able to swim, but not in cold groundwater that causes the equivalent of swimmers cramp.

This handsome boi is likely prepped to compete with the other lizards for territorial space. He seems to be well fed and in good shape with a full tail to show off to all comers.