stories

Apologies for technical difficulties. Apparently this post was reported for suspicion of malware by a user and examined by google. It has been cleared by which ever authorities study this kind of thing and released to be reposted. The pictures are the same but I have to recreate the narrative. This is likely okay, as the pictures mostly speak for themselves.

 

 This plant is a salsify, apparently in parts of europe the slightly sweet root us used as a root vegetable. It kind of looks like a black carrot. This plant appears often in area that are temporarily flooded.

 The ditch water levels are high right now for irrigation of fields. The plants compensate, to a point, by growing taller too. This is one of the few species I have seen that can flower in flood conditions though.

The water levels are entirely human controlled, and a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to keep it this way. This lock controls water flow to the field by a gate. The downstream side has to be concrete reinforced to prevent erosion of the banks by the turbulent flow.

 

In the old days, the community controlled the locks via majordomos and paid and volunteer workers through the community. Today, official groups such as MRGCD do the work of clear ditches of debris. This has advantages, but losing the community involvement makes many other ancillary aspects of Corrales water flow difficult.  

Aqua es vida. Here is a youtube example of this from Southern Colorado.

 

 This is Ravenna grass, an introduced species of ornamental grass that can take over the bosque. The fire department is in charge of some aspects of conservation and this grass has been mechanically removed by bobcat. There is plenty more. The work is endless

There are other engineers in the bosque. Along the river there is clear signs of beaver at work modifying the habitat to their liking. You can just about make out the spears of young cottonwood sticking out.

This mature cottonwood is large, but at the end of it's life. It has begun to split down it's length. When the heartwood is exposed and dries, the tree will quickly become infected and start rotting. this brings benefits to some, and problems for others.

When trees fall, the sun reaches the ground and opens the floor for animals to begin adapting. Here, the sandy, sunny floor has allowed a sand wasp to begin searching for egg laying spots.

The shaded part of the forest also is helpful to creatures like this grasshopper to avoid sharp eyed birds.

 

We know a hell of a lot less about nature than we would like to think. I am learning that the cottonwood have many successful ways of propagating, like using runners, arroyos, stormdrains, seeds....But here, the willows seem to crowd out the Russian olives and allow small cottonwood sapling to flourish slowly. Both species benefit in the same space.

 

A good picture is often boring, but has a story. Here, a creature has hauled out at a commonly used location and the wet soil shows a trail across the road to a nearby tree.

 

When looked at closer the tree shows clear signs of bark chewing, definitely a porcupine.

In the sandy undergrowth of the bosque, the trails are easy to see. Here are the tank-like tracks of insect activity.

 

The culprits are these roly-polys that are migrating to wetter and better breeding spots as the dry weather continues in New Mexico.

 

This is one of the few wasps to keep an eye out for. A paper wasp chews wood pulp and makes it into paper for building the distinctive nests you can find in the eaves of many houses. This thin, dark wings are a good way to spot them. There are distracted with building right now, so no need to panic if you see them.

 

Houses are the ideal location for many creatures. The night lights attract many bugs to the windows. This is exactly what many spiders need to put out their bug traps in the sheltered spots.

Trees over head have full leaves and an entire ecosystem available. Sometimes those inhabitants drop out of the trees and land in our open books. This is a treehopper, a very common plant juice sucking bug.

This nymph of the seed bugs is bright red, reminding predators that it's bad taste is not worth the trouble.

 

This bright green grasshopper would be well hidden in the tree leaves, but on the stucco, this color just shows the birds he is juicy and tender.

 

Few people realize just how beautiful moths can be. This sphinx moth has a bright green caterpillar known to most gardeners as a tomato hornworm. Their usual plant ot lay eggs on is the silverleaf nightshade, but tomato plants are perfectly acceptable, and allows them to grow a lot faster!

There are many other insects out there. Most are unknown outside of a few experts. I have no idea what this moth is, but with a little study, i hope to become a bit more familiar with it. The types of moth in the wild come and go with the seasons and random chance. A fluorsent light at night will bring many to a window to be looked at.

Fishermen are great advocates for the outdoors, but there is a lot of variety. For some reason this catfiah was caught and thrown onto the ditch. The reason why will be a mystery

This is one of the beautiful birds feeding on insects found in the trees above our house. A summer tanager. There seems to be a lot of them this year.