mystery

 The best part about nature watching is when you see the unusual or unexplained. Observing what is always there can get old, but things seen in a new light can bring a new perspective.

If you see a a common thing in a new way it always brings insight. These night herons visit during this time of year, and this candid view of a shy bird hiding in the trees above a feeding site was a lucky shot.

They use the irrigated fields to lunch up on small fish and tadpoles. There is never more than one around at a time, unlike the gregarious cattle egrets. That is likely because of the different sources of food. Egrets feed on insects and benefit for others flushing them out. Heron feed by ambushing fish and need stealth.

 The fields that are flooded are the most productive for wildlife, but it takes community to keep the gates and ditches cleaned. Repairs are easy if it is just digging that is needed, the downside is that the repairs are pretty much constant.

 Birds suffer from quite a few illnesses, I'm sure this hummingbird did not starve. I have never seen one dead before. The do suffer when the temperature drops, I hear.

The rains are bringing growth to the plants, this cultivated hibiscus is a pretty fancy specimen. The amount of work that does into growing plant species of gardeners is astonishing.

During the rains, many moths seem shelter under the stucco roofs. It is odd to see them out during the day. Many birds like flycatchers are chasing after them right now.

  

The winds and moisture brought down a large number of tree branches. Tree trimmers, both municipal and private have been busy today.

 The extra water in the ditches have allowed the turtles to move around more freely. The sliders like the deeper water.

The large snappers seem to prefer the shallow waters, they are likely looking for carrion, like a dead raccoon.

I swear this picture shows a red crab, which is an unusual animal, but the ditch is host to many released pets during the summer. It MIGHT be a crayfish, but I don't think so.

 

A yellow throated...something. The songbirds are singing up a storm at the moment. Right now is the middle of nesting season.

This is a towhee, usually they are on the ground, but I guess they like to advertise too.

The doves are also calling, but then again. they do this all year, it seems

Other secretive birds come in for brief periods. This is definitely a great blue heron feather. Herons like to fish from the banks, especially during periods where the river level is high.

This is a common carp. By the time the fish get to this size, they don't have too much to fear from predators. The power and strength of these fish is actually very impressive.

The plants are hard at work breaking down the building projects. Roots use hydrostatic pressure over time to enlarge cracks in concrete very effectively. The concrete is suseptible to contraction and expansion as the temperature changes so cheap concrete exposed to the atmosphere is not pristine for long.

This is the first time I have seen the grass growing in the clay on the bottom, usually the water flow is enough to flush the mud out into the clear ditch.

The warm sun has allowed algae and water weeds to begin colonizing new territory. The fine clay muds consolidate quickly when the water slows and resist being flushed. This surface allows plant colonization. Most fish prefer a sandy, clear water substrate.

The rains and sun allow many vareities of plants to thrive. Thee are many dense stands of nightshade right now, but a few surprises, like this...(tomatillo?) plant.

Light rains means migrations for animals. Here the new crop of toadlets are spreading out into the big world.

Darkling beetles are meeting and mating. They are often seen around the nests of harvester ants. I have never seen the beetles in tandem wonder if they are mating, or wrestling?

A short horned grasshopper. The variety of grasshoppers seen often starts high and diminishes as the ground dries up

The velvet ants I see now have wings, so I assume they are male. The wings are stiff and leathery to resist ant bites I guess.

These males act very differently than the frantic females. They feed on nectar

They seem to have very short life spans, The congregate in some areas, presumably near a female. They certainly act oddly for an ant species

 

Ants come in many shapes and sizes. This is the first time I have seen a golden color, though. The picture is hard to make out, but I think there are some emerging drones in the hole that are black colored. Ants often swarm like this during damp days.

There are large numbers of these golden meadowhawks around. They seem to prefer hanging out on plant stems, instead of being over a stream.

The dragonflies in the plants are much smaller, but more than one species. This blue one looks like a damselfly in color.

A thread waisted wasp like this is usually some sort of caterpillar parasite. This one also seemed to be feeding on pollen.

There are actually many animals dead on the road right now. A tragic intersection of migration behaviors, dumb luck, and rubber. Many animals have switched to night living near humans to reduce these impacts. Toads, rabbits, and skunks make up the majority of these roadkills. Luckily the reproduce fast enough to compensate. The problem is highways like our I-25 and I-40 can also fragment and disrupt whole ecosystems. No animal that doesn't fly is going to be able to cross 6 lanes of freeway during any time of day. The drains that occasionally go under and might offer access are not exactly inviting for a wild animal, with the noise. Also, all access points are always watched over by predators such as coyote. Cars are such a huge problem for wildlife, and the whole planet.

space

 Corrales is quite the little gem hemmed in on all sides by lack of space. Rio Rancho with its streets, concrete, and traffic reaches around in a large hug on three sides, while the river keeps Sandia and Albuquerque literally out of arms reach on the fourth side.

However, the green enclave here does have room for privacy down by the water's edge, due to it being a preserve. It helps that there are not too many access points to the actual river.

The afternoon monsoons are beginning to set up again. The indications are that this year will be okay. The implications of a steady source of rain in the summer are profound and also hard to understand fully.

Down by the river's edge (around river mile 194), where people have been kept away, the young willow trees have matured into a more mixed forest. The ground is developing humic dirt and the moisture levels are becoming downright balmy under the short canopy.

Almost all of the detritivores here are European imports, such as these land snails and the roly-polies. But it is nice to see them coming out at last, after a couple of years of low humidity

The area is coated in cottonwood seed, however, this pile of down is not from those tall cottonwoods.

Apparently, there are more than 12 cottonwood species, but this down appears to be from a coyote willows. It definitely looks and acts differently.

Here is a puddle full of cottonwood seeds. On the upper fight quadrant is a small halo where the seed detached from the fibers and sank. Next to it is what usually happens; most seeds produce two embryo leaves, called cotyledons, as they get ready to put down roots into wet mud. Almost all the seeds will wither and die. But a few will hit ideal growing conditions and continue to grow for the next forty years.

There must be many more cicadas around than I've seen. There are many emergence holes about. These holes will be enlarged as the baby toads grow bigger and need shelter in the ground from predators like hognose snakes.

Here is a cicada shell, or "cast". It shows stumpy wings and strong digging arms of the final instar (larvae) before it molted and emerged into a full adult.

Wings are the focus for most insects in times of high humidity, either mating, feeding, or migration. Which means many flies and mosquitos for the next month. The smaller horseflies have a pretty wicked bite, but this house fly is just interested in coprophagy

mayflies rest in shaded areas until sunset, when they fly out over still bodies of water to mate and die. They act pretty chill for an insect with such a short adult lifespan.

stilt legged flies. Bit of an unusual one here. Never seen one before. They do not attract a lot of attention in the entomology world, apparently.

Stink bugs. The specimens this size have pretty potent smells, famous for decimating squash plants and rapid proliferation.

Haven't figured out this insect yet, They are often found by the water's edge in tall vegetation.

The birds are slowly reappearing in the bosque, although they are all being hassled by the ever present hummingbirds. The doves are looking comfortable, but there is lots of other songbirds around.

This coopers hawk was "pishing"(vocalizing) quietly and is all fluffed out. It was invisible but for the persistent hummingbird that was buzzing around and trying to get it to move along, definitely blew it's hiding spot. Nesting season continues for at least another month.

The summer tanagers are still about, feeding well by the looks of it. They feed almost exclusively in tall trees on what appears to be large caterpillars. The bright towhees monopolize the leaf litter, likely looking for moths hiding.

Unfortunately, people are still around. At some access points to the river, there is evidence of toilet paper piles, discarded piles of bottles (alcohol, water, and energy drinks), luckily the bosque has avoided major conflagrations, but we'll have to see. The damage is still pretty slight, but depressing to see. The fire season is still pretty early, and it only takes one....

deep

The wildlife on the bosque continues to impress, most of it is pretty cryptic; you kind of need to know what you're looking for. A lot of the rest is kind of scary if you do not know what you are looking at. 

take this snake. It's hunting tadpoles and baby frogs, even if you could get it to bite you it would be less unpleasant than a bee sting. Bull snakes eat these snakes. Coachwhips eat lizards. Rattlesnakes eat chipmunks in the rocks of the hot desert. Hognose also eat toadlets in the willows.

Right now the crickets are larger than the new frogs and the crickets are also more likely to eat the new amphibians. The food web turns upside down in a few months as the frogs continue to grow rapidly, especially those bullfrogs.

sometimes the praying mantis are able to feed on a hapless hummingbird, but usually not. When they are this young, they are a tempting snack for most predators.

the recent short rains brought out a bunch of these wicked looking dobsonflies. The males have these long pincer jaws.

I have quite a soft spot for these bagworm caterpillars, they are growing rapidly in the tall trees overhead.

here is one of the first I have seen outside of their sleeping bag made up of chewed leaves and silk.

the entrance is silk lined and eventually becomes a flap that can be closed.

the moths are out during the day. Here is a good example of how they can blend into leaf litter.

everyone is watching for Asian hornets, AKA murder hornets. Right now there are a lot of normal hornets, wasps, and bees about.

I think this is a European hornet, it was brought in for identification. Not a murder hornet.

This velvet ant is a wasp, but doesn't act like one.

mud in the high desert is very fine clay, with almost no organic material. The high heat and UV means the water is pretty free of bacteria.

mud in the Scuzzy ditch is...complex. here the snotweed is dried into suffocating mats that prevent the cattail stumps from regrowing. Moisture trapped under mats supports a huge microscopic ecosystem.

after brief rains, desert inkcaps burst out within a couple of days They usually are found near buildings on sandy ground.

An impressive looking cottonwood stag beetle. Many insects pop out of the ground after a short lifetime underground, of which the cicadas are perhaps the most famous.