travels

We are in a record breaking summer heatwave, with droughts and fires. It is easy to see bad all around us. But there is many pleasant surprises too, especially when travelling.

The first of the tadpoles in Corrales have metamorphed into froglets. The change is pretty profound; water breathing, edible vegetarians become poisonous carnivorous air breathers. 

This is my first time encountering the "nocturnal velvet ant" it looks nothing like the fabled "cow-killers" that we will see clad in bulky red velvet during the summer.

Other iconically summer species include this "puncture vine", goatheads to the rest of us. The flowers are pretty, the plants themselves seem to attract the attention of ants. They cover the disturbed bare ground quickly.

A common fast growing vine in the summer gardens is the trumpet vine. The red flowers attract a lot of hummingbirds. I am hearing from sources that the hummingbirds are having problems this year, but the reason is a bit vague right now. Contrary to what people think, hummingbirds need more than sugar water to be healthy. They feed on small bugs and pollen, too. The birds are often found over water or near large spider nests (when not sipping from feeders)

This web is not made by spiders. The caterpillars inside spin a communal cocoon to hide from predators like insects and birds. These "web worms" used to be a big pest of orchards.

The caterpillars themselves are covered in irritating bristles for further protection. Safe inside the silken protection, they munch the leaves into skeletons, leaving frass in their wake.

Other bugs that are big on webs include this cat's face orb weaver spider. I sort of can see the face.

That spider was a mom protecting a silk nest full of tiny spiderlings.

This cottony fluff in the vegetation at a Jemez Springs campsite shows another insect using protection. 

When the fluff is wiped off, there is an aphid underneath. 

These flowers use a special shape to permit access only by certain beneficial insects. Usually bumblebees.

Here is a moth diving headfirst into the flower anyway. If it loses it's footing it will get stuck in there.

At Bandelier National monument, the river shows year round moisture, allowing plants like this nettle to grow.

There are a few current bushes in Corrales, but there are many more here where tall cliffs of sandstone keeps the moisture close.

This is a type of grass species, but I have never seen them with these tiny yellow flowers on them.

There are many intensely blue damselflies everywhere we travel. I don't know if this is one species or many but they are everywhere there is still surface water

I have learnt there are several antlion species. Like tadpoles the adult's and larva live very different lives. The larva dig pits and lurk underground to eat ants using large jaws. The adults fly around and  pollinate plants at night.

An awesome insect, the robber fly is often found in open deserts during the summer. They hunt flying insects.

There are abundant moths right now, the unusual ones like this "favorable wave" look awesome.

Lizards are often found under lights in rural areas hunting for the moths that are attracted to the lights. This particular lizard from Abiqui Lake is not identifiable by morphology, and would require a genetic test to identify. Thus old school taxonomy begins to fade away (I did not "collect" him for genetic analysis; he is still haunting the shower stalls by campsite 1)

Sunsets are always more spectacular in mountainous regions over lakes with high winds and/or smoke around. So everything was right for good landscape scenes these last two nights. Sunsets never really come out well on camera, something about low aperture settings.