cooler

Biology is always a story of give and take. In a closed system with many variables, where someone always wins, competition often leads to unexpected results. Usually beneficial....

The Woodhouse tadpole is ready to leave the water. It has 4 legs and a mouth that can gape. It just needs that final push to leave the "nest"

Luckily, the timing of the low river is perfect for these tadpoles. The back waters are full of fine mud for hiding in, and the low water levels give these amphibians that little extra push to leave home. For extra incentive, notice the egret in the middle of the picture looking into the puddles that are drying out.

Here is a successful graduate from the university of life. Post grad work will be very risky (70% mortality), but he has the basic tools needed for success.

This desert amphibian specialist lives a very different life, but still follows the same biological rules of survival with the same toolbox provided by evolution. She has already laid eggs, and they hatched (within 2 days!)

Unlike the tadpoles in the river , this spadefoot has (almost) no predators in the desert (other that its siblings; cannibalism is a last resort, but a viable survival strategy). However, staying in the water is not an option when the pools it was born in will dry out within a week. 

Sunflowers are an amazing plant and have my total respect. The insect life on a cluster of them resembles a miniature city. Some residents, like this weevil are eating the leaves, but other insects are farming aphids. Many insects are pollinating (different ones for day and night). The huge leaves and flowers provide shelter. Even the roots are alive with consumers and producers.

The weevils are early colonizers and can eat an impressive amount of green with those tiny mouthparts

This ladybug is an aphid hunter, but here appears to have succumbed to something that hatched out from the inside and is making a cocoon to pulpate. No idea what it is.

Click beetles are usually wood borers, but are often found in the evening resting among the leaves.

Click beetles have a unique hinge that can either make a "click" sound, or can actually propel the insect out of a danger zone, depending on the species. The large variety of click beetle on this plant suggest they are just waiting out the day before hunting in the trees for a mate at night.

This stilt leg is a cryptic species that is at the edge of its range. At least, according to the app I use for insect identification.

This bee mimic is the next level of the food chain. The narrow thorax identifies it as a bee killer, a hunter of bees.

The sunflower roots hide many forms of life we never see, but here is a rare shot of a root borer beetle beginning the arduous process of looking for a mate in an unfamiliar environment (the world above ground).

Jumping spiders are predators that hunt without webs but ambush passing prey. In this case it caught a robber fly, another insect predator. Now it is sucking the husk dry before it is in turn seen by another predator (like me).

Squirrels are well adapted to a world of cats, unlike many other rarer mammals. However, this one was caught unawares for some reason. It was probably killed by a domestic cat that promptly lost interest in it once it stopped moving.

The world of plants is fascinating, once you take the time to look. The dominance of the fast growing, delicate plants is ending and the more woody plants are growing taller and outcompeting them with big frondy leaves. This is pigweed, a fast growing plant hated by gardeners, but that once was a food for people (amaranth). The tumbleweeds are growing tall as well. Those willows that were torn down by ditch maintainace are already back. Soon the sunflowers will try to replace all the luxuriant grasses in this partly tamed jungle we call the bosque.