drain

 

 It's on everyone's mind how hot the planet is right now. Heat records have fallen almost daily this summer. This affects water availability and wildfires. Ironically, hot weather increases flood risks in New Mexico for those two reasons. Floods in turn affect everything from invasive species to pollution. Biology works in complex and ethereal ways because everything is connected. Anyone who says they understand the whole problem probably isn't paying enough attention.

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This beautiful sunset is a result of the heavy smoke being pushed into the state from Arizona ahead of a band of thunder clouds that herald a short period of monsoons. It looks like an graphic drawing of a apocalypse scene. 

here is a picture of tank like tracks and a hole dug by a small snapping turtle as the ditch dried out. The stranded fish and tadpoles are very attractive to many scavengers like the turtles. Scuzzy ditch has just been refilled again after a brief period of drying out. People forget that the water levels are entirely human controlled, but no one can quite point at which human is in control.

Sometimes, seeing lots of animals can be a bad sign, like this very large, old toad that is migrating to new locations for breeding. She is out in the open because she is stopped by a dog fence, with a boisterous puppy on the other side. She will have to avoid dogs, cars, construction, desiccation, and still find shelter and a suitable pond to release eggs. Woodhouse toads are better adapted to living with human changes than most amphibians, they are smart and adaptable. Leopard frogs have vanished from this section of the bosque for many years ago. I wonder if many people even noticed?

Many people have already commented on the low numbers of hummingbirds around this year. It is always hard to predict if this is a trend, or just natural variation, but it is concerning that these jewels may change their migration patterns because of the climate changing.

The clownish June beetles have come out and are busy buzzing into everyone. They are harmless but most people are worried about them sticking by those tiny hooked legs. These are not the same species as the smaller carrot beetles that are present in much larger numbers around light sources at night.

Rabbits can be seen in early mornings as they eat those young growing grass shoots. The squirrels are out in greater numbers too, attracted by fruits. The small mammal population is rebounding from a bad year in 2020.

I never knew why there were so many darkling beetle found around ant holes until I saw this one eating cottonwood seeds. The ants remove the fluffy down from around the nests because they get in the way, and the seeds get left behind. The darkling beetles seem of eat these and are left alone by the ants, more of less.

On this sunflower, the ants are busy evicting this beetle that competes with the aphids for sap sucking space. Sunflowers are much juicier than they seem and support an eye popping range of insects all summer. The beetle seemed more hindered than actually being attacked, but that should be enough to get it to move to new lodgings.

This is a bumble beetle. I know very little about this one, but is I can say it is very co-operative about having its picture taken.

Every salsify flower is almost always being visited by a tiny native bee species. While the honey bees swarm around lavender, these solitary bees are much more calm and spread out. The bumblebees are busy on the silverleaf nightshade right now. Those purple flowers appear to be an important species for them.

The first of the baby lizards I have seen this year. Unfortunately this one was killed by a dog. Even dogs on leashes kill many animals each year. The common activity of keeping domestic animals has a dark side that is quite shocking. It is also a guaranteed argument when people talk about indoor versus outdoor cats and leashing dogs during a walk. I think of myself as a responsible pet owner, yet I also know I could do better.