Flutter

 The hedgerows and grass verges are alive with a furious struggle for survival right now. But the actors seem like weird parodies of what people would see in a movie. The interactions between butterflies, wasps, grasshoppers and their young are surprisingly complex and much of it still has to be teased out.

There are many different butterflies out in the plants laying eggs. The adults do a good job of distracting everyone from the hidden caterpillars that are feeding voraciously on the green plant juiciness. This is a Mylitta crescent butterfly.

Here is a Common and white chequered butterfly, usually found on the young tumbleweeds. These are medium sized butterflies that don't move as much as some of the others.

 A pygmy blue butterfly, these are already not as common as they were a month ago. There are often moth and butterfly wings everywhere, as the adults die after laying eggs. The ants take care of the carcasses.

A Pierina species butterfly. The white and yellow species seem to be much hardier and might survive for several generations.

 

This is a much bigger butterfly in the Clouded Yellows genus. The big eyes are an interesting green color.

 

Hiding out among the soft bodied caterpillars are these bagworms. They are usually in the tall trees, but they are migrating outwards right now and I have found many snacking on the waist high pigweeds by the ditch edges. This one is without its protective bagworm casing. The adult males form very ugly looking moths with clear wings. The females mate still in their sacs and then lay eggs without ever leaving their "bag"

This unusual beetle was at our porch lights. It is an armoured carcass beetle and is usually a scavenger, but I have never seen one feeding above ground.

here is a wolf spider munching on a small snack with a bunch of tiny spiderlings clinging to her back. If she is disturbed too much, the babies run off and scatter in all directions, much to the consternation of those watching. This is a pretty large hunting spider, but completely harmless. You can see the stump of the front leg next to the eyes. Spiders should have 8 legs, not the 5 shown here.

These king skimmers are definitely the largest dragonflies at the ponds formed by the increased irrigation waters flowing through the scuzzy ditch. This slightly fuzzy photo shows the biplane like offset wings that gives them their powerful acrobatic skills.

There is a lot more webworm colonies around, but it might be I am just looking for them more. I hear they are very destructive, and they seem to only be on the cottonwoods right now.

This one was a new insect for me: a pigeon horntail. The larva are wood borers. this is the longest of the 120 species in the genus and can grow to almost two inches long. It is a type of sawfly.

 

Sand loving wasps are usually stout bodied and lay eggs on paralyzed caterpillars. This narrow waisted wasp needed another classification, so obviously it got called a Thread-waisted Sand Wasp

This unusual fly is pollinating small flowers like a bee. Many species of fly are not the garbage eating disease spreaders we think they are. Of course, this applies to a great many other animals too.

 

Like this insect, it is not a bee, but a beekiller. There is a large hairy hump behind the wings that hold the big flight muscles needed to catch and eat a honey bee while still flying.

 

 The warm, moist weather has allowed many fungi to flourish. Many are destructive to trees. the incidence of fungal white rot is likely to be high this and next year because of the better rains.

The young turtles are beginning to start sunbathing again as the cool mornings slow down their exothermic metabolisms. Turtles are surprisingly active creatures. Most people see them immobile on logs, but the small ones especially, are active hunters.
  

Fruit is everywhere in the bosque and this attracts the "songdogs". This picture of poop shows how people very much misunderstand coyotes. Grapes are toxic to dogs (we don't really know how, or why) because the fruit can't be digested by them. This actually applies to lesser extent to coyotes, too. But the wild canids are less affected, and often feed on fruit. They are less likely to eat "dogs and small children" especially in the summer months. The pups will try anything once, and what they can survive on is pretty surprising. Their scat often is loaded with beetle wings, insects, fruit, and seeds of all sorts (mulberry and juniper berry are favorites). Their poop is more often darker from meat (with fur and feathers) in the winter months, as food becomes harder to find.

 

The feral turkeys are a pretty canny bunch of birds, but their numbers were whittled down the last year, and they have problems raising their chicks to maturity due to all the mortality risks around the bosque, both predatory and man-made.

The ravens have begun moving back into the bosque areas, this one on Loma Larga road ditch seemed very wary of flying, but was clearly foraging for something.

Wild animal rescue sounds glamorous in stories and on TV. In reality its not much fun. Awesome response by the local bird rehabber: Mikal Deese at "On a wing and a prayer". Unfortunately, after likely being being hit by a car, this female summer tanager died of its injuries. Speeding kills more than people. The speed limit on the street it was found is 25 mph. It is unlikely this bird would have died if a car had been going that speed.