Food

 I have often thought people have a very strange relationship to food. We eat food to live, sure, but humans use food for almost everything else too. We use it heavily in society, to mark special events, bring people together, show off knowledge, status, or wealth. Restaurants are the only place a mask can be removed indoors, and the servers never remove theirs. It's not surprising that food colors our outlook on how we regard everything else around us in the natural world.

This egret is likely hunting for food, but there is a lot more going on as well. Once it is chased away by too much noise, it is will not come back. So it is looking for solitude as well. Not likely on the ditch banks in the mornings.

These birds are also hunting for food in different ways. The heron is much more tolerant of people's presence, especially if there is good visibility. The shape of the neck is in the classic strike pose, so the wood duck in the foreground is much more focused on the photographer.

With the neck outstretched this heron is more interested in distant objects. It is most likely noticing water rings and movement that suggests small fish, but that could be my human food bias sneaking in again.

 

With the head tucked in, this heron is resting. Heron usually hunt at dawn, so this likely signifies the end of the day for this guy, rather than the beginning. The dead tops of trees are important roosts for these birds that do have some territoriality, but that term is pretty loose in a migratory species. I have never seen a boundary dispute.

My blog is not the best for beautiful, clear, pictures. This sunflower is showing several species of pollinators; from bees, beetles and flies. Sunflowers and cactus produce prodigious amounts of pollen. But sometimes this is dangerous of rthe pollinators as the predator insects are attracted as well.

This bee has dark wings and this might be so they can absorb solar radiation to warm up in the morning. I was surprised to learn that insects sleep. In the morning you can often find them immobile near to flowers.

Here is a fascinating insect I found asleep in a flower. This beautiful insect is a cuckoo wasp. The world of the hymenoptera is very weird and nothing like the world as we are taught in high school. Many wasps lay eggs inside the caterpillars of other species, but this species lays eggs with other bees. Their larva hatches first, then it eats the other eggs around them.

The mosquitos are growing rapidly in number. So far, the best predator seems to be the dragonflies and damselflies, who have definitively stepped up their game and are zipping all over the place

Those young grasshoppers have all grown up and are turning long and brown. They definitely have their wings and have begun traveling. Egg laying season is upon us.

Wolf spiders can grow pretty big, but are no more dangerous for all that. There is a lot of variety, with over 2,500 species. They often can be seen "fishing" close to a vegetated shoreline. they do not use webs to hunt. They often occur in large numbers near moist areas. These ones are always close to the ground, unlike the jumping spiders.

Caterpillars everywhere are planning their pulpation events as they finally finish feeding for the year. This is also when they are very susceptible to infections. In this picture you can see the first six legs that are "real" then the pro-legs at the back, and the spinnerets at the lower end that will produce the silk for the cocoon. This is a species of cutmoth that became desiccated as it looked for a safe place to molt.

The figeater beetles are setting up their nurseries. These are usually at the base of a large sunflower plant. This one is asleep in the goldenrod flowers, but the next generation feeds on the sap of sunflowers after the adults have stripped away the tough fibers protecting the plant vasculature. The sugars in the sap often ferment and bubble out and feeds many insects other than the figeater babies.

 

 This stinkbug also sucks sap, but it uses a stylus to tap into the fluids at the soft plant tips. This bug uses armor and bad smells to prevent the insect attacks that occur above the ground from other insects.

The ground water is very low right now and the irrigation canals are also low. This drying of the interior drains can be healthy, a form of "clearing out" of invasive mussels and plants. By removing fish it can help the diversity of animals found. The ground is still full of water, and as the water table further sinks, the ground begins to have air influx that reduces the anaerobic bacteria process that heads to that swampy smell. The interior drains do need to be dug out periodically to continue to do their job or removing water from the soil.

That capillary layer is responsible for this layer of cottonwood saplings that are growing at the boundary between the water saturated clay soil and the air filled sandy soil above it. Here the shore is pretty steep, this makes the "capillary layer" very narrow. Ideal for small sun loving saplings.

Where the layer of wet, but aerated soil is very wide, the grasses will be better able to spread and complete with those young saplings and push them out. Ultimately though, the coyote willow will predominate and provide a nursery for the cottonwood seedlings, but in much less profusion.

Where there is water, the duckweed will cover the area, provided that the water is still and clear. By removing the sunlight reaching the bottom, the underwater pond weed will be inhibited. This can remove fish, not only by removing food, but also because the dying plants are fed on by bacteria that depletes the oxygen levels in a process called 'eutrophication". The trails of many animals can be seen in the water's surface, but I don't think any of those are water fowl. Likely turtles.

The turtles seek out warmth to move, and digest their food. In the chilly mornings that often means the water is warmer than the air, so they stay as submerged as possible. This snapping turtle has just the nostrils and eyes above water while he keeps an eye on my picture taking efforts.

Crayfish are incredibly adaptable and have soft gills under that hard carapace behind the eyes. They can survive out of water as long as their gills stay wet. They walk forwards, but swim backwards. They cut up food with their pincers, but also their mouthparts and one of their two stomachs. If you ever get a chance to do a crayfish dissection, it's worth it. There is almost nothing a crayfish will not eat.

This fungi was identified as a oyster mushroom. I was kind of hesitant about posting it because it looked so beautiful and someone is out there who would like to harvest it. Ultimately, I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be around for very long, it's sheen is just so...lustrous. I would definitely not try to eat it based on anything I have said in this blog though, you have been warned...