puddles

It is always strange to remember that most of the time the things that unite us are far more than what divides us. It seems we should set aside time to see how we agree with others more often. While we often follow different paths, we usually have the same destination.

 

 

This is a picture of the female Russian thistle (AKA tumbleweed). The tiny flowers are sprouting from the base of the stem, all along the length.

 

 This is the male of the same species. The yellow pollen stamens on these flowers makes the whole plant look thicker and a different species

The ants are very peculiar insects that have their own special ecosystems. Some trees produce nectar (not in flowers) to encourage ants and wasps that defend the foliage from predators like insects or browsers. This bug (possibly a leafhopper) seems to be "milked" by the ants.

This primrose has a lot of ants that seemed to just be hanging around. However, they swarmed up onto my hand when I touched the leaves. I have no idea what they were protecting. Maybe a nearby nest?

Usually ants "farm" aphids. The defenseless aphids get guards, and the ants harvest the sugary sap the aphids extrude after feeding. These aphids seem to be unguarded, which is odd.

This Russian thistle had several eggs on a stalk from an insect (likely a lacewing). Many insects like lacewings, ladybirds, and wasps are quick to take advantage of unprotected aphid populations

This unknown insect was found in the early morning sheltering in the bristles. Even these roadside weeds are brimming with the potential for life. It seems to be some sort of small fruit fly.

Not all flowers are big and showy. This single female flower is minuscule and can't be pollinated by bumblebees. It probably is attractive to the tiny fruit flies that I found resting on it, but some bees are also that small.

 

 The male plants seem to each have one pigeon horntail right now. Each male plant seems to be right next to a female plant, which is good because the pollen is spread by wind. This also explains the high allergy symptoms the human population is suffering right now. The female horntails deposit eggs on dead wood, which is in abundant supply in the mature cottonwood forest across the levee.

 

On the levee road, there are areas where the cottonwood overhangs the sandy trail and some of those areas have these large pellets on them. Whatever produced these pellets, it is most likely a very large caterpillar of some sort. This frass is extremely dry, because there is not much moisture in the ditches at the moment, and not very digested.

The clear ditch is reduced to a series of disconnected muddy pools, but that does not mean they are devoid of life. In one ditch the size of a tennis ratchet I found a variety of animals shown in the next four pictures. This first one is a mosquitofish. a pretty amazing creature that is unlike most other teleosts. They use internal fertilization and each female can use different males to store sperm to have four clutches of eggs a year, with each baby fish becoming sexually mature after 1 month. They are known for eating mosquito larva, but will actually eat many different things. They can survive water temps of 108 fahrenheit. saline water twice the strength of seawater, and gulp air to survive low oxygen concentrations. Low water levels actually help them by killing off their large predators such as perch and catfish

This is a red swamp crayfish, a real troublemaker in the ditches when the water is low. I have only recently begun to see them here, but they have grown rapidly in numbers. The large numbers of dead fish is quite the bonanza for them.

Catfish are usually predators for the mosquitofish, but this little yellow bullhead is not much of a risk to anyone....except me. The pectoral and dorsal fins each have a sharp spike kind of in the shape of a caltrop. The points are coated in slime and thick mud. Handle them too roughly and a nasty infected wound could be the outcome.

Green sunfish can tolerate poor water conditions, which is why these ones are still alive. In abundant water they create shallow depressions on a stream bed to court and lay eggs.

This is a secretive wandering garter snake. Usually found near water in thick grass, quite a large snake for this species. They feed well on fish trapped in small pools.

Parts of the bosque that are hot and dry will have this tree; identified as the New Mexico Locust. Plants in the Pea family all have this characteristic paired leaf branch style and all produce nitrogen using symbiosis with bacteria in the nodes of their roots. They are usually found in dry sandy soils and sprout quickly after a fire event, but never get very tall.

This is a willow tree. likely a Goodings willow, which grows to a taller height than the coyote willow found down by the river's edge, but is more solitary.

This plant is in the primrose family. the white color suggests it is pollinated by a moth species, but flowers are tricky to figure out if you are not familiar with them.

The variety of grasses right now is pretty varied once you start looking. This species is called Johnson grass and seems to have pretty large seed heads for a species of sorghum.

 

 The milkseed thistles are pretty easy to spot now they are throwing out handfuls of fluffy seeds into the nearby plants. They seem to prefer thick plant cover.