cooler

 The bosque has always been home to new arrivals. Some animal, some human. The periodic migrations, as well, are predictable. Right now balloons have invaded our sky. I wonder what the animals make of it all?

Porcupines have a pretty poor eyesight, but their eyes can seem very...perceptive. They are often foraging on the ground right now, so keep your dogs on a leash! While they have acute hearing, there is not much that seems to disturb them.

Birds flock together for many of the same reasons as people do. The doves are in town right now, but everyone is waiting for the iconic sand hill cranes. The earliest arrivals have already moved in. Their calls and flights are pretty distinctive but I have yet to photograph one.

The small birds are most vocal just as the sun's rays warm the ground. Each species serves a very specific niche. All birds, however, are distracted by people's activities overhead.

The turkey vulture flocks are getting bigger. While they are clearly leaving, there are plenty of individuals warming up in the early mornings along the ditches. I suspect they are also feeding on animals that are affected by the endless viruses that survive longer in the cold, moist air.

The crow flocks are pretty small right now, but they will get much bigger by spring. Their numbers are strongly affected by viruses and parasites such as west nile virus and bird malaria. Bird species actually are host to a seriously vast range of parasites contracted from raccoons and other intermediate hosts.

Migrating ducks can bring in more exotic parasites. These are harmless to the hosts and humans, for the most part, but looking them up will give most people hee-bee-jee-bees.

Many small birds are gorging on the sunflower seeds right now, or maybe they are also after the insects that spend the night in the flowers. I suspect the sand-hill cranes benefit greatly from snapping up the large grasshoppers and moths sluggish on the grass stems in the early morning. This is a black capped chicakadee, a frequent visitor at bird feeders once the native food sources run out.

The bush-tits are almost as fast as the hummingbirds, few of which are still around, and they are as hard to photograph as ever. These birds rarely eat seeds, preferring the smallest insects instead.

I am reliably informed that this is a lacewing larvae. It is surprising to still find them about, but biology will always surprise. This is also why the insects are around

The moths have returned to tiny forms and in much lower numbers than before, The diversity of these moths is a huge study in itself.

The bumblebees are still around, hiding in sunflowers. The male bees are slowly dying off as the females prepare the next year's brood.

Some of the larger spiders around the woods are very stylish. I have often wondered by every time we see one we have to say "but harmless to humans." I mean, we know cars kill people every year, but we never say "A stylish car, and safer than all the other ones?"

While weeding in preparation for fall, I stumbled on this chrysalis of an unknown species. This is one of the reasons why it is good to grow grass taller than your ankles and leave leaf piles to overwinter under trees. Unkempt lawns are bursting with hidden life.

The young bullfrogs are looking for new territory. This one was spotted a very long way from a permanent water source, so as a result its only survival strategy is to freeze...Good for getting a close up of a normally elusive species.

If you are lucky in the evening, and you eat dinner outside, you might see a small shadow hopping across the lawn, the toads prefer night to move, and they are after the plump moths and other insects seeking shelter under the damp leaves. The are active in surprisingly cold nights and a re much more tolerant of dry conditions. This one is all set for the long winter ahead and just needs a nice hole under a brick wall.

I am always interested in what people will and will not eat from nature. I do not forage for wild mushrooms, but many people do. But also many people shun amaranth as weeds, even thought they are common staples in many parts of the world and have been through history. The internet is horrible at providing good information on the subject of what is edible and what is not.

This plant is pampas grass. A common ornamental that is invasive, but not as invasive as others we find in the bosque.

The recent rains produced a quick flush of algae growing on wet tree trunks, it seemed like they appeared overnight.

One of the more unusual plants found in the more northern parts of the bosque is this buffalo berry. While these berries are sour, they are very edible.

 

Maral root flower...a type of thistle...within the sunflower family...just when you think you know flowers..there are a lot of benefits attributed to this plant, but not much is actually proven.

 

The annual migration of people into Corrales by hot air must seem pretty bizarre from an animal perspective. I still maintain it is a weird idea from a human one as well. Still a spectacle after seeing it all these years though....