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  The Corrales bosque is well known as a birding hot spot, but few people actually know much about the diversity of the birds that pass though here every year. Even the birding lists that are published weekly no not seem to catch the diversiy of what is in our ditches right now.

 

 This striking bird is part of a small flock of domestic duck/ mallard hybrids. The mallard is not only the ancestor of domestic ducks (other than the Muscovy duck), but it is well known to hybridize with many species of duck. Its part of the reason that mallards do so well in altered environments.

 

The variety of ducks is increasing, and soon there will be many different species out there. I have a little of the birding bug now, and am trying to catch a good picture of some double crested cormorants I saw recently with striking orange faces. This wood duck was annoyingly shy, a shock after all the fall robins and mallards who seem to strike a pose on cue for the photographer.

 

 The fish eating birds tend to have a few more interesting behaviors compared to the dabbling ducks, who just seem to do the same thing all day. Here is a grumpy heron watching the clear ditch bank the day after the snow fall.

 The heron's neck is its most striking feature (pun intended) so it keeps it warm behind those large, noticeable chest feathers, buried in a literal feather boa. The reason birds stand on one leg is because the other one is deep in the pockets of its coat. The perching birds usually settle down over both legs to cover them.

This time of year, the sparrows are usually digging around in the dirt. They may be looking for grit to aid digestion, or picking out bits of calcium carbonate for egg laying, maybe they are picking up the first of the year's insects that have begun to emerge.

Towhee are leaf litter specialists and are found wherever the under-story is the thickest for fallen leaves. Their rustling in the undergrowth is often mistaken for a much bigger creature.

As soon as the ground thaws, there are many insects that begin hatching. This is a non-biting midge. While they are not much of a snack individually, they are plentiful and many birds will eat them preferentially.

There is huge variety of insects and most of the small winged ones go unnoticed, but are key to the ecosystem. This could be a species of humpbacked fly.

In the winter, many animals eat whatever they can. Porcupines usually eat cambium (bark) while the buds and berries are not available. Siberian elm currently are producing buds, but this porcupine decided to spend quite some time debarking this tree anyway. By going all the way around the base, this tree has been killed, and will likely become downed wood. The much older tree next to it avoided a similar fate by having a much thicker outer bark that would take much more work to get through.

This high fibre diet leaves a procupine's distinctive scat looking like wood stove fuel pellets. It is usually odd to see ground level girdling, especially if porcupines are trying to avoid predators but for some reason this area had a lot of this damage.

The local coyote pack is very active right now, traveling into and out of the bosque. Their scat has gone from pure fruit to a much more variable smorgasbord. They are smart enough to leave porcupines alone, though.

The temperature changes in the bosque are pretty extreme from week to week right now. The sand hill cranes and ducks appear to be in their element, but most other animals do not appear to be enjoying the changes. The tracks of the desert cottontails are widespread as they range further afield in search of grass shoots, exposing themselves more to watching predators.

The days are already noticeably getting longer. We still have some winter to go, but the early season plants should already be staging a regrowth. A new season cycle is already preparing to begin, even as the future of anthropogenic weather changes will certainly bring new challenges.