Drift

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The elm seeds have dropped their seeds and the drifts have scattered far and wide thanks to the windy last few days. The first of the cotton drifts have also begun, but those seeds have a different strategy, so are not plentiful right now. Humans still rely on plants far more than most of us would like to admit

 

The cattails are also shedding their cotton tufts. The stalks left behind are platforms that are being used by this melodic bird, the red winged blackbird. They are trilling to other males right now.

I think this is a black chinned hummingbird. These birds literally chase other birds away from the trees and are fiercely territorial. Their sharp trills come from their frantically beating wingtips. They feed on sugar water, but also collect spider weds for use in nests and eat small insects as well as pollen.

 

The recent arrival of the snowy egrets signifies a change in weather conditions. There are several egret species that visit, but for some reason they don't stay very long. Likely they are on their way to another place with less human activity.

 

 The Canada geese are very adapted to human presence, but no longer roost on the river in the evenings. Probably because the river flow is now much higher than it was during the winter.

 When the turkey vultures first come back to Corrales for the hot weather, they usually are roosting together. During the summer they will spread out into territories and then only meet up while feeding on a carcass.

Meanwhile, the opposite is happening with the crows. Having spent the winter together on the landfills above Corrales, they are pairing off on nests. This one is located on the cellphone tower in the center of Corrales Village. The family have used this nesting site before, and appear to make a very good living feeding from the dumpster outside Village Pizza. Our family have christened this nest "5G"

Grey squirrels have often been released into the bosque by pest management companies. It makes sense that they would be both worried about people but also stick close to human habitation. Bird feeders (especially those that use cheap bird food full of corn) are ambrosia to a hungry squirrel in a brand new location

Corrales does not have as many muskrats as on the other side of Alameda (Albuquerque side), but in the summer they clearly move north along the clear ditches. While they can remove many cattails they are also surprisingly elusive in part due to their small size. Corrales residents often forget that without the refugia of Sandia pueblo, our village would have much lower animal diversity. The river above the town of Bernalillo is a favorite of beavers, because people do not go there in large numbers.

The many turtles have begun to come out to bask on the sunniest days. Their metabolism requires lots of radiant sun to both move and digest their food. Sometimes they host leeches which can be controlled by drying them out in the sun.

The young whiptails have begun to come out into the open as the days and nights warm up. These speedy lizards prefer open ground to hunt and fight each other. Most are quite young right now, but the bigger ones will be coming out soon. There is low diversity of lizards in the bosque compared with the high desert mesas. The few species we have are very locally abundant, however.

 

 

 The tiger swallowtail has begun to visit Corrales. But these two butterflies in the pictures here are still far more common right now. This is the mourning cloak butterfly

A variety of cabbage white. These smaller butterflies like to be found on brassica plant species in the spring and pollinate small yellow flowers of different types

There are many insects starting to grow in the new tree canopies. The aphids are quickly multiplying and the predators of those aphids are also trying to catch up. Other insects are like this weevil, which eats pollen from flowers. This is a willow weevil species and even though it has a tiny mouth, it chews circular holes in the underside of leaves.

 

Crane flies have a double life cycle, with grubs that eat decaying plant material and adults that pollinate flowers while feeding on pollen and nectar.

 

 Earwigs have a pair of forceps on their abdomen, but only on the males. It has many uses, but is not used to pinch people or climb into ears (where do people come up with this stuff?)

There are many spider types in New Mexico. For those who choose to learn about the arachnids, jumping spiders like this one are fascinating because they seem so anthropomorphically smart. They have large eyes and larger personalities.

Mayflies have begun to appear and will become much more numerous in the next few months, along with all sorts of small, winged annoying insects. They often rest on the sides of stucco houses as they progress from subimago to adult imago stages.

this is some sort of flower beetle, usually these beetles are found on large aster flowers, but those are not out yet that I can see.

Many bugs are not often what they seem. This is a genus of assassin bug, which sucks juices from other bugs instead of plants. People often fear them, but only if they know what they are looking at. Of course, this is why many people kill every bug they can. A much less effective strategy that it would appear.

This tiny wasp could be one of many different species. There are more species of wasps than beetles, and there are a lot of beetle species.

Crab spiders, like this one, are ambush predators. Others in this genus can be superbly camouflaged. I think this a male, as it has the distinctive "boxing gloves" on the front pedipalps.

 Spring is the time to plant crops. Corrales is the best place to farm, but many establishments have become too small through constant subdividing within families. The acequia system is also not as maintained as it once was (it takes a village) so many farms are drip irrigated and suffer from salination and compaction as a result. New Mexico. While the state is known for chile, it is also the largest producer of summer onions in the nation. After World War I, grape vineyards in Corrales disappeared, but before that, they were nationally well known.

Most people who live in the shadow of the Corrales preserve feel they know they bosque pretty well. Many walk in it's shade several times a day over many years. However, there are many odd and hidden plant gems and this is one. Hemp dogbane produces an excellent cordage back in the days that these were needed. it has many other tricks and skills I will cover in another blog.

 

 I often feel that people transfer their prejudices onto plants. This really applies when discussing "invasive" and "native" species. However, this is a true native flower Lithosperum incisum. It is best to keep to the latin name, as there are lots of common names that are frankly, hilarious sounding. Narrowleaf puccoon, Fringed gromwell, or plains stoneweed.

This is an oak leaf, but not from a species that I am very familiar with. Oaks grow well in New Mexico but not often cosen for people's yards, due to many misconceptions.

This is a new leaf from a gambel oak species. Oaks are very speciose, but there are about 100 species in North America. Some species thrive in New Mexico and can be very drought tolerant.

While the honey locust tree is fast growing and rot resistant, it can also suffer from infestations of fungi and insects, especially in old age
 

Mushrooms and trees are very close interwined. The hidden world of fungi is far more complex than we realize, but the fruiting body, the actual "mushroom" is often found at the base of trees that have too much water.

Captive plants like this yucca can become very odd plants. These days, the plants are ornamental. However, yucca has been used for centuries for many, many uses; food, shelter, cordage, forage, alcohol, insecticide, and shampoo. The story of how yuccas reproduce using cohabiting moths is bizarre and really goes to explain how complex life can become, given enough time.

Lights

 "Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but not so interesting as looking"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The bosque is getting a lot of attention right now, and not just from the fire department. There are many bird species in the riparian zone. They are all looking for different things, which allows different animals to co-exist in a limited space.

Cedar waxwings are all around, and focus on the large seeds such as the olive drupes. They are breathtakingly beautiful birds, but very messy eaters.

House finches are interested in small insets and seeds and found in grass gardens everywhere around Corrales. They clearly prefer to forage on the ground.

The crows are in the outer zone of the riparian habitat and like the open pastures, where they focus on worms, insects, anything basically. They are roadkill specialists and have recently begun migrating out to the country roads.

Down in the ditches, the mallards feed in relative safety because not many other animals can hunt them in the water. Raptors can't swim and bobcats and coyotes are too noisy in water.

Mallards are experts at living hear humans, but the ditches give enough seclusion that other migrants can also be seen, like this cinnamon teal. It is a type of shoveller duck and has an extra large beak for ploughing the ditch mud.

This is a violet green swallow. They specialize in catching insects on the wing. They seem to have very large breasts because their feet are placed very far back on the body on short legs. The beak is tweezer-like to snap the mosquitos out of the air.

This is a blue bird and it's beak is much more robust because they often poke the ground looking for grubs and exposed roots after a field has been plowed.

People have love/hate relationships with trees and never seem satisfied with the ones they have. Just about everyone like Ponderosa pines, however.

Terms like invasive, or weed are thrown about, but not easy to understand. An invasive tree is usually one that was appreciated by a previous generation for different properties. A tree that was revered for its ability to be a good windbreak in the 1950's is now reviled for dropping lots of seeds. This is a picture of a "weed". It sounds edible as a salsify, but no-one will touch it with it's alternate name of "Mediterranean serpent root". It's still the same plant. Name calling can hurt.

Female cottonwoods are not allowed to be sold in Albuquerque to avoid the cottony fluffs that come in the summer. This does not always happen, however. Its odd that people feel they can regulate trees in the same way they would domestic pets.

This is the male catkin, or flower of the cottonwoods. Other trees that cannot be sold are those that produce high pollen, such as mulberries. The female trees drop staining fruit, so are also banned. These trees could be pollarded and control this problem, but given that few people bother to learn about their trees it was seen as easier to just ban everything.There are lists for invasive trees and banned trees in Albuquerque, but reading them will really just add to the confusion.

 

Most fruits and vegetables have odd histories. Potato was found in the high Andres and thrived in Ireland before being harvested for McFries in the US. 1/2 of all potatoes harvested in the US are a single species (an almost 14 billion dollar retail business). This picture shows an unusual apple blossom on the border of what was once an apple orchard. The bloom is from a feral grafted stock. America grows about 2,500 species of apple, about 100 are sold in stores. Every state is the US grows and sells apples. The wild ancestor of apples still grows wild in the Tian Shan mountains of Kazakhstan.

Corrales is filled with wild, tall trees. Mostly these are Siberian elms and cottonwoods. The shorter trees are preferred by gardeners, and often are the ones that bloom well in spring. These blooms in this photo are from the western redbud. A very popular tree, not least of which is because it grows fast, but short, more of a shrub, really.

The bosque is host to what seems like more and more evergreen plants each year. This one looks like one seed juniper.

This sawfly can be a problem for individual trees in an isolated garden without a complex ecosystem, but don't get to high enough numbers to damage a forest of trees. This is one reason gardeners often have to use excessive amounts of insecticide to protect a single tree. While this is a wasp species, it has no stinger

Up on the west mesa I found this little character hibernating under some rock landscaping. It is a backswimmer. In the desert they show up very soon after a flooding event by flying to areas that reflect the moonlight strongly.

Flying insects have a special place in the hearts of humans who hate summers. This mosquito is part of the reason why. Mosquitos need moisture and no wind to survive, which is not the conditions we have right now.

This is a mosquito, but a different genus; a Culiseta. Both mosquito types are predated on by the backswimmer when they are aquatic larvae. This mosquito type is more likely to feed on birds than humans.

While I am not too sure, I think these insect eggs are laid by a katydid. Several are hatched, but not all of them have. Katydids are out in the late summer, where their big, green bodies blend in very well with the tree foliage.

These insects are known as march flies and have distinctive short antennae, and thick black bodies. They disappear again very quickly after mating and then seem to be gone until next year.

Velvet ants are a type of wasp that have stiff hairs to ward off ant bites. This is because they lay eggs in ant nests. They are found in the bosque in large numbers during the summer, but are just beginning to appear now. The winged males appear in late summer.

This is one of the shield bugs, New Mexico seems to have a lot of different types. This is Chlorochroa ligata. A common bug that does not seem to attract much attention to itself.

Cottonwood leaf borer found on the UNM main campus. The latin species name "scripta" described the pattern on the elytra. A pretty beetle in spite of the fear it brings to urban gardeners because of it's leaf digesting habits.

This is a pretty common cellar spider. They dominate during the cool nights until the huntsman and jumping spiders of the summer begin to come out. There seems to be a pretty little smiling cartoon face on the thorax. The pale blue abdomen also appears to be a puppet's head facing the opposite way.

At the Montano bridge trailhead in Albuquerque is a small park with the remains of cottonwoods that have been burned. This wood has been carved into statues and colonized by many forms of wildlife. The most interesting is the large carpenter bees, but this common lizard was worth a stop on a recent visit there

 

 This muskrat is moving into new locations that have a beaver dam and pond. This one was not hiding nearly as well as it was hoping to.

 A very common location to find porcupine in the summer is inside culvert pipes and drainage channels. They tend to come down from the trees and forage for fallen apples, that abound in Corrales. The partly naked tail show where this individual had to make it's "point" with some local predator, likely a dog, in the recent past.

It is hard to grow exotic trees in New Mexico, but a place that does it well is the arboretum at UNM campus. There is an example of a classic maple shape leaf

Mesquites are in the legume family and produce these weird beans. This is the fruit of a honey locust

I don't know what plant this is, exactly, but the form of the fruits says it is one of the alder species. One advantage of city trees is that the young leaves are usually unblemished because there are not enough specialized pests to find and attack these plants.

These are birch fruits. A rare tree for New Mexico, but it wouldn't be too odd to find near permanent water like at the duck pond. Tree care is complex, but the basic rules are not too hard to learn. The devil is in the nuances, and the weird interactions that happen when people do too much knowing and not enough looking.