touch

 

 This beautiful picture of a coyote is a good example of indirect ways the animals of Corrales benefit from the irrigation system used in Corrales, and that this year is in more danger of decline than it has ever been. While the whole bosque is in trouble from drought, Corrales surface irrigation is being delayed and interrupted by infrastructure problems. Humans and nature often cannot seem to work together

 

 The coyote is pausing in its hunt of ducks and Canada geese to stare at the photographer. The field it is in has attracted the waterfowl because of the standing water, which brings beneficial worms and insects to the surface and softens the ground to allow easy digging

 

 Corrales is naturally an area of standing water, being in the floodplain of a river that was once much larger. The channels and acequias drop the water table and channel the water to crops further away from the flood prone areas. Standing water that used to breed mosquitos now attract many types of wildlife. This water has been collected in a low lying spot after the initial "flush" of the Corrales system.

 

These concrete and steel structures divert and control water levels and are a pretty ingenious gravity controlled system that does not rely on gasoline. Here you can see the leaves and tumbleweeds that can block the openings and need to be removed at the start of the season with a potato rake and the patrolling of ditches by majordomos. In Corrales, this job is mostly the responsibility of the Middle-Rio Grande Conservancy District. (MRGCD)

 

 The outlet of the Corrales lateral ditch drains into the clear ditch at the edge of the Bosque preserve. You can see the silver pipe on the right. The high levels of silt reduced the depth of water in the clear ditch and encourages the cattails to root. This slows down the water flow, but allows more water to drain into the land, enriching it.

 

 Here is an example of some one dumping their cottonwood leaves into the ditch for someone else to deal with. The leaves might eventually decompose into a dark, tannin rich tea of a very different composition that the surrounding alkaline waters.

 

 This is the brand new outlet at the Harvey Jones channel. The dark, cold, clear water of Rio Rancho's treated effluent on the right is mixing with the cloudy, warm, clay rich waters of the Rio Grande river on the left

 

The rich silt at the river banks is regularly patrolled by the invisible beaver patrols. These are mostly secretive and nocturnal and only leave their evidence in scattered footprints, as well as other signs

 

 This stick shows the classic tooth marks of beaver. The newly planted willows and cottonwoods of the Harvey Jones channel have already been heavily chewed on by beavers who can't believe their luck. But also, thier other food sources in the area were bulldozed to the ground, so they didn't have a lot of choice. The land left behind is now unstable and it will be 5-10 years before the soil stabilizes again with a layer of silt.

 

 Within a few weeks of the earth movers finishing the channel, the bare sand has already shows the green shoots of the first pioneering plants. This is a brand new member of Echinops exaltatus aka tumbleweed. Their growth will allow other species to colonize, and begin the work of adding nitrogen and phosphorus to the soil and reducing storm run-off.

 

 Muddy ditches are actually very rare in Corrales and the small remnants of the magnificent swamp that it once was have been colonized by less desarable species such as this Physella acuta. These snails are very well adapted to the disturbances caused by human activities.

       

This picture shows a spider examining a dragonfly nymph that is caught in the green weeds of a drying pond. The spider hunts on the water surface, and the nymph hunts below it. Usually they would never meet. The two species did not attack each other.

 

 This closely related species of damselfly is hunting midges attracted to the drying water weeds. They and the dragonflies will become much more common in the summer months.

 

 An abundance of tiny fish are imported to reduce incidence of mosquitos. This fact has not gone unnoticed by recent bird migrants such as this belted kingfisher. It dives into deeper waters to catch them once it has successfully defended a territory to hunt from

 

Snowy egrets are wetland specialists that prefer flooded meadows. They stop by on their travels to Corrales, but only in short stays as the landscape is too unstable for their tastes. They like shallow, isolated pools of permanent water.

There are many species of turtles in New Mexico. They huge majority in Corrales are escaped pets, like this red eared slider. They are just beginning their foraging on the stream beds and will soon be seen basking on the many tree branches sticking out of the water. While the young eat worm and insects, the adults are more likely to be vegetarian.

The evenings are alive and fluttering with a wide variety of moth species. Most people will never appreciate the diversity and colors that come out every evening to enjoy those pale tree blossoms

 

 Garden white butterflies are very similar to moths, but are seen in the day time. They lay eggs on the Brassica weed species around the bosque before disappearing up the mountains to find the mountain wildflower meadows.

This is also a moth, but looks and acts completely differently to the typical moth. They hide by not looking anything like a moth, but are more like the parts of a flower.

The tough armor and bright yellow and black "ace of spades" shapes show this yellow jacket is not trying to hide at all. Their behavior, as much as their fearsome reputation, is why many people fear any black and yellow flying insects in the summer. Many harmless insects use this fact to their advantage.

This tiny fly is a bit of mystery to me, but there are many fly species that can do crazy things. In Corrales, the horses often attracted some of the most annoying and large flies. We are lucky to have the more harmless species, but those pests can harbor other pests inside them that are a risk to humans, pets and horses.

Most spiders are not as colorful as this one. It is a woodlouse spider and specializes in catching woodlice, or sowbugs.

This is a trachelas genus of spider. It closely resembles what most people's worst nightmare of a spider would be, but they are not only harmless, but also shy and rarely seen.

 

 I often scratch my head as to why this awesome insect is so reviled by people. A child of the earth has a bizarre look, but does not eat warts, scream, or attack anything. Beautiful to look at, though.

 

 A red shouldered stink bug could be a pest, if you were a commercial gardener. But they do not usually reach large enough numbers to be much of a problem to hobbyists.

 

 This woodpecker is hoping to find grubs in the bark of the trees. For this they need trees that are under attack, ironically. I have noticed they do not find much in the kinds of small, isolated trees people have growing in their backyards, as those are all too young to have the crevices the insects and birds need to thrive.

In areas with large wetlands, the call of the red winged blackbird is ubiquitous. With the arrival of cattails in Corrales, there are a few of the these birds, but they are very transient because there are much better places for them further north and south along the river.

Doves are very well adapted to human activity and thrive where they have access to dry trail edges next to grass and trees. There they feast on weed seeds uncovered by the passage of car tires and countless human feet.

 We actually have fewer ground predators in Corrales than most places because cats cannot hunt freely in the bosque (not because people are more responsible pet owners, sadly). That means small birds are much more likely to be found foraging on the ground with the doves. This is a chipping sparrow. It has a cool little red/brown cap on its head

 

 The warm weather and flowers means swarms. In this case the swarm is around a female queen bee that has separated from her hive and taken a portion of the workers with her. They are resting in a conifer near a popular restaurant. Beekeepers work hard to prevent and recover these agglomerations, which are actually not found in the wild very much.

 

 Bright red blooms growing directly on the branches are a sign of planted Mexican red bud trees. A popular garden tree species for home owners that are very adaptable

 

 The weeds are far more tenacious and resilient than most garden species by nature. Persecution brings out the best in these little tough cookies. Their best survival trick is they have vanished and already dropped their seeds by the time herbicides and weed whackers have come out of the garden sheds.

  

Other plants in the bosque form the critical, living under-story to our bosque forest canopy. Here is a golden current bush that produced delicious berries in the fall, but no-one should forage without an expert to be absolutely sure about what they are eating.

 

 This ash bloom is not recognized by me, but I am still trying to learn about the more obscure trees, Check back with me in a few months. many trees in the bosque have appeared suddenly in the chaotic process of pollination and establishment

 

 The flowers on this donkey tail are unusual and colorful. They would look good in someone's xeriscaped garden

However, they should not be found in the bosque. There is  quite a profusion of them spreading out from a regugium source in northern Rio Rancho. Spurges are poisonous with milky sap, and it remains to be seen what the long term effects of yet another invasive plant in the bosque will be.

 

 I seem to be clearly in the minority in appreciating this broad leaf mistletoe. The advise given to gardeners about mistletoe is often repeated and definitely dogma. It is no surprise that people who remove mistletoe as a occupation are usually the ones pushing for their removal. I would caution that a plant that is "not useful" in an urban setting can be a keystone species in a forested ecosystem

 

 The insects that use mistletoe for food or shelter are not well studied, but include butterflies, weevils, aphids, wasps, and moths. It is not often voiced that when studies compare forests with mistletoe, and with mistletoe removed, the forests without mistletoe have fewer insectivorous birds. Ask an arborist about that next time. Perhaps April 29 at La Entrada Park outside the Corrales Library at 9am? Just a random thought.

 

That aphid I found in some mistletoe is fed on by other insects such as this brown lacewing. Mistletoes allow nutrients like sugars and salts to be available to a wide range of animals in diverse food webs that would otherwise be locked away by the tree.

This branch has formed an intimate tangle of two plants into a structure called a haustorium. This structure is technically a chimera as it is made up of two disparate species. Understanding how something like this forms has implications for climate change adapted trees. Imagine being able to have the roots of a tough tree attached to the truck of a beautiful tree. While humans can do this with grafting now, if we could better understand how hautorium work, we could better create trees that work in our arid gardens with less issues on the natural environment. 

Of course, for that to happen we would have to stop looking on plants like mistletoe as vermin to be exploited for cash, and learn to appreciate and learn from all the abundant natural wonders that surround us every day. That happens when people get out among the trees and actually touch mistletoe plants and see the insects that cling to them. Go try it (before April 29)