Dust

 

 Happy mothers day from the Nature in Corrales. The environment is heaving with new life and changes. The dry winds are still causing havoc to our state, but so far, the Corrales area appears to be minimally affected. The river and high water table certainly helps with that. We are also lucky to have dedicated public servants in the police and fire services.

This proud female wood duck is sticking to the densest reeds as be begins the long process of tutoring the new charges.

 

 It was impossible to get a clear picture of the new ducklings, luckily I was able to see them when a passing dump truck scared them from the reeds.

 While wood ducks are now thriving, there is certainly a lot of things for them to be frightened of. A great many raptors, like this great horned owl, are looking to feed their own youngsters. Their silent flights over the water in the evening look very impressive as they scan the reeds for movement or sound.

 

During the day, owls seem mostly grumpy and sort of dull witted. This male is near the nest, on stand by if their chicks are also being predated upon.

 

 Owl chicks are pretty defenseless while they can't fly. While they can get airborne after 10 weeks, they need help from their parents to hunt for several months before they can be fully independent. They are found all over the US and are very adaptable to human presence.

 

 The hummingbirds arrive in the bosque from central and south America. Right now we are seeing a lot of black chinned hummingbirds, but there will soon be many rufous hummingbirds too. These tiny birds are so territorial they often chase out all larger birds from the bosque area. They have adapted very quickly to bird feeders, due to their territoriality.

 Traditional short grass lawns are not very useful to wildlife generally. However this robin is perfectly happy to find worms and other bugs in the grass. Many birds are amazingly resilient to human activities. Robins, thrushes and canada geese seem to be big fans of golf courses and lawns.

 

 The cottonwood trees that grow in the bosque are impressively resilient to all sorts of parasites, from fungus, to drought, and insects. These eggs are from a leaf beetle that targets the newest leaves.

   

It is often forgotten that mosquitos and midges feed on sugar in the veins of the trees. The females need proteins to produce their egg cases, but animal blood is otherwise very poorly nutritious compared to the sugars found in all trees in the spring.

  This is a Culex mosquito and it carries parasites that can occasionally infect humans. However, there are several species that do not carry diseases. The amount of knowledge we have on mosquitos dwarfs those of other insects by several orders of magnitude.

 

 A typical leaf-hopper. It also sucks plant juices and some have occasionally been know to suck blood. But no-one seems to worry about them. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

 

 Caterpillars are chewers, rather than suckers of leaf juices. They often have to grow incredibly fast or have other protections. This one relies on camouflage and is the caterpillar of the American lappet moth, a particularly beautiful nocturnal moth.

 This is the caterpillar of the mourning cloak. This butterfly comes out early in the season and can lay eggs and complete the life cycle often long before the predators of caterpillars are around in large numbers. While their spines might deter birds, they are feed on by wasps and some flies. There is not a lot of research on these insects, considering how widespread they are.

This species is a ground beetle. This beetle family eats many insects, but their larva can be a pest to some plants. Sadly, this species of beetle Agonum decorum is woefully understudied "A species of beetle that prefers to live near water" is the best I could find. Of course, there are an estimated 30,000 species of beetle in the Continental US alone, and a limited amount of space in a bug book...but still.

There are many types of seed bugs around right now. This is a Ozophora genus, not the same as the common elm seed bugs that are everywhere right now. These bugs use piercing mouthparts to suck nutrient sugars from developing seeds

The typical field cricket is often heard on warm evenings. Sometimes, one can get into the house and sound off all night long unless found. They have a very wide diet and are amazing insects. They produce the chirping as the males rub their legs against structures found on their wings. While we all think we can identify crickets, there are many more species that is generally recognized.

Ground beetles have very large jaws, but are usually vegetarians that need the muscle to cut through the tough outer root coverings to reach the nutrition that many plants store below ground.

The dry leaf litter at night is alive with many rustlings and activity. Spiders like this crab spider lie in ambush, but are usually chased away by the co-ordinated efforts of the many ant species Corrales has.

 

 Datura plants are host to many insect species that can often decimate their leaves. Here is a fully grown weevil species that is resting after laying eggs on the underside. The sacred datura is a generous plant and often grows back stronger. It's an odd choice for food, as all parts of the plant contain poisons, but many insects are now immune to the poison that can kill livestock and humans, as well as cause allergic skin reactions in some people. Still, this plant family is large and is also very closely related to tomatoes and potatoes, which can also contain poisons at the wrong times of their growth cycle.

While doing forest restoration work, this bumble bee attracted attention for its apparent efforts at drinking sap from a young sapling. Carpenter bees dig holes in old wood, but their abdomen does not have fuzzy yellow stripes on it, like this bumblebee does.

While a bagworm is a type of moth, it has many interesting adaptations and does merit study as it can occur in huge numbers and damage tree canopies. Last year was a bumper year and their numbers were huge. They are very resistant to any form of control, due to their behaviors and the protective sleeping bag they spin around themselves

 

 They will end up growing to a pretty impressive size. However, right now they are about a 1/2 mm long and very cute as they drag their little tents up and down the tree trunks.

Many other insects and predators are there to prevent these insects from having everything their own way, however. Dragonflies are experts at catching midges and mosquitoes on the wing. Their wings and abdomen are often intricate traceries and patterns. Their colors can be very eye catching, too.

 

 Snakeflies are predatory insects that have remained mostly unchanged for about 140 million years. They share many similarities to mantidflies and lacewings and are often found feeding on aphids in the tallest trees

Southwestern fence lizards are climbing specialists and very common locally. They are usually found basking on hot days. These lizards tend to be better at ambushing a wide variety of insects.

The long thin shape of this large Chihuahuan spotted whiptail suggests it is more of an active ground hunter, and that would be correct.

The open ground is great for a lizard hunting ground insects, but is also a risk when other hunters are around. While coach-whip snakes tend to be the most likely to catch a lizard, larger gopher snakes like this one chase the coach-whips. People are always surprised to hear most snakes prefer to eat other snakes or lizards.

This is the New Mexico evening primrose. The plant tends to be resistant to most leaf beetles, except the metallic flea beetle. It is  a popular garden plant.

The plant false salsify is often identified as a dandelion because it also produces a puffball of seeds about the size of a ping-pong ball. Many flowers in the aster family look similar to me.

 

The hot weather is not all bad. many species of cactus are thriving in these conditions. They can often produce abundant pollen and nectar for insects, especially bees.

 

Many cultivated plants receive better treatment than their wild cousins and also produce showy flowers. The passionflower is a climbing plant that specializes in being pollinated by bats. People also appreciate the fruits when they are ripe.

 

  The prickle sow-thistle is a weed from Europe that is widely naturalized. It is actually edible, but few people take an interest in in eating weeds. If prices at the grocery store continue to rise, maybe we will.

The duckweed is growing rapidly in the warm waters. They can easily shade out younger plants growing below them. The dense green blanket often contains many other seeds such as elms and cottonwoods.

There are more than one type of willow in the bosque. This is a picture of the young seeds of a Gooding's willow. They have narrow leaves, but otherwise look very similar to a young cottonwood tree

The Russian olive is a very common shrub/tree, but not many people get to see the brilliant yellow flowers that are put out. The flower seems very simply compared to other, more showy specimens.

 

Many people consider the Russian olive to be invasive, but I have often seen the many bird species that feed on these drupes when nothing else seems available.

The Russian olive is often found overhanging small ditches where it provides great cover for muskrats, ducks and other animals.

 

 The coyotes are still out, but much less vocal lately. They don't need to be, as one of the main reasons for their noise is to flush out prey like birds and rabbits into the open. Given the range of their omnivore diet, they often go for easier food if they have a choice.

While the Corrales bosque preserve is open for everyone,  it is managed in a partnership between Mid Rio Grande Conservancy and the Nature Conservancy. Here old tree limbs are being removed. Critical animal habitat, but also a fire danger.Currently, the risks are off the charts.

 

 The cattails grow very fast and are cut back rather than removed with chemicals and fire. This gives many birds the chance to live in Corrales, especially the red wing blackbirds that abound at the interior drain.

 

 Wile the bosque preserve is a natural environment, it also has to be carefully managed to balance all the competing interests. This truck is patrolling the lateral ditch to open and close the many sluices that control the water levels for traditional open field irrigation

 While the village of Corrales is a very safe place to live, relatively speaking, there is a price to pay for  this vigilance. I don't know the back story to this picture, but is seems eventful

 

On a recent volunteer experience with a group removing ravenna grass, it was sobering to get a sense of the full effort that will be needed to hold back this invasive species. The ground beneath this bunch grass was parched, dusty, and covered in spiderwebs, even up against the river. The work is beyond our capabilities currently and the wilderness in Corrales for our children is likely to be different that what our generation is used to.