green

 Nature is a complex beast with a lot of nuance. Most people would like things to be simpler. The problem is, the simple answers are often wrong. The bigger problem is decisions that are made on the basis of the too simple answers often are exactly the opposite of what is needed. We don't need more conservation businesses taking charitable donations, we need more people who are stewards of their own world.

Water is a complex issue that is part of our ecology. For example, the dry river state would be "natural" if we didn't have dams to delay water release downstream. While it is true that we are in a long term drought, and are using water faster than we can replace it, it is also true that this crisis is neither the worse it has been (2004 gets mentioned often here) or wouldn't be this bad if some upstream dams were not being drained and repaired (El Vado).

While dead fish get attention in the city's fishing community, no one will talk about how the new grass  growing on the dry river beds should lead to a bumper crop of desert cottontail rabbits next year. This will likely lead to a reciprocal growth in bobcats.

Cormorants usually fish in deep, still water. However, they adapt well to these shallow pools where the bigger fish can no longer hide.

Small pools and backflows where there was once a river will benefit the survival of these small toads the most. Natural wetlands have returned, at the expense of riverine riparian habitat. A moments reflection will tell you most people would prefer the stabilized river to unpredictable mud and sandbars, which is what we usually have. There is an imbalance between the spoken wishes of people (natural), and their overt uses of a riparian habitat (pretty and predictable).

The first of the fall fruits are coming as the flowers turn into fruits. This apple is not going to be sellable, but is never the less a bountiful harvest. I know the coyotes will be looking for them soon, along with skunks, porcupines and children.

Cholla cactus produces a beautiful flower and gets nothing like the attention from most gardeners that it deserves. Bees are crazy for the pollen.

Wild chokecherries are usually found more to the north of our state. We have some in Corrales. These stone fruit are edible, but not everywhere within its range. While I am not advocating eating a potentially poisonous fruit, I know many people who will say this fruit is both non-poisonous, and tasty in the Southwest.

Flowers make some crazy structures and are ludicrous in their designs. They are the result of a very successful partnership between plants and insects. A flower's only goal is to be effective by any means necessary in sexual selection. Luck mixed with huge rewards usually produces unexpected results.

I am still figuring out what these nectaries on the Russian thistle actually are. They could be an oil, which is not unheard of in some plants. While the flowers are small, I don't see them associated with this bead of liquid. The chemical salsoline is isolated from this plant and has some odd porperties. In fact, the Russian thistle is a pretty impressive plant overall, and totally under appreciated because of it's faults.

 

 At night, there are far more insects on tumbleweeds than a person would expect. This is likely a moth species, but I'm not sure which one.

Milkweed is growing rapidly in the South end of the Corrales preserve. Made famous by the monarch caterpillar, this plant is liked by many insects. If you look closely you will see the aphids crowded around the stalk. The name comes from the sap, which is bitter and reduces browsing damage.

The New Mexico Olive has some trees producing their abundant drupes already. They are actually juicy at certain parts of their life cycle.

puncture vine is universally hated by those who find the goat-heads in their shoes or bicycle tires. These plants produce viable seeds as soon as they begin growing, ensuring the next generation is always around. This makes the plants literally impossible to eradicate permanently, short of fire, which is not recommended ever, but especially in the current dry conditions.

 

 This is a chyphotes genus of wasp and is a native. It might be a parasitoid of sun spiders, but actually little is know about the family and only one wasp has been found in a spider's nest. You can see the short stinger on the end of the abdomen.

Last night has many species of insects calling; cicadas, crickets and katydids are very active on warm summer nights. This cricket cricket species grows to surprisingly large sizes in the open desert and hunts smaller insects occasionally.

This odd insect is a common tree cricket, very hard to get a decent picture of due to their shyness. They seem much more slender than the heavier ground crickets, but are clearly related.

The desert has a few nasty surprises, but less that the average person would think. It is hard to find a rattlesnake, for example. I did run across this centipede. By the fall, they will be joined by the large desert tarantulas.

Along with milkweed, there are dogbane plants in the Corrales South end. This attracts metallic dogbane beetles. These beetles share a mutation in their cells with the monarch butterfly and is also found on milkweed, totally safe from the plant toxins.

Corrales has more butterflies that people often realize. It's just that most species are only here for a very short time, and are very small. This one is some sort of buckeye species. The numbers and varieties of butterfly are dwarfed by the closely related moth species.

One of my favorite butterflies is this great purple hairstreak butterfly. The caterpillar feeds exclusively on broadleaf mistletoe. The name comes from the streaks on the hindwings that serve to confuse predators as to which way the butterfly is facing.

We only conserve that which we consider to be useful. Just like a disappearing river attracts attention, a disappearing monarch population also attracts concern. But if no one is watching for disappearing moths, would anyone even bother to get worried when everything else is also a disaster? I guess we will only find out after the fact. That is a pretty dangerous way to care for a planet. This moth is in a genus called Anavitrinella, probably the common gray.