Fate

 The interior ditches have just been mowed by the MRGCD. The actual process is very simple but nature often produces strange outcomes. For example, coyotes usually move into a freshly mown area to scavenge within an hour or so of a tractor leaving. The finches are usually feeding on the fallen sunflowers even sooner. Other animals that rely on these tall weeds as a source of food or shelter have to find ways to adapt to these changes.

This baby mouse would normally never be seen by people in the thick ground cover. Coyotes eat many of the adults near to people's houses, but the canny canids can find a lot more mousy morsels when the underground nesting burrows have been exposed by modern weed control methods.

The feral turkeys are also hard at work hunting down the large insects that rest on the plants during the cold mornings. They job becomes harder when the weeds are removed. This mom turkey appears to have five other mouths to forage for.

As the days become shorter and evenings colder, the spiders become more prominent. Maybe this is why they play such a large part in Halloween festivities. The cellar spiders often move indoors to follow their prey, which are mostly small flies.

This is a western parson's spider, a very active hunter often seen by people in the fall. It is named after the necktie markings on the thorax, But I also notice the markings seem identical to a human skeleton. happy Halloween

Western bluebirds eat whatever is available, including spiders and caterpillars. The abundant sunflower seeds littering the ground after the mowing are attracting their attention currently, but that food source will disappear soon. Ordinarily, the plants produce enough seed heads to last all winter.

This metallic jewel beetle's official name is Lampetis drummondi. It is a wood boring beetle species and is currently found in large numbers in the salt cedar on Bosque Beach in Corrales. The startling blue is actually hard to spot in foliage.

This dark red insect is an unusual and primitive wasp that does not sting and lays its eggs in decaying wood. It is a pigeon horntail. They often are found in the fall season on the levee roads clinging to tall weeds.

Damselfies are much less active in the fall. When it is raining, like this, they can be picked up quite easily. They are usually heavy predators of midges. They are differentiated from dragonflies by their habit of folding their wings along their back when at rest. The one is a Western forktail.

The meadowhawk dragonflies do not fold their wings. This species is most often found close to dense weed clusters beside still water. In the summer these insects move far too fast to be handled like this.

Most bumblebees die off in the fall except for the queens. Those will burrow underground and begin to form a new nest in the spring. They often form hives in old mouse burrows.

The domestic honeybees are usually running out of new sugar sources in the fall, so are often found scavenging from soda cans or sugary snacks off outdoor restaurant tables like this one in Los Lunas.

The turkeys are also looking for handouts from humans. While feral, this turkey wait patiently outside houses where they know people will put out corn and seeds for them.

This say's phoebe is hunting insects along the river's edge. These birds are notable to feeding on many different sources, but mostly insects. During nesting season their chicks are feed mostly on soft bodied caterpillars.

Army cut worms, like this one, can occasionally form huge clouds of adult "miller moths" in outbreak years. This is not unusual for many insects, but this caterpillar has quite a few other interesting traits. The adult moths can't be exterminated, as new migrating ones will turn up right away afterwards. The caterpillars hatch and go from tiny green forms "instars" to these giant grey beasts in 10 days if the weather is warm. While they are around, however, many animals feast on them.

There is a whole bunch of weird stuff written about tortoise beetles, like this one. However, this blog can say it better than I can. It takes a minute, but can you see the tortoise outline in the shell? This one has a chip in the carapace where a bird tried to flip it over.

 

 This cryptic young bird is a curve-billed thrasher. A common bird in the desert uplands, this one is a little lost in the trees of a local building, but is hiding well. These birds can often be found in nests in cholla cactus. These birds actually are not often found in trees, they are just plain built wrong for that environment.

While they look similar, woodpeckers are a very different bird living a completely different lifestyle Woodpeckers have 2 backwards facing toes and stiff tail feathers to prop themselves against a trunk while they hunt for soft bodied insects in the trunks of trees.

The weeds most gardener love to rant and rave about are pretty fascinating species. Most are specialized to actually thrive in a world of heavy persecution. Plus, most weeds have pretty flowers if you take the time to look. This is the flower of the puncture vine AKA goatheads

I am not 100% on what this flower is, but I know it is some sort of evening primrose.The stamens appear to be pollen heavy, and probably appeal to bumblebees.

The balloonists from the fiesta probably have mixed reviews of the Corrales Village, but there certainly are many who dip their baskets in the water here. It is probably easier to appreciate the human effect on the landscape from their vantage point high in the sky. They probably don't notice the effect the sound of their burners have on the local bird populations.

Mallards are very well adapted to humans and mostly are here because of the water created by the drainage ditches. The water protects them from non swimming predators and removes hiding locations for them as well. This allows these dabbling ducks to reach easy food just under the water.

Coopers hawks are famous for waiting by backyard feeders to ambush unwary birds flying in to feed,  doves especially. These small raptors adapt very well to human activities like mowing and fields. I have seen them eat everything from cicadas, to mice, to ducks. Their adaptability allows them to change hunting tactics depending on where and when they are. They prefer to be near dense trees. Humans change the environment they live in so fast it must be hard to keep up. In a recent report tree canopy cover in ABQ as a whole is 12%. In the bosque it is 25%. These two areas, however have very different forests. Only a few creatures, like the Coppers hawks, are comfortable in both. Humans, however do not seem happy living below trees. We are just not often found living in groups where the canopy cover is allowed to be much above 15%. Likely this has something to do with paved roads, but until we change and learn to live among the weeds, we are doomed to live with animals that can cope with our lifestyle choices, like mice, pigeons and cockroaches.