Forest

 While many people are accused of not seeing the forest for the trees, a forest is a lot more than just its trees. All the animals, the soil and even the air are all different in a forest and all are important

Humans are surprisingly good at removing trees, and forests. There are many machines built specifically for this purpose. This giant grader maintains the dirt roads on the top of the levee in the Corrales Preserve and removes some of the plant roots that undermine the structure. The relentless pounding of our feet compacts the fine clay into an impermeable, waterproof surface. The sheer numbers of users of the bosque defy belief. Everyone is seekin gaccess to the natural beauty. Some use very unusual modes of transportation, too.

It is not easy for 166 tons of metal, diesel and sand to be delicate. On the whole, the machine operators are amazingly precise. However, some damage was done to the end of the boy scout bridge this year. Apparently the boy scouts also built a temporary bridge over the Rio Grande in 1985 within 2 hours that spanned 152 feet using 150 Boy scouts, a few leaders, and doanted eight foot long pine logs.

 This bridge damage is unlikely to be repaired anytime soon, however.  Only a few winters will be enough to rot through these boards through. Wood is quite  a precious resource now, but access to the forest is even more so.

Wood ducks rely on dense undergrowth to feel safe from walkers. They pair up during the winter, with the vivid males staying very close to the cryptic female (can you see her in the picure, she's in front of the male). Thick branches help them feel safe from attack and they will keep hiding for a month or so until they feel safer in this area.

Flickers are usually very good at getting noticed with piercing shrieks and constant movement. It is less appreciated by most people that they can hide well when needed. The new arrivals are usually unsure until their place in the hierarchy of the treetops until a "pecking order" has been established. This is done by near constant squabbling and shrieking every morning.

As the trees lose their leaves, the nature of the forest changes. By the river sides in Corrales the difference in the nature of the forest changes slowly, and not dramatic. In places with a high density of maples, like in more mountainous areas in the north of the state, the color change in the autumn is pretty spectacular and abrupt. This maple leaf is from Fourth of July canyon, a place pretty well known for the dramatic color changes in the fall.

There are many birds that thrive well in the conditions of the Corrales bosque. Doves are here year round and seem very comfortable with both humans and the natural predators found here. They are always in a group for protection, and very fast fliers when needed.

Robins will be in our forest for the winter. They are generalist feeders that are good at adjusting quickly to current conditions. They adapt to almost anything around them, especially humans. Their Latin name is Turdus Migratorius and that name describes them very aptly.

This phoebe and other flycatchers like it, are usually much more solitary and quiet. They spend a lot of time right over the water catching small winged insects. When they squabble it is usually silent, but more physical.

The hunter's moon is a weird misnomer. In the autumn, this bright moon at night encourages elk to feed in the meadows for longer and this makes human hunting easier. In the bosque, the predators are often out hunting more on windy or rainy, dark nights when their prey have a much harder time hearing and seeing them. On bright, still, full moon nights, most hunters stay home.

Birds are feasting in the bosque because many insects are easy to catch in the cold and damp mornings. It is unusual to be able to pick up insects like this cabbage white. This butterfly, though, is much more cold tolerant than other butterfly species.

This owlet butterfly is another genus of the brush footed butterfly family. They appear to have only four legs because the first set have evolved into small "brushes."

I have only just found out about the weird tree cricket insects. They are a cricket species. The males entice females to mate using a glandular secretion from their bodies as a snack incentive. The chirping is usually much quieter that the field crickets, so some species create a megaphone from leaves. One particular species can be used as a thermometer "Dolbear's law"

 

Field crickets are amazingly versatile.They live anywhere and will eat anything.This one was part of a group eating the bindings of the books in the tiny free library on Andrew's Lane. They are so easy to raise that people are looking to replace cattle ranching with cricket ranching to feed the world. Because they are so simple to keep, we know a lot about this species.

People who study fungi will talk forever about how important fungi are to humans. Indeed, we are more closely related to these mycelium threads that we are to plants. The fruiting body is the mushroom, which has quite a lot of myths associated with them. This picture  shows most of the typical parts of a standard model mushroom.

The jelly fungus is a little more interesting. While most in this group are not poisonous, most do not exactly taste great. This species from fourth of July Canyon is reported to be gelatinous and tasteless. But I would never try any mushroom I hadn't bought from a store.

 

This fungus is related to the common puffballs and uses its fruit body to blow the spores into the air. The "petals" peel open to allow the body to rise above the leaf litter so the spores can travel further in the damp air.

The bosque has a  small collection of new mushrooms from the wet weather we have had. These organisms are just about the only thing that will digest the huge amounts of fallen wood we have accumulated.

Dog vomit fungus is very common at certain times of the year. This is a dense collection of the the threads that actually make up the fungi in the soils. Fungi are very import to many plants, especially for taking up phosphorus in plants.

Autumn mornings are a great time for photographers. Not only is there the "golden light" that makes pictures pop, but most insects are slow and sluggish, allowing very close pictures. This is a bristle fly, usually found in the mountains

This colorful caterpillar in a mountain meadow is a hooded owlet . Because they are insects, the caterpillar only has six legs. All those other ones are actually just anchors to help movement. These have no segments and cannot "walk"

Predator and prey dynamics change pretty profoundly in the fall. While prey is often easier to find, the cold temperatures and short days can make things more complicated for predators like this red tailed hawk.

This squirrel is well established in this tree. Grey squirrels in the southwest do not often need hordes of acorns like those in the north do. But if you look closely you will see the ears are very ragged from frequent fights over ownership of this particular tree. Still , the view from the veranda seems good.

The iconic bird species for Corrales are these Sandhill cranes. They are large, graceful and colorful. These sound different than Canada geese and they fly with their legs stuck out behind them, which is pretty distinctive.

Most of the flocks of cranes are navigating south along the Rio Grande but so far are bypassing Corrales and heading to Sevietta and the wetlands around San Acacia. These birds value quiet and privacy, especially as they are planning on pairing up later in the year as their numbers swell.

Corrales used to grow a lot more fruit than it does now. There are still a few apple orchards around and some places such as Alary farms and more touristy Wagner farm are open to the public when staffing and the harvest allows. The waste apples are quite attractive to all wildlife except the cat species, but especially to the sandhill cranes. 

Spiders and October are synonymous. This might be because the large ground webs of the wolf spiders are clearly visible each moring as they glisten with dew. Most people don't give them a second thought. This seems odd considering how most people feel about spiders

In the dark, central hole of these webs sits a pretty large yet nervous spider. The silk is not especially sticky, it is really a protective covering, rather than a net for catching prey. The vibrations are sensed by the nearly blind spider using its sensitive leg hairs.

Bristle flies are actually parasitoids that lay their eggs inside beetles and other insects and can be important for insect control. However, when those moving egg carriers aren't around, the adults are usually harvesting pollen and being important late season pollinators for the hardy aster species that are still blooming.

Personally, I have been to too many balloon fiestas. But here is the obligatory picture of a balloon dipping into the river. It is pretty astounding how those pilots can have such flight control over a bunch of bottled hot air.

Humans always find a use for things. Kayaking on the shallow Rio Grande is pretty foolhardy for most of the year. This year we have done pretty well water wise, so these is enough depth to float...barely. There is so much sediment in the water that it likely takes a while to clean up everything after a paddling session.

The river is why the Corrales banks are so fertile. The soil is a fine well fertilized silt, and grows many plants. This gopher has plugged a new hole with back fill. You will soon notice many more holes like this as the usually solitary gophers begin to build tunnels looking for the females. Gophers rely on the trees to protect the soil they live in, as we all do really. A healthy forest relies on all things being in balance. The role humans play, with their huge machines, their well organised teams of boy scouts, or even those bags of hot air seems yet to be determined. Knowledge is an important first step to learning. Story-telling, like this blog, might hold the key to making learning just a little easier to pass along.