Shy

 For better or for worse, humans learn by listening to stories. Stories can teach, or they can just entertain. Usually, the storyteller has a theme for the story, and it was usually signposted. Now that the internet has replaced the storytellers, people can pick and choose their own stories. The signposts just seem to have disappeared in a jumbled mess of contradictions. 

But story telling is still here. Telling stories through pictures has a lot of history behind it and meanings can still be applied to the chaos that we see.

There are many, many animals in the Bosque. Most people, even those who spend a lot of time there do not see a fraction of what is possible. Despite years of looking, this is the first picture I have gotten of a Beaver. The far more visible muskrat is smaller and has a thin tail. While beavers are famous as engineers and keystones in their ecosystem, they can often do things wrong. This youngster is trying to build a lodge, but has chosen a section of the ditch that is being dredged right now.

The stories about coyotes range from sinister, to absurd. Still, it takes a while for people to feel comfortable around these wild animals. Humans like cages more than we might care to admit.

Cattails are multiplying rapidly along the interior drain and clear ditch since being introduced during a ditch bank repair several years ago. Not only do they catch sediment and choke out other vegetation, they capture nutrients, too. This alters the plant ecology that can grow nearby, encouraging weedy species that grow fast, like kochia.

Plants quickly spread and need to be mowed to control their growth. This slows down the invasive weeds, but cannot be a permanent solution. Here, the growth is removed simply to allow continued access along the ditch... for further removal.

Cattail roots form underground tubers and over time, they raise the soil level. Without management, shallow wetlands become meadows. Obviously this is bad if the goal is to drain water into the Rio Grande. That sediment has to be physically removed periodically. This is a massive undertaking that is funded only to the most basic level.

One reason the funding is meager is that the process leaves the ecosystem strip-mined, and muddy. The piles of vegetation in the foreground has to be removed. The pile of soil in the background is stored in the bosque and sold to the landfills in Rio Rancho as cover. There are often invasive plant seeds mixed into it. While an efficient solution, lack of public input very likely leads to conflicts between competing interests.

Birds and humans have a complex relationship. This is a feral domestic duck hybrid. Part of a small flock that lives year around at Alameda. It is much heavier than the wild mallard, but also has the partial green hood.

This wild mallard is an ancestor of domestic ducks. They have many traits that allowed early humans to domesticate them. Interestingly, it is not hard to "speak" mallard and many people can calm or aggravate a flock just though quacking. A weird example of communication with nature.

Other visitors in the ditch are much more wild and elusive. The grey heron wants nothing to do with humans, their dogs, or their smelly machines. The only reason this one has not flown away is that it is in a particularly good fishing spot where the ditch work has exposed many confused fish.

Sandhill cranes also do not like peoples activities much either. But they can be enticed to stay in Corrales if they have large, open fields, and occasional handfuls of corn. They clearly prefer the colder weather and hot days, they stay in the shade of trees. They seem very fond of well kept apple orchards.

 

 There are actually many insects still around. The grasshoppers are disappearing quickly, but are cold in the mornings and easily collected by a bird with a sharp eye.

Spiders do well in the colder weather until the frosts begin. This is a false crab spider. The genus is rather obscure and is named after the Greek god of death. A rather dramatic name for a harmless little spider.

Leaves are a much more complicated thing that we would think. They are only green because of the pigment that does the alchemy of turning sunlight and CO2 into sugars and oxygen. There is no scientific consensus as to why anthocyanins are actively produced in plants in the fall. This chemical is an alternative means of producing energy when the chlorophyll is removed. It is also a potent antioxidant and antimicrobial product. This chemical glows in UV light, is able to be turned into solar cells, and can be used as a pH indicator because it changes color from red to yellow then blue as the pH changes.

 

 The effect is seen in many plants and can actually come in many colors. The plants seem to do this more in areas of shade, and it must serve some sort of purpose. Other than being pretty, of course. Anthocyanins have been credited with a ridiculous number of human health properties, but actual proof has remained elusive.

Most plants in the bosque are common, either native or invasive. But there are many, especially on the south side near Alameda road, that are escaped from gardens, the so-called "volunteers". I think this is a Chinese pistache tree. They are planted in gardens because of their color, hardiness and the speed at which they grow.

Nature always provides the best colors. The high levels of dust from wind in the atmosphere this morning combined with the thick clouds in early sun's rays to produce a beautiful sunrise. On clear days the unfiltered rising sun causes a thick golden yellow, but the blues, pinks, reds and oranges are equally impressive on cloudy, unsettled days.

Birds need quite a bit of energy to molt their feathers. Crows try to molt symmetrically in the spring. The pigment melanin is used to structurally strengthen feathers, not to protect the protein from the sun like in humans. The large number of crows means that the feather shedding they undergo is more noticeable. The subtle blue color is actually a trick of the light from the structure of the miniature hooks that keeps the feather together.

This feather is a bit harder to identify, but I think it is from a northern mockingbird. This bird is featured in many stories, as well as being the state bird of five different states.

Engines can do amazing things for us. Keeping the growth of things under control is one of the most important of those things in the Corrales area. Petroleum distillates are directly responsible for many of the features of rural life, such as square fields. Not even the most outlandish fable would be able to weave these odd threads into a believable story. This why the truth will always be stranger than fiction, it's too unbelievable.

The interactions between the dry fields and the wet ditches is closely choreographed. Machines allow us to do a lot of work with the minimum of people. While great, there seems to be a downside, because the majority of people living in Corrales are less involved in maintaining the infrastructure that is critical to us all. The lack of support becomes more critical as the years go by and urbanization creeps ever closer.

The recent high winds bring attention to the relationship people have with their trees. Both beautiful and a safety hazard, there is a lot of debate about when humans should be involved in tree care. Some people spend $8,000 to remove dangerous tree limbs, only to find their driveway blocked after a windy night. Arborists who provide great advice on individual urban trees are often more erratic when faced with an actual forest ecosystem. Conversely, forest management strategies that work for an ecosystem will not help an individual decide when tree removal or pruning is necessary. (Basically, if you have to ask, the answer is yes).

Dead and down wood is a particular problem for the Corrales Preserve. This is why some novel solutions have just started to be looked at. Being able to involve a whole community might just have a better chance than large steel machines with limited time and budgets. Removing large log loads is hard to do and expensive when the wood is not near to a road and there is no easy way to dispose of it cheaply. This problem may require gathering a diverse community of people, and maybe a story.