Pebble

 There are many ways of learning; sometimes you can keep learning the same thing over years. Other times you can learn completely new things. Corrales New Mexico does not have much connection directly with the sea. So, I am now at Pebble beach in California, and the sea is now within earshot. I am leaving the familiar and learning about the unfamiliar.

 

While New Mexico does have some related frogs, I am most excited to find this tree frog. Amphibians normally have nothing whatsoever to do with the ocean, but the forested hills of Monterey are often shrouded in mist and the damp soil is perfect for these animals. Anurans are found in all sorts of crazy places, endlessly adaptable.

 

 The ubiquitous grey heron is found on the coast, and has adapted to the environment here just like they have in Corrales. This one is floating on a log in the ocean and hunting small fish among the seaweed fronds. All types of birds are abundant along the coastline, often this is because boundaries are often where species congregate to take advantage of conditions. Each type of bird adapts to control its own niche.

The black turn stone has adapted to living with the much more prolific and active sandpipers by developing a more robust neck, musculature and a shorter beak. They feed by foraging under seaweed and rocks, rather than below the sand.

These sanderlings are a type of sandpiper that breed within the Arctic circle. They winter along this coast. The invertebrates they feed on are in the sand and are coaxed to the surface to feed on the debris washed in by the advancing tide. The sanderlings must stab into the sand at random as the wave retreats and hopefully catch their food as it retreats deeper into the sand.

Godwits have a much longer bill that allows them to feed more slowly and methodically. They prefer mud flats to open ocean because they focus on soft bodied worms. Like most of these birds, they migrate long distances, changing many habits, behaviors and even feathers as they do so.

 

A bird's bill is typically identified with it's diet in basic biology classes. The black oyster catcher has a bladed bill for dealing with bivalves and clinging invertebrates.

Birds that don't have probing bills have to live a more active lifestyle. This cormorant is diving for rock fish along the coastline. The rest in flocks to dry out thier feathers between feeding periods.

It isn't often that I learn of new animals, but here is a flock of scoter ducks, a seagoing duck that dives for shellfish. Like the other seaducks, these birds excrete salt from their noses to be able to tolerate saltwater.

This western seagull cannot dive for food, but this species is apparently famous for interfering with San Francisco Giants baseball games. These gulls were resting before the gathering rainstorm, which would likely improve their foraging chances over the next few days.

 

 This sea otter was wrapped in kelp and eating an oyster off it's stomach. They anchor themselves to the seaweed during big swells. They were present in large numbers just off the rocky points along the central Californian shore.

There is so much wildlife invisible to those observing from the shore. However, I was lucky to see this small pod of Risso's dolphin patrolling. They have much blunter snouts and a more distinct "helmet" shaped head than the type cast bottle nosed dolphins in the public imagination.

 

 While the woodlands of Corrales are magnificent, they are not in the same ball park as the majestic redwood forests of the Westen Coast. These mossy grottos seem like something out of a fairy tale story. Complete with twisting tree trunks that stretch into the clouds above. Still, I found myself often looking more at the undergrowth, than at the sky. The recent rains had lead to an explosion of mushrooms.

The America Fly Agaric is one of the mushrooms most likely to cause poisonings in the human population. While some experts say this species can be smoked/drunk/dried/stewed it is extremely unwise and unsafe to do so because the narrow safe dosage range is not easy to figure out. Still, only about 10% of hospitalizations for mushroom ingestion in the US had an adverse outcome in 2016 (liver failure mostly).

The forests in winter are not surprisingly, low in insect species. This stink bug was a random find in a forest otherwise empty of insects, if not invertebrates.

The banana slug is a strange animal to find interesting, but I do. They have the official record of being the slowest animal on earth. Their slime acts as a local anesthetic on the tongue. They digest berries and leave the seeds with a coating that deters rodents so they help reforest open areas of woodland. There is almost nothing they won't eat.

 The Pacific Grove Village thrives on tourists who flock here to see overwintering monarch butterflies. These butterflies are impressively large specimens. Each fall a special generation of butterfly delays sexual maturity and can fly up to 2000 miles back to their overwintering sites.

 A part of learning is experimenting. Near a national forest I found a deliberate pile of these things. To me, they seem to be a chestnut species, and a few were about to sprout. The story of the American chestnut is a long and complex one and I cannot help but wonder if someone is trying to re-wild the American chestnut from stock. These nutty plans will usually be controversial, but will be clandestinely attempted by misguided individuals all the same. The question is, will this be a new frontier, or another cautionary tale from lessons that must continue to be relearned by each generation? Time will tell, hopefully by older and wiser heads than we have now.

Ice

 The connections between wood and the animals that live around wood are far more varied and subtle than at first appearance. Most of the weight of living trees is from water, not wood. The trees, shrubs and grasses use sunlight and air to elevate moisture levels. That changes everything about the local environment. The air moisture moderates temperature extremes and affects what insects are in the bosque during the winter.

Whether a bird is domestic or wild can largely be a matter of opinion. Scrub jays, like this one, are really attracted to large seeds at bird feeding stations. They are noisy, a joy to watch and very much adapted to urban life around people.

While herons do not go to bird feeders, they are always nearby the Corrales ditches and usually in the same hunting perches. They are not very active birds, but regal, haughty. They are fun to watch, with a little patience.

All the different raptors have different niches and lifestyles. The little kestrels visit for short periods in the winter.  I see them often stoop and dive into the burrows on the edges of the interior drain, I think they are after small rodents such as mice or voles.

Red tailed hawks also choose to visit for short periods of time. They prefer open fields with a tall tree borders. I have seen them stoop on rabbits, but their success rate seems very low. I suspect raptors have to keep moving, because it doesn't take long for prey in an area to notice them and go into hiding. These birds get very irritated when humans notice them and give away their hiding spaces.

Insect behavior is affected by the winter. If there is no snow, most insects will be around in low numbers by the afternoon. Wolf spiders are hunters that don't use webs, they appear once the ant colonies have disappeared at the end of summer.

 

 The common earwig was introduced in to the US in the last 100 years and thrives at night in the US. While the are nocturnal, there will always be exceptions, like this one. Those pincers at the end are completely harmless, in spite of what folk lore around the world would tell you.

Many moths can survive impressively low temperatures, but only for short periods of time. Most moths use furry bodies and vibrate their flight muscles to stay warm. The wings on this one blend in with patterns found on winter pine trees.

Woodpeckers are a varied genus of birds whose species eat everything from tree sap, termites, and wood-boring grubs. They rely on old, dead wood to excavate nests. You can see all the sections of wood where bark has been removed when this industrious downy woodpecker chased insects up and down the branches.

Cranes like open fields, and fallen stalks of corn rows best of all. They are often found in the apple orchards in the north of the village near to Wagner's farm. But the most impressive numbers are found far to the south at Bosque Del Apache.

 

 Cedar waxwings are impressive looking gregarious birds the occasionally appear in the bosque as the feed on Russian olives. They really don't hang around very long, and Russian olive do not provide that much nutrition, but are fine as pit stop road snacks for birds traveling through. Notice the small flashes of red and yellow on the tips of the wings and tail

White crowned sparrows are so common we often don't even notice they are around. They often forage in mixed flocks a short while after sun-rise. This one is feeding on four wing salt bush.

In cold weather, most small birds puff up into these fluff balls. This species of sparrow is also one of those animals that can sleep using only one half of its brain. This allows it to rest in dangerous areas, or while migrating.

Flickers are a type of woodpecker that is usually found feeding on insects on the ground in the summer. This one seems a little nervous about the mist it found itself in.

Ducks visit Corrales in small numbers, but can often contain high diversity. This year the ditches were mowed and dredged so many ducks we would normally see did not appear. Gadwalls only visit for short periods of time and never occur in large numbers, unlike the mallards.

 

 It can be hard to remember that Corrales is very far from a nature environment and almost everything is controlled by people. Without maintenance by machines, the ditches would quickly collapse or become choked by vegetation. The trails and paths are shaped by constant mowing, leveling and cutting trees. While human recreation is important, the primary purpose of all this labor is to corral and contain the flow of water for the benefit of farmers and the buildings. Without control, this area would revert to a marshland within 5-10 years.

Trees dominate the Bosque, followed by shrubs and short plants. But there are many other plants, occasionally the rare plants are seen such as fungus, or this moss growing along the ditch banks.

 

 The growing season for the Brassica species has already started. This picture is of London rocket. While the plant is used around the world, here it is simply considered a weed. Most plants have already begun to produce nectar bearing yellow flowers. The mistletoe flowers and London rocket appear to be pollinated by fungus gnats which have begun to emerge due to the warm, wet climate.

Wetlands in the southwest are critical habitat for many animals that both live here, or simply passing though. Only humans see these areas as spaces that need controlling, but that view is also slowly changing. We often forget that the water table is often less than 10 feet below our feet near the river. It is kept in check by the drainage canals that drain into the river.

Hoarfrost is not often seen in the Southwest. Its formation needs cold, wet, and still air that is also in contact with wet vegetation. Fallen leaves piled up trap a surprising amount of water close to the ground where seedlings and insect grubs can access it. These form the base of a pyramid that supports trees, mountain lions and everything that makes this part of planet earth as a desirable place to live.

 

 Humans hate the cold and dark with a passion. We use elaborate rituals each night and at this time of the year just to reassure ourselves that the cold and darkness can be held at bay. Ironically, we use trees for these rituals, either by burning, or by dragging into our houses and wrapping up in bright lights and tinsel.

While wood is a hugely important part of the human experience, there is much more that can be done with it other than burning, building, or pruning. Sometimes we can be more creative and mediate on the deeper connections between earth, air, fire, and water that wood represents. The trees control our environment on a very fundamental level, down to the water in the air we breath. While it might be a stretch for us to all be a little more grateful, it isn't too hard to feel we could all learn a bit more about our world that the trees have built for us over the last 400 million years.