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.