Float

 "It is the glistening autumnal side of summer. I feel a cool vein in the breeze, which braces my thought, and I pass with pleasure over sheltered and sunny portions of the sand where the summer's heat is undiminished, and I realize what a friend I am losing." – Henry David Thoreau

 

Not many people will mourn the loss of the heat and fire risks, and water worries. Still, the sheer variety and size of the critters available to look at is awesome a the heat continues to assail our senses.

Some of the coolest animals are these crayfish. The red swamp crayfish can survive up to four months in dry conditions. This species have also been farmed since the 18th century in Louisiana, even though since 2003 the vast majority of the farming has been done in China. Sometimes this is to feed farmed bullfrogs, who have been introduced from Southeastern United States to farms across the world. Crayfish will often be found traveling across roads when there has been  a rainstorm in the summer. It is listed as a native species according to the Smithsonian, although it is clearly a southeastern species.

Preying mantis are not readily seen for most of the year and there are about ten native species of these summer insects. Others have been introduced to help reduce insects on gardeners pet plants with questionable results. This is the only species of insect that has both a mobile neck, and stereoscopic vision, which means it is the only insect that can look at you over its shoulder, a distinctly unsettling effect.

Large fish like carp should not theoretically be able to  live in the Corrales ditches. However, they are adaptable fish that repopulate areas where water has returned by surviving in refugia, such as the Rio Grande. They can also tolerate high water temperatures and are adaptable, by feeding on many food sources.

The antics of birds will always keep people interested, and right now there is a lot of activity from new arrivals. The fall migration has begun and the bosque is being filled with permanent and temporary fall visitors. This red tailed hawk is surveying the landscape and it doesn't seem to be harassed by other birds, which would be unusual during the summer, at least until the fall arrival of crows.

Red eared sliders are a species left over from the teenage mutant ninja turtle craze of the 80's and 90's. They have mostly moved out of the middle of Corrales and are now mostly found in the southern half of the village from Via Oreada down. This area has permanent water under overhanging Russian Olive trees, which they and the beavers seem to prefer. This water tends to be acidic from plant acids, and looks black because there is no clay to tint it red/brown.

The last of the wet weather has left for the near future. All that remains of the wet that fell from the sky are these distant pink and purple clouds at sunset.

Many trees are really just a thin skin of sugars at the innermost layer of bark. All that heavy wood is a scaffold that allows the leaves to get higher than the competition. It is well known that many trees will grow back quickly as bushes when they are severely pruned. A tree grows by producing new cells from its roots and its branches. The root produces cytokinin hormone as it lengthens. The branch tips produce auxin hormone. Apical dominance is the term for when trees use the large relative amount of auxin in its tissues to sense that it should focus normal growth on the branch tips. When a tree is cut, like this one, there is no more auxin produced. The heavy imbalance releases the suppressed effects of the cytokinins. These hormones activate new growth centers, called lateral and epicormic buds which had been prevented by the presence of auxins until now.

This picture shows the new growth of what will become the new trunk of a tree from a nascent bud of the living cambium, now released from the confines of the strict controls used by nature by a human need for control.

Dragonflies are creatures of heat and light that do not do so well when it is dark and cold. In the evenings after a rain, dragonflies are so sluggish they can be picked up easily for study.

Many other insects prefer to collect under the lights of human habitation at night. Apparently this is due to their lunar navigation system being overwhelmed, but the story is much more nuanced than that. This is a species of nocturnal wasp which occur in much larger than realized numbers in the deserts around here, especially when there is a lot of moonlight. However, these insects are not well studied.

The bosque has a lot of lizards at the moment, the two most common species are smaller than those found in the open deserts. This is because smaller lizards can support higher population densities than large lizards can. Lizards survive by manipulating their environments, such as staying in the shade on hot days and sunning themselves on cold days. Snakes and other meso-predators are less present (during the day) and so lizards can be more active once mammals such as raccoons and skunks are avoiding the heat and humans. Whiptails are active hunters and flee into the underbush when threatened. This is one reason for their smooth scales and streamlined body.

Fence lizards are ambush hunters, resting on a look out spot for insects and predators. They specialize in short bursts and tend to flee up a tree if pursued. They have spiky, keeled scales and long toes that help them blend into rough bark and grip firmly.

Microclimates are important for seedlings to thrive and it can be difficult for plants to find their best growing conditions. Here, the shells of the cottonwoods provide moisture and nutrient rich mulch, while the ants appear to be providing aerated soil.

Spurges, as well as purslanes and puncturevines grow well in these autumnal conditions and are fast growing ground cover plants that can often smother other plants. The name of the spurge family refers to their use in the middle ages as a purgative.

This juvenile coopers hawk is sheltering in the branches, as another coopers is circling above. The bird is both agitated and interested in the behavior, so I am not sure what the behavior actually is. It could be a fledgling and parent, and is probably not courtship or territorial.

The ditches are drying out as the available water is going below ground. So the crayfish are having to dig for shelter and oxygen (they have gills under their carapace so can't dry out)

 

 Caterpillars are beginning to find their favorite plants have started to lose their leaves. Also the plants have begun to sequester nutrients back into the roots as the first stage of abscission. So many insects will begin to migrate or pupate into winged insects better able to migrate. Here is a tiger moth slowly moving to another plant in the bosque.

Other caterpillars are gorging on the remaining leaves as fast as possible, fattening up before they metamorphose. These are a patch species of butterfly, probably Nymphalis antiopa, or mourning cloaks feeding on sunflower leaves. This species uses diapause to delay development, although this is a late time of year to emerge.

 

While the larval stage of the common blue mud dauber is a carnivore of black widow spiders, the adult mostly consumes nectar from flowers such as these sunflowers. There are many beautiful wasp species found in New Mexico.

 

 New Mexico recently had a very bright full moon at the end of August. The next full moon will be the official harvest moon as the Fall equinox begins. However, most of the changes that will occur have already started in their nascent stages, so in many respects fall is already with us. I wonder if we will miss the vibrancy of those summer insects and amphibians once the days are short and cold.