Winds

“Life is the soil, our choices and actions the sun and rain, but our dreams are the seeds” - Richard Paul Evans 

Migration is a big deal for all ecosystems, but it even more so for refugia like the Corrales Bosque that act like an oasis. Some birds only breed here, others visit briefly on their way to further places. Some live here year round.

 

 Flickers are a woodpecker species that will often hunt for ants on the forest floor as well as probing into old wood. They stay for the winter, feeding on mast and attracted to suet on bird feeders. They are a gorgeous bird with a lot of color and great behaviors.

Coopers hawks have speckled chests and long, striped tails when perched. This one is roosting and hunting small rodents like mice. These are easy to spot as there is plenty of sunflower seeds falling and their ground cover has been cut by the ditch clearing activities from MRGCD.

Seeds play a big part in activities of the fall for all animals. Sunflower seeds of the bird feeders attract feeding birds and also coopers hawks. The wild sunflowers are likely spread by the spilt sunflower seeds from feeders and the resultant plants now sustain large numbers of small rodents, birds and insects. The seeds pictured here are from milkweeds (of monarch butterfly fame) these plants use air dispersal methods just like the cottonwoods.

Grasses are growing really well right now. None better than this species of Ravenna grass, spreading north along the west side of theriver. They form thick swales that crowd out every plant  species around them. People are slowly coming round to the threat they pose to wildlife in the Corrales bosque, but it is probably too late without more elbow grease and awareness.

Ravanna grass is an amazing invader. The long stems are tipped with thousands of seeds which reach into the air of most mature stands. Their seeds send out colonists both near and far. They grow fast in full sun, but also grow slowly and insidiously in dense cover. Their roots and leaves dry out and shade the soil. This can increase the soil salinity, decreasing the ability of other young plants to establish a foothold.

 

 Humans help by creating open spaces with trails that a new colony tussock populates with many small plants. These wait until the sunlight increases. As the trail widens, or the river cuts into the bank, the small plants grow quicker, then repeat the cycle.

 

 In areas of open ground under a tree canopy, the stands grow slowly and their seeds are more dispersed. Unless the roots are removed they will re-sprount. These stands trap and hold cottonwood seeds off the ground, preventing them from sprouting in the soil. Ravanna grass also tends to grow at the base of other trees, eventually cutting off their nutrients and killing the smaller trees.

 

Volunteers like these can help. But many, many more are needed. The seed heads need to be removed and prevented from spreading and this is pretty easy to do if you can get into the thick willow swales where they start, but this duty has to be done pretty much year round. The leaves need to be cut and mulched to prevent ground shading. This is harder due to the sheer volume of foliage, and they will grow back thicker. The roots need to be dug out to prevent re-sprouting, this is pretty hard and time consuming but the most permanent solution.

Flies are a pretty ingenious family. This is a tachnid/robber fly that feeds on bees visiting the sunflowers, as well as the nectar directly. Officially, this is an Asiloidea (until I get a moment to look into it further).

Bumblebees and native bees can often be found in the evening clasping onto flowers with their jaws until the temperature gets high enough to fly again. They rely on their warning colors for protection, but the fall migration of birds relies on similar insects to feed on, like the large grasshoppers.

Virginia creepers are turning a bright red color now as they recycle nutrients. Birds are able to digest the fruits, but they are not terribly nutritious. They also contain crystals called raphides that are a fiendishly complex system of calcium regulation used by plants the same way humans use calcium stores in our bones.

Tansyasters are definitely present in large numbers right now and are one of the few sources of pollen and nectar still available to generalist insects.

The colder nights nudge plants to reabsorb their photosynthesis and water apparatus and spend resources storing nutrients in the roots. The red color is a protective pigment called anthocyanin, although other plants use an alternate system. There is no actual evidence that this food dye helps with free radical suppression in humans.

Lizards constantly move from shadows to sunlight to control their exposure to sunlight. They use vitamin D synthesized from sunbathing to metabolize calcium. They need the heat to be able to move efficiently in order to catch their insect prey with quick bursts of speed.

Bullfrogs prefer open areas of permanent water. They also sunbathe, but mostly they need the heat to help fuel their metabolism and digest their rather large meals.

Civil Rustic moth. Moths are a huge part of the the bosque ecology. They feed on many seeds and attract bats and birds.

The common house fly is much slower during the fall months. They can often be picked up from the stucco they are warming on in the morning hours.

There are actually many butterflies adapted to the colder weather and these often bask in the sun to raise their body temperature. This species is noted for its preference for food plants that produce a type of chemical that stimulates the appetite of the caterpillars and encourages the females to lay her eggs.

Wasps often change their diets in the fall, returning to starches and sugars from fallen fruits. Their summer activities usually involve picnics because fructose and protein sources are very important to their nest rearing activities. These insects are usually very docile when they aren't defending a nest. This one is feeding on some egg white.

This tiny caterpillar is going to grow really fast. Their ability to use threads for spinning webs is impressive and not often appreciated.

Humans know all sorts of clever things, but it is sobering to reflect that there is no human knowledge of what the larvae of this particular moth species eats. It is a Pale-lined angle moth and seems to pupate in the soil.

 

Ground spiders like this species do well in the fall as they can stay protected from the cold in crevices before coming out in the heat of the day. This family of spiders contains 2,000 species, with more constantly being discovered.

 

 That red hourglass distinctively identifies this spider with a quite undeserved reputation for danger. There have been 2,000 black widow bites in the US last year. There have been no fatalities in the last year. In contrast, there have been 6.7 million motor vehicle crashes in the same time in the US with 39,000 fatalities. 400 people in the US were struck by lightning last year and about 30 were fatal. Spiders are not a lethal danger.

 

 Spider webs are a popular decoration for fall. In the wild, webs come in two flavors ; the mats and the webs. the mats are a sensing surface that the spider uses to detect prey. The threads from the classic spider webs are often strung across paths and are usually laced with pheromones to communicate chemically with like minded spiders.

  

The spider genus with the fancy name; Kukulcania, named after a mesoamerican serpent deity. This is likely a male southern house spider and pretty well known for being docile and not really venomous at all. These crevice spiders like to hide in cracks for their whole life spans.

This fearsome looking insect is the larval antlion. It ambushes ants from the base of cone pit traps and flicks sand at insects that approach to get them to tumble down into their jaws. They are responsible for the long, twisty trails in the dust along the ditch trails in Corrales.

This bee has an unusually short abdomen and so is not a honeybee drone that is typically cast out of the communal hive during fall. Many insects are dying now as living gets tougher. This is not usually a problem as they have mostly finished mating and laying their eggs by now. There is a lot of variety in this life task.

 This is a fascinating insect. The infamous male bagworm from the family Psychidae. The moth has clear wings. The caterpillars increase in size over the summer and it is very rare to see the male out of the case. The female has vestigial wings, mouth parts, basically everything except her one thousand eggs which remain in her bag with her corpse over the winter to hatch out in May.

Every year, around this time there is an influx of people who move into the bosque looking for space to live. Numbers are hard to come by, but their numbers can be seen by their detritus, usually cardboard, food scraps, supermarket carts. Occasionally they chop down trees, start fires, but mostly they dump trash. The bosque is only 12 miles long and there are few sections where a person can camp out for very long without being noticed. The users of the bosque are very diverse and its absolutely amazing how well everyone works together to share the space. 

Of course, it is the exceptions that prove this rule. And the Balloon fiesta period creates the largest number of visitors to the bosque, and so statistically also has the highest incidence of damage to the preserve. It is important for the Corrales residents, while watching these shenanigans, to remember those people visiting the bosque also carry their dreams with them. Visitors just don't have the same connection to this patch of land as we do. Those of us who are left behind after the party has finished are always handed the broom before anyone can turn out the lights.

Still we are lucky to have this duty, to live in this place where suburbia touches, but does not (yet) quite manage to reach. I am grateful to have an obligation to look after and sometimes care for it. A place where there is room to dream.

*Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?

—Rachel Carson (1907-1964), *Silent Spring, 1962.