Boots

 "The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my propositions. And some see no nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself." –William Blake

 

As the cranes settle down and get used to all the people in Corrales, they become a lot calmer. The benefit of being in a flock, of course, is that they can occasionally let down their guard and focus on what is important in life. to a crane, this is basically vocalizing, digging for food, and dancing. The behaviors of most birds is very regulated, which has hindered the reintroduction of similar birds, like the whooping crane. Those huge, white, five foot tall birds exist as a small flock east of the Mississippi and attempts to reintroduce them to New Mexico have failed because they did not associate with other whooping cranes, but the far more numerous sandhill cranes. Then the whopping cranes failed to breed because proper whooping crane courtship did not happen. This was back in 1976, but the odds are they will one day return to New Mexico. possibly in the next ten years.

 

Sandhill cranes fly out to open fields during the day and return to the safety of the river in the evening. They have begun to court and act territorially on the river's sandbanks. Cranes lack a full sized backward facing fourth toe, so cannot grip tree branches like heron. This means everything they do is on the ground and they like to have open space to see.

There are a number of insects around now, but most people would never know this without some pretty dedicated exploration. These eggs were recently laid by a katydid. Gnats, mosquitos, and elm seed bugs are also moving about as the weather stays mild. The variety and number of insects will slowly build to crazy numbers by the summer.

The leaf litter thrives with fungus gnats and you will see may small birds searching for these insects in the leaf litter. This weird fungus-like growth on this twig is actually caused by mites, who create an overgrowth of plant tissue from their salivary secretions. The world of plant galls in a fascinating study of nature and art, that show us how connected everything is with their environment.

 

Bird bodies are highly adaptable, both as a species but also to the season. As breeding season approaches we see many more specialized feather structures that are designed to impress. The long, flowing cravat on this heron's neck is great at getting noticed, as well as staying warm in the morning. Officially, these feathers on the neck/chest are called filamentous/lanceolate pectoral breeding plumage. Other fluffy feathers beneath those push them out and also create a grooming dust to keep them clean and shiny.

With a smaller beak, this bird would look just like a raptor, and indeed these birds do not just eat fish. They perch in old trees to survey areas and protect themselves from cats and dogs. They are also interested in territorial claims so have to stay alert and pretty.

 

To a raptor, the talons are important tools that need protection. While those scaly claws seem impervious to cold, the birds often settle their feathers over the feet to keep them warm in the early mornings. You can see that all the feathers on this red tailed hawk are fluffed for maximum warmth.

 

 Red tailed hawks can be found on the edge of open fields where they watch for movement of small mammals. During the winter they are a lot more obvious, so have to keep moving as they look for easy opportunities for lunch. They watch bird feeders too, not for the birds, but for the squirrels that these feeders are often better at attracting.

 

The smaller coopers hawks are better at stealth and often are more hidden. That large, speckled chest is much better at camouflage than you would think. The longer tail is helpful at fast turns at the low level aerial maneuvers in dense foliage this bird is known for. The feet are also larger and more delicate as they are better a being a net for catching small birds at high speed. They often hang around bird feeders watching for unwary avians.

The world of birding is a complex, convoluted world dedicated to the pursuit of making reason from chaos. For example, here we see the Eurasian widgeon. Admittedly this is a less common version of widgeon seen in New Mexico, but by no means rare. It makes the life list for many birders, some of whom travel the world, spending thousands of dollars in pursuit of virtual trophy lists of common birds found in unusual locations. Corrales is a particularly fertile site for these hunters, as we are a resting area for birds just passing though on their way between breeding and wintering sites.

Birders also have a reputation for obfuscation. This is the Wilson's snipe, a common bird visiting to look for bugs in the mud. It's huge pectoral muscle power small powerful wings up to 60 miles an hour. During the breeding season, the outer edges of the tail feathers, called rectrices, create an eerie "winnowing" sound that we won't hear in New Mexico because this is not their breeding location. It looks a lot like an American woodcock, which many birds have looked for in New Mexico.

 

 The southwestern black phoebe, Sayornis nigricans semiatra is a flycatcher common in New Mexico that creates mud nests on many man made structures. It ambushes small insects one by one out of the air as they fly past and are very active now as the numbers of flying insects begins to climb. They are usually found near water sources and black mud, obviously.

 

The belted kingfisher is proving to be very good indicator of NM Game and fish fingerling releases into the Alameda Corrales clear ditch. These excitable birds dive headfirst into the water chasing the small, captive raised fish shoals which are disoriented by the abrupt switch to a new ecosystem. Their staccato machine gun rattling calls can be heard from Alameda up to the Andrews Lane Corrales bosque trailhead while the fishing is good. They are brightly colored with striking patches of blue,white, and brown. The rust and white chest shows the "belted" area that gives them their common name.

 

 Birds are famous for their garish colors. Mallards have iridescent feathers of bright green. The bluebirds like this one are vividly blue against a muddy field. However, when backlit, like in this picture, their color somehow becomes brownish. The secret is that their feathers are actually colorless, but the melanin found in them, which would normally make them black, instead reflect light in such a way as to create blue. If you grind up a bluebird feather, the dust is brown.

  

Bergmann's rule states that colder climates create larger mammals. Weirdly, this is true in New Mexico, where porcupines are the second largest in the US and seem to be most active in the late winter and especially the budding season, which has just begun in Corrales. While they can also eat bark and mistletoe, they are most attracted to the sugars found in new shoots and the buds of elm and cottonwood.

 

 Some of the most interesting areas of riparian habitat is the areas dominated by Coyote willow. These short trees are a nursery for canopy trees such as cottonwoods. In this picture there are two other species popular with landscape gardeners, a catalpa on the left and a sycamore on the right. The willow is also competing, and losing to the invasive ravanna grass, which is not so helpful to young trees.

 

Human managed landscapes interact with keystone species such as the American beaver. Here is a picture of the pond formed when a beaver dam backs up the Rio Rancho wastewater outlet at the Harvey Jones channel. Chemicals such as artificial sugars, pharmaceuticals such as birth control hormones, and mostly salts from human waste and fertilizers all can have unpredictable effects on water systems.

 

Soil in the bosque is a delicate, living thing, and all life above depends on the activities below this arbitrary boundary of "ground". This heron is hunting along a dredged ditch, looking for displaced mouse nests, or maybe some uncovered crayfish or hibernating lizards and turtles. Soil compacted by heavy equipment cannot drain water and affects water table flow back into in riparian habitats.

It is easy to see which fields are irrigated as lawns, because the fertilizers are salt and form white crusts where the moist dirt returns the sprinkler run-off to the clear ditch. High evaporation in the New Mexico climate makes this returned water salty. The problems is better than it used to be fifty years ago, judging by the old photographs, but can still be seen. Flood irrigation is more environmentally helpful than sprinklers, especially if you look at salinity, but you would never guess this by googling it. All the sites offering advice are selling sprinkler systems. No one can sell a ditch in the ground profitably.

The bosque has many areas where a pile of feathers marks where something has dragged a bird into the bushes and dismembered it. The list of suspects includes mountain lion, coyote, bobcat, and maybe even wolf or bear. The bones are then scavenged and removed by other, meso-predators such as fox, skunk, coyote, raven or vulture. Imagination has to supply all the details that our eyes do not see because most animals have adapted to living near people by being active between 11pm and 6am when our human eyes and more importantly, our human minds, are least active. Still, with imagination, and a little knowledge, a hidden world can speak to you.