Forage

 

And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.
‘And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love

William Blake 

There is a lot to see in nature. There is even more not seen. This blog is trying to look at things a bit more deeper than the average person might.

 

 The world of nature exists both beneath our feet and into the hours of darkness. These two places are almost as alien to humans as the surface of Mars. Many creatures are found here that have a lot to teach to those who can see. The woodhouse toad is a common enough animal, often found in pipes and culverts around Corrales in the humid summer twilight hours.

 

Although quite common, most people will never see, or recognise a spadefoot toad. They only leave the soil for a few days each year to feed or mate on warm, monsoon nights. This rarity is what makes them so valuable. They appear to go against everything that should make an amphibian successful.

 

New Mexico exists at the end of a chain of western mountains that act as a corridor for insects and birds. These animals use the landmarks as navigation aids. The diverse ecosystems allowed by topography help provide sites for food, shelter and just resting places. The winds allow easier flying along the ridges. This explains why many of Corrales butterflies seem to visit for short periods here, they are usually just passing through. Here is a chequered white feeding on a wild licorice plant.

 

 Mourning cloaks seem to be quite a tough butterfly that is drab unless you get close to the vivid blue spots. They are long distance fliers and because they hibernate as adults they can be found over a wide range of temperatures than other insects

 

Swallowtails can be found during the hottest temperatures in Corrales. They have distinctive "tails" that distract predators into mistaking the tail for the more vulnerable head. Swallowtails in the tropics do not migrate, but those in more northern latitudes like New Mexico often travel to more favorable sites if necessary.

Summer is the season of fecundity. While many birds produce only one brood, others keep popping out more eggs for as long as they can. This clear ring of pecked shells shows a successful hatching.

While our cicadas are nothing like the super broods occurring further East, there is certainly a hatching. They insects spend most of their lives chewing on tough underground roots before emerging and turning into winged insects with vocal cords that can match the sounds of lawnmowers.

Some plants are just designed to be disliked. The puncture vine thrives by being persecuted. First found in the US in 1938 in Yellowstone county, Montana it is now naturalized, mostly by being perfectly adapted to western US and also impossible to remove. This plant is excellent at annoying your neighbors who might be more picky about their gardening. It has an unusual reputation for being a fertility enhancer for both men and women. There is absolutely no empirical evidence to back this up. I still think the small short lived flowers are quite pretty, though.

 

 The fetid gourd is a native species that is notable for having an amazingly long tap root more like those of a tree. While wild miraculous uses are promised for this plant, in this case they actually have some basis in fact. There used to be some cultivation in Lebanon of some seeds collected form Texas but current sleuthing suggests this was likely a Ford Foundation grant scheme that went nowhere.

Cattails are designed by nature to spread rapidly but also colonize new areas. Each stalk has both male and female flowers, with the pollen clouds above become a spike as the seeds mature into the brown "corndog" later in the year.

 

 Datura flowers are a bitter, poisonous plant that is vital to the ecology of several insects including tortoise beetles and sphinx moths. Also known as moon flowers due to the fact they open at night and are far more visible in the moonlight.

 

 Wild irises grow well in the Jemez mountains. They thrive in wetland meadows where the drainage and browsing of animals prevents tree growth. They can be found in shaded parts of Corrales dainage channels, too. Irises have been grown for ornamental reasons in Europe since the 16th century, but their history goes back to at least 2000BC in Crete.

 

Chicory flowers are breath-takingly beautiful and ephemeral. This weird dandelion species has been used for everything from coffee substitute, to a sweetener, and endives. I can't pretend I understand the motivations of gardeners and gourmands, but I can appreciate that they certainly are dedicated to their different causes!

 

 Corrales has an abundance of wild borne seeds. From willows, dandelions, cattails, elms and the ubiquitous cottonwoods. I seem to be one of the only ones who think the modified trichomes, and associated specialized annulus formed by the fibers are a big deal. Cotton and willows appear to have developed the same structures completely independently by responding to the same environmental dispersal cues.

 

 Humans lately do not seem to be trending much towards patience and understanding. Fruit trees are a quick fix towards all the latest buzzwords of sustainability, efficiency and diversity. Silvaculture is a time consuming and economically risky enterprise when done for ecological or household reasons. Apricots produce fruit early in the season, but the vast majority will simply rot on the ground. However, the presence of mulberry scat shows that the coyotes in Corrales are at lest interested in the fruit, and these canids have a well known sweet tooth.

 

I suspect fruit trees would make a quick disappearance if it was realized that there are other mammals who also have a taste for easily found fruit. This long distance picture shows a black bear feeding on grass shoots in a wetland meadow in the Jemez mountains. Luckily these animals are not often seen in Corrales.

  

Globe mallow flowers can often be found to contain a sleeping native bee inside. Diadasia diminuta. Many bees sleep on or near to the flowers they pollinate, but they usually just clamp their jaws on a leaf in wet or cold weather. This symbiotic relationship appears to be poorly studied, but often observed.

Chironomus genus of insects feed and live in the oxygen poor waters of stagnant ditches where they live in excavated tubes. The larva are usually bright red due to the pigments they use to maximize respiration. This gives the family the normal name of "bloodworms". Their ceaseless motions to fan oxygenated water to their gills are very alluring to the many small fish that can be found in their waters.

Crab spiders are usually ambush specialists. but there is an example of a running crab spider of which there are about 500 species. The front pair of legs are oriented sideways giving them a more crab like appearance. They don't make webs but actively hunt for small insects, usually on the outsides of buildings.

Antlions are another of those insects that occupy a totally different niche when they are ready to reproduce. Often the winged adults form when there has been a light rain, which ruins the dusty pit traps of the juveniles. The adults live for about a month on nectar and pollen.

The strawberry root weevil is found on many other plants, but the strawberry farmers got to name it first. No male specimen has ever been observed and the species reproduces by parthenogenesis. Humans take a personal interest in insects that affect profits, and this insect has been studied since the earliest times of biology, classified in 1758.

Lined June beetles. While there are a few about, their numbers are expected to explode around the end of next month. These are super clumsy fliers and often crash into people's faces. When the adults emerge, they have only a few weeks to reproduce before they die. Most of their life cycle is as a grub living on organic detritus and roots. The winged males simply have no attention to anything other than locating females.

 

Katydid are fully grown by late summer. Their chorus is then added to the other assorted crickets and singing insects. The adults are very large for insects growing over 2 inches in length. This one still has to grow into it's legs.

 

 Early in the season, spiders have the upper hand at night, but as temperatures rise, ants become the dominate night insects in Corrales and the spiders become rarer and often begin to forage during the day. Here is a Hogna Carolinensis. The bumps on the back are baby spiderlings. These large spiders use burrows as a way to control the often large changes in their environmental temperatures. They often are found near to human habitation, feeding on cockroaches.

 

Elm seed bugs are still prevalent especially in cracks around doors and windows. No matter what people do, their numbers are only controlled by the mating conditions, and outside temperatures. Here is a small group disrupting in their overwintering site in the corner of a door. 

Many animals rely on human activity to survive, often even thriving in their structures. The ones we see today are often the ones who have adapted to our rules, surviving chemicals, vehicles, pets, and housing to live along side us. They don't really need to accommodate humans anymore. Of course, the ones we should worry about are those animals and insects that are not adjusting fast enough, or are simply incompatible with humans. Can anyone imagine living with a black bear, or cougar in their backyard?

Human activity extends even to the stratosphere above, while increased carbon emissions are present in every breath taken or ray of sunshine that falls on our skins. In a sense the animals we choose to live with reflect those who can tolerate us. Next time we reach for the phone to call an exterminator or weed removal service we could probably spend a second thinking about those neighbors we chose to live in our houses.

 

Thrive

"The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways; nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works" - Joseph Glanville

 

While a person is considered mad if they gaze long on a common scene such a a growing mulberry, it is still quite vitally important to, occasionally, look more deeply at the world around us to see the wonder. The romantic movement followed the age of enlightenment in Europe and sought to elevate the sublime and heroic. This lead to a lot of young aristocrats wandering around palace gardens and sighing deeply, but also allowed their spirit to grow along with the understanding of concepts such as compassion, observation, and philosophy. The nature world in endlessly deep and completely beguiling to those who have the time to look at it, and within themselves.

The mulberry tree is cultivated in many places as part of the practice of sericulture, or the production of silk from domesticated moths in the silkworm family. Also, the plant is toxic (except the fruits), the pollen is highly allergenic, (but only the male trees) and there are 150 species (but only 20 are accepted by most authorities). Also, the unripe fruit can be hallucinogenic. Vincent Van Gogh painted the less well known "Mulberry tree" one year before he died, Even though most silk is produced in China and exported to India, the city of Lyons in France has been weaving silk for over 2,000 years. The paper mulberry can be used to produce cloth. The dried leaves make a tea, the red fruits produce a wine. the polished wood is used to make instruments. The white mulberry is used to produce silks. The red mulberries are also relished by many birds and coyote scat is often found full of mulberry seeds. As with most plants, half the world sees it as an invasive, while the other have squanders it's usefulness. For the rest of this voluminous story follow this link.

In the summer there are so many lizards that no one gives them a second thought. However, these reptiles can also give us a glimpse into the..."vastness, profundity and unsearchablenss of His works". We see slim whiptails and stout fence lizards. like the one pictured. We rarely see bigger lizards or rattlesnakes. The habitat in the bosque benefits small insectivore reptiles who are good at evading hunting birds. Ambush hunters also cannot work well in places with so many places for prey to hide. In areas where there is open sunny areas and no domestic hunting pets, the density of small lizards can get very high.

Lizards are also expert uses of the tail, which are similar to the use that in dogs and cats and completely unappreciated by humans. Tails help turn faster at speed, control jumping better, they help store energy like a camel's hump, they signal fitness to other lizards, but can also be detached as a decoy. These are all vital because fence lizards are very territorial early in the mating season and must spend all day defending a patch of territory, while also feeding and watching for predators.

Typical flowers offer sugar rewards to insects that visit. they also offer pollen protein meals, some flowers. They advertise these wares with colors (including landing patterns and ultraviolet shapes) and scents that range from pleasant to us to downright fetid. Some flowers like globe mallow and cactus also provide a place to shelter. Yet other plants can also provide egg laying sites for their pollinators, like the milkweeds. Flowers change their shapes to either make it easier or harder to pollinate. Some orchids even mimic female bees to encourage visits. Other plants, like some magnolias, generate heat at flowering times, which brings many benefits for improved pollen transfer.

Corrales is lucky to have many fledged birds in the bosque. Here we see the amazing great horned owl who are about five months old now. While their camouflage skills are a little lacking, they are clearly up early (for owls) and eager to explore their surroundings. These birds need lots of old growth cottonwoods that allow them to clamber and explore. Many will nest close to their birth location bringing delight to those who follow their growth progress.

There is probably some metaphor in the fact that the dustiest days bring the best sunsets, but I'm not looking it up right now. Everyone can probably reflect that just experiencing a moment with the senses is far preferable to trying to get a decent picture to share with strangers for kudos points. But I will admit photos are far better at evoking the memories as we get older. So, out of the hundreds of sunsets seen, and yet to see, here is a nice example captured in Corrales. A boiling plasma orb weighting 2.192x10²⁷ tons with light filtered and refracted through the edge of our Earth's 6,000 mile thick atmosphere. Even travelling at 185,000 miles a second the light in this this picture was at least eight minutes out of date when it was taken.

Plants and insects have a very intimate relationship. Indeed, biology shows us all things are interconnected but that between plants and insects are much more direct. The fine fibers seen on this picture are from cottonwood seeds and the insect appears to be a honeylocust leafhopper. Fibers, plants and insects are all connected in many odd ways, such as the bagworms and their small bobbins of protective sheaths.

This beetle larva is probably a cottonwood leaf beetle, this has been a second successive year of large numbers. The damaged leafs are quickly replaced as summer continues and most of the insects have already pupated and left. Others will take their place and bring a new set of issues to troubled gardeners.

Startling colors, unusual textures and indistinct outlines all show that this sheepmoth caterpillar are not to be eaten. These insects are found in the Western US. They are a moth species that flies during the day, but are not butterflies. Those spines are venomous, but with some care they are safe to be close to, like most insect and animal species.

Cucullia dorsalis is a pretty obscure moth that seems very nondescript as an adult. The caterpillar stage is colorful and seems to be trying to appear as a venomous species, such as the sheepmoth shown above but is safe to handle.

mecaphesa is a form of crab spider. These spiders are masters of camouflage and specialize in ambush tactics. Spiders come in an amazing number of sizes and shapes but it takes a while to appreciate them as they are fast and agile.

These insect eggs are probably from Buck and Io moths. Possibly the peacock moth. That these large moths can come from such a small egg is a testament to the ability of caterpillars to gain rapid weight on a vegetarian diet and convert legs into wings.

common lambsquarters. Like many plants, this one is a crop to a few but a weed to most. This plant can produce an oil that kills intestinal worms. But is better known as a nutritional food and crop in other parts of the world. It contains oxalate and saponins that means caution should be used if anyone plans to eat it, especially in the wild.

yerba mansa has quite the reputation as a medicinal herb. There is a huge body of literature surrounding it and it is also a very pretty marsh flower. However, you should still be suspicious of grandiose claims for a plant that isn't found in a pharmacy or supermarket shelves. It seems to be more of a cultural metaphor than a cure.

narrowleaf willow. Pollen season seems to be winding down in the tree species, as the cottonwoods continue to throw their seeds into the winds. Many stamens have pollen however, you can see them on the salt tamarisks as well as the willows, like this one.

Many bird species will produce more than one brood in a season. This is the empty nest of a local Say's phoebe. If a bird isn't careful, however, the build up of parasites such as ticks, fleas and lice can weaken the fledglings. Birds actually have many behaviors to reduce this problem, including keeping a large territory, preening, removing old material and reducing the number of brood raised in a year. This nest material appears to be made primarily of anti weed landscaping material.

The number of raptors in the bosque is reduced somewhat by the territoriality of hummingbirds and king birds, who relentlessly dive bomb, harass and warn other birds of their presence. Coopers hawks seem to limit this effort by being continuously on the move. They have definitely learnt to target bird feeders, too.

common thread waisted wasp. The nice thing about Summer is that the heat allows bigger insects to be active, this allows people to observe them better. Of course, most people do  not appreciate the larger wasps, but many of those insects are completely innocuous and do much good for the ecosystem by hunting all manner of flies and tree living critters.

culicine mosquito. This mosquito does not transmit malaria, but can transmit west nile virus. With all the research that has been done on mosquitos it can be strange to see that we have a very poor understanding of the whole process.

chipping sparrow. Fledgling is a complex and difficult process for many birds. There are many miserable wildlife rehabbers who have to take care of all the baby birds that would have been simply left out until they were able to return to the parents. This particular sparrow is very comfortable to the ground and around grasses. The camouflage is very effective if it isn't moving.

woodhouse toads receive absolutely zero parenting skills and can only rely on their instincts to survive. I always wonder how an amphibian so badly designed at swimming can do so well, and the secret is their jack-of-all-trades mentality. they can hop, swim, crawl and dig their way around most problems. It helps that there is a surprisingly large number of them around.

black dancer caddisfly. This mating pair shows the importance of reproduction to success. With no defenses and constant hunting pressures, caddis flies are vital to waters where there are trout.

bumblebees in the United states always are under threat because they are large, slow insects who have specialized needs that includes not being in too large a concentration where they compete with each other for scarce resources, like pollen. Most modern gardens are surprisingly inhospitable to insects.

buffalo gourd are a quintessential summer bloom and seen often around the state, especially along roadsides in grassland areas. the fact that this plant can be eaten with many precautions is a testament to the fact that just about anything can be food with the right motivation. This plant has a deep taproot that allows the plant to survive droughts and high temperatures.

The tendrils of the buffalo gourd can be used to ensnare nearby structures to allow climbing. While not often seen, this gourd is capable to climbing as a vine. The plant contains oil, starches and protein, but takes some work to overcome the rather fetid smell it produces.

Meshweavers are very common but not often studied. They have a complicated spinning organ that makes wooly silk that entangles and enstanres without needing any type of glue. Some of these spider species exist in very small numbers in specific cave systems in Texas.

Zelia is a fly found all over the US that is a beetle parasite. Few if anyone would notice the fly if It was missing, but everyone would remark if there was more than normal numbers of these insects who's name is a reference to their persistent flying nature.

Hadenini genus of moth. Scientists are still trying to figure out how to classify this cutworm species. The common name comes from the fact that the caterpillars cut down the young plants before they can grow much. Not very romantic, but fascinating to study. Many insects have a lot more to offer than simply being a subject of utilitarian study of purpose for farmers or their customers. Studying insects is not a common form of escapism, but should be. Humans have more free time than has ever existed in history and if can find a purpose beyond watching cat videos on the internet it should be understanding ourselves a bit more as well understand the small things in the world around us.