Flash

 

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

Helen Keller

The bosque is an amazing jewel. Loaded with birds, protected from development, and carefully balancing the disparate needs of recreation, safety, access, and conservation. While I often and loudly complaint that most users do not see the best of the bosque I am also amazed how many people we can squeeze into such a small space and keep everyone happy. Being a victim of success is an odd outcome for a nature preserve.

 

 Because the bald eagle is our national bird, we know quite a bit about the biology and habits. But I'll bet that not many people know about the efforts by Zuni Pueblo to maintain a group of 20 or so non releasable individuals. Eagle feathers are a rare treasure, and theirs is the only facility raising eagles with cultural significance in the US. This individual was watching a small flock of gulls, hoping one of them had a large fish that it could steal.

People like to give a bad rap to this eagle for being a thief. Still, it is a noble bird. I like this shot because it highlights the fearsome hooked claws that give them a fantastic fish gripping ability. Eagles don't live in New Mexico but many have flown through this year on their way to breeding grounds. We also see ospreys, who, surprisingly, have nested here in the past.

The killdeer is a strange plover species that often wanders along the edges of the river looking for opportunistic sources of food. It has a very nervous affect, which you would expect from a defenseless bird which just about everything will hunt, from seagulls to domestic dogs.

For a small duck, the bill on the shoveller species definitely stands out. I think this is a female but the males can look similar when in non breeding plumage. That large bill allows these ducks to strain small aquatic insect larvae from the water more effectively than the more generalist mallards.

I think these are ring billed gulls. If you look close, you can see the ring on their square profile bills that are a target for juveniles at feeding time. They are attracted to the rich bounty of the landfills of Rio Rancho, but like to roost in the middle of the day on the river. This behavior likely reduces the space competition with the common ravens. These gulls don't seem to feed on fish, much to the dismay of the eagle that hopes to snatch those. Those trips up and down the bajada form part of the complex web of nutrient cycling of the riparian habitat.

Fish, birds, and water form a complex web of interconnections that no one understands at the local level. This applies double to birds that are capable of traveling the length and breadth of the United States. This blue heron is showing the plumage feathers that are two very thin feathers on the back of the head. It is odd that in an area with all the required needs for breeding, this bird does not have any established heronries that I have found. In other areas, such as Colorado, this indicates disturbance, especially by people on watercraft. While the animal is common overall, there is some debate as to whether the populations are decreasing in the Southwest.

Common mergansers are a fish eating diving duck that I saw near to the roosting seagulls. They don't eat trash and I noticed the small flock of these distinctive birds moved on after only a few days.

Woodpeckers are a typical bird using its feeding method to also create nesting sites. Their drumming on dead wood is both a type of communication, method of locating insects, way to catch insects, and also create nest cavities. Multitasking doesn't come close to describing their skills with dead wood.

Humans use wood for food and shelter, but not in the same way other animals do. This is a southwestern subterranean termite and there are at least ten species of them. The type of caste that reproduces is called "alates". These are not ants, and very few species damage houses. On warm, moist days the winged, fecund members of the colony form a swarm and spread out after mating to form new colonies that mostly feed on tree roots is moist soil.

This rather large leaf-hopper is a Texananus species. They are known for being vectors of plant diseases. This is bad news in monocultures like those found on huge mid-western farms, but parasites in general are excellent at promoting diversity and encouraging resilience in places with a variety of interconnected forests ecosystems. These insects have adapted their lifestyles to human farming practices and will never be eradicated by pesticides.

No one seems really sure what this plant eating beetle is, but with so many species, that isn't surprising. 25% of all species on earth are a beetle, (many of the rest are wasp species) and there are many more yet to be discovered.

Family Cecidomyiidae. This is one of the numerous gall midge species. Many important farm crops become damaged because of an overactive defense reaction to an insect's attack. Other, wild plants produce galls as a way to limit the insect's spread. This interaction between plant and insect evolution is completely under studied when compared to other areas of insect and plant biology. For example, we  don't know why these insects are one of the few animals capable of producing carotenoids. But we do know they used a set of genes from a fungus that was spliced into their own DNA to be able to do it.

Infraorder Bibionomorpha is the group of insects just above gall midges in the taxanomic hierarchy. This insect has larva that eat decaying plant matter and fungi instead of producing galls. These are some of the first insects to appear in the early spring and support a huge food pyramid of mind goggling complexity involving hundreds of other species, such as small insect eating birds, raptors, and mammals.

Oxypoda is a species of Rove beetle, found in the soil and on fungi all over the world. Not much is known about them. People aren't sure if they do actually eat fungi, or when the larva pupate into adults. Insects that live in the decaying leaf litter often are able to survive thought the winter as fungi are resilient to cold or dark weather.

Diamesa is a small non biting midge in the bloodworm family. Bloodworms often thrive in oxygen poor water such as those found in water saturated bogs and drainage ditches.

 

 Crickets will migrate into houses in the winter. They don't like the dry conditions found inside but they appreciate the warmth and they are omnivores that can eat a little of just about anything. They aren't singing yet as the temperatures are much too cold to be trying to attract other crickets.

Rumex is a group of plants found in marshy areas and are the sole food source for the ruddy copper butterfly. While the plant is used widely as both food and medicine by people it certainly isn't at any risk of over harvesting. Just like the Yerba mansa, the actual knowledge of foraging is shrouded in myth and chicanery.

Birds are famously nest producers and their use of plants for this purpose is impressive. Some of the passerine birds have begun to build nests. The larger birds tend to re-use old nest sites, and often use nest building aptitude as a part of their courtship rituals.

There is always debate whether porcupines are trying to camouflage themselves as an abandoned nest, or if the likeness is just incidental. Right now the porcupines are congregating in common areas, attracted by the new buds being produced by the trees and the many areas available for snoozing and feeding.

Porcupines actually need a variety of trees to survive. They feed on the thin bark of Russian olive and elms, but they also need old growth cottonwoods to sleep in during the day and swales of coyote willows or New Mexico olive to hide in during their foraging.

The area of the river near to the Biopark is being cleared to reduce the fire danger to nearby structures. Each year the city crowds more into the areas around the river and the riparian habitat is being lost. Without varied tree cover, there are no animals that are going to be able to live here. The only animals you see now are bike riders and dog walkers. The winter is bad because there is no shelter for anything larger than a mouse, but in the summer there is no plant material to hold the moisture and the dust blows over barren soils.

 

It is sad that we are more able to agree on destroying nature, than we are on learning why it needs to be saved. A day's work with a bobcat and a couple of people can produce a pile of sawdust and another pile of logs. But if people change their minds about forest management, it will take more than twenty years for the bosque to regrow those trees.

 

 Of course, this is not to say that the forest doesn't have engineers constantly working on it. This irrigation ditch has been dammed by a beaver and the sediment is slowly filling it in. One day, if left alone, this area will become a meadow. But as it slowly transitions, it supports a succession of different ecosystems, each with their different relationships and roles to play. Even the diversity of wet and dry areas improves the variety of places animals can call home. In a patchwork of ecosystems the boundaries are always areas that are most productive.

 

Beaver used to be plentiful, but they are coming back and have learnt a trick or two in the meantime. They have adapted to changing conditions and learnt to avoid humans and their activities. Where the river is channelized, they dig burrows instead of building stick dams. But they still like to fell trees, as much as a chew toy as a way to reach tall branches.

 

 When the fruit trees at Wagner's farm are pruned, animals move in to investigate. Sandhill cranes like to feed on fallen apples. 25% of an apple harvest that is used to press juice in the fall is waste. This material, termed pomace is often left in the fields for the wildlife. The skunks, porcupines, cranes, and coyotes clear it up with relish.

The Corrales bosque is a hard place to enforce laws, so the local emergency services have to be creative. But no amount of surveillance is ever able to replace the support and vigilance of the local population. Those who visit do not always follow the rules, but the majority do appreciate the preserve as a treasure. Generations of people have lived and thrived in Corrales without the need for any exclusions. But as the threats from outside the community continue to mount in number and risk, it requires everyone to realize we have a treasure here worth thinking about and protecting better.

 

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.



 

Bloat

 

He is richest who is contented, for content is the wealth of nature. William De Britaine 

"Synanthropy is the official term for animals that benefit from living near humans. But this definition needs a bit more nuance. For example, coyote pups born in urban areas have a five times increase in their survivability compared to those in rural areas, due to increased food sources and decreased predation. However, adult coyotes have increased behavioral adaption problems and do not benefit directly from humans nearby. Not really surprising for a species that finds itself reportedly both hand fed and shot at by Homo sapiens in Corrales this year alone!

Coyotes in pure urban environments often are never seen by humans. In a rural interface like Corrales they will be found according to the attractants. Contrary to what many people think, cats are not a major attractant...bird feeders are, because of the squirrels those feeders attract. Here, this coyote is examining a field recently occupied by cattle. The canid pair appeared to be examining mouse holes from rodents that had been attracted by grain put out for the cattle.

 

 Animal behaviors are the other main source of human wildlife interactions. Coyotes can be seen in the early mornings, especially if foraging was scarce during the night. But these animals are also fond of the large flat dog walking paths are a way of signposting their presence to other coyotes via scat. This helps maintain home ranges during the mating season (which is now).

 

 Coyote scat at this time for year is very distinctive because of the almost exclusive diet of apples and millet seed found in it, giving them a bright orange hue. Fallen apples and pomace are clearly in abundance somewhere. Like most scat, these piles are often fed upon and digested more fully by rodents and ducks.

 

Most people notice in increase in rodent evidence during the coldest months, but the mice seem to prefer to be outside if they can. All wild animals have natural instincts, and for mice, it is gnawing. This Datura seed pod has been opened by mice. I'm not sure if the seeds were digested by them, but they certainly were able to be more widely scattered by this rodent's activities.  

 

 The new season's planting season has already begun. Brassica seedlings are being prepped even though we have not had last frost. Many plants need to be started so they can be harvested before the heat sets in. In the wild, the cottonwood leaves help hold in moisture and even out the heat profile of the soil. molds and fungi thrive in this environment, allowing access for the seedlings to otherwise hard to find nutrients. The leaves also slow down the rate of seed foraging by animals. Perennials often use the dead stems of the last year to catch windblown matter like leaves to encourage growth around the root-stock for the following year. The earth at the top of this picture looks plowed, dug up by local cranes and turkeys, looking for the many small seeds hidden in the topsoil.

The thin atmosphere caused by our altitude and latitude means terrain aspect is an important part of the moisture and temperature, these factors are critical to new sprouts. One side of a ditch can have bright sun and dry, while the other will be in shade and have more moisture. This variety of habitats encourages a diversity of plant organisms to flourish with less competition, contributing to a more robust ecosystem..

 

 The animals use a variety of behaviors to blend in or stand out in their terrain. This red tailed hawk is using the branches of a large cottonwood on the edge of a field to not only ambush prey, but to also avoid being harassed by American crows that roost in the area during the day. The camouflage is very effective if the bird is not moving.

Other times a red tail will want to be noticed, especially if they are holding a prime piece of real estate. They have quite an arresting profile. When they want to be noticed they will often be seen turning their heads regularly. They are most often found in tree-lines on the edge of an open field. This is the preferred environment of farmers too, and explains why this hawk is the most common raptor in the US.

Coopers hawks do not like open areas, partly because they are so small but also because they like to get close to prey before striking. This picture shows them in their best environment, but also shows those wickedly long hallux talons, also known as the D1. Long talons help catch smaller birds in a "net" a lot like the catchers mitt in baseball.

Grey heron are seen fishing in the ditches once the light is low, but during the day they are most often found on a perching branch, watching the coming and goings. They are adaptable birds, if not very social with their own kind.

Plumage is used as an important signalling object within a species. The base of the beak and around the eyes often change color in males. This reduces conflict and danger to juvenile, non breeding birds. It also helps male paramountcy without extravagant displays and wasted energy that are best left to courtship displays.

 

The vast majority of people would be hard pressed to identify more than one species of duck, but in fact there are quite a variety, who all have different habits and traits. Mallards are quite gregarious and brazen. They are the ones most likely to be found feeding on bread hand-outs because they are not shy and comfortable in large, noisy groups. It is no surprise these are the ancestors of the domestic duck.

 

 Widgeons are a different type of duck that usually prefers more open water than the ditches in Corrales, but they make do. A smaller duck, they tend to hang out with mallards who are bigger and bossier than they are. Their common name is "baldpate" because of the white forehead patterning.

 

 Widgeons are more vegetation than other ducks and are often seen where there is young shoots of plants. grasses and london rockets are growing furiously right now. Stolons of growing grass benefit from the ice free days where the sluggish water flow is enough to preventing freezing.

I don't see a lot of fish in the near freezing water, but there must be enough to attract the great egrets. These have a lifestyle similar to the herons. The very similar snowy egrets have a black bill. The cattle egrets seem very different and are found more in the summer out in the flooded fields.

The Corrales bosque has a long history. This unfortunately means there is a legacy from a lot of abuse, as well as careful stewardship. This is a puddle of engine oil leaking from a truck. The population of humans living in Corrales employee a whole army of landscape maintenance workers, tree trimmers, electricians, plumbers, and septic pumpers. Their trash is now deposited up the hill in Rio Rancho, but it used to be dumped in places like Cabezon and Romero.Interesting glass containers still appear from time to time from the ground. We are still far from living sustainably and in harmony with our surroundings, but hopefully we can continue to strive to learn how to be better stewards of the lands we live on.