New Mexico Creatures

As always, I found many interesting animals during last week's trip to New Mexico. Here are some that I was able to photograph.

A Rocky Mountain bee plant was attracting several species of hummingbirds and, of course, bees like the one above and the large, black one below


I found this large scarab beetle along the upper Gila River.

The industrious harvester ants below this mound had cleared a large area of all vegetation, with the exception of a low-growing forb.


I wonder if these plants resist the ants or if they provide a resource that encourages the ants to keep them around.

I think this is a young Woodhouse's toad.

Here are some large, out-of focus mule deer with antlers in velvet in the Gila uplands.

And, one of my favorite animal species, a female Black-chinned Hummingbird perched in my favorite tree species, Rio Grande cottonwood.

Back to New Mexico

Last week I visited to New Mexico for a small amount of field work. I flew into Albuquerque Monday afternoon and picked up my rental vehicle, which was much larger than I had requested. From there I drove four hours to Silver City, the most isolated college town I have ever visited.

I spent the next two days visiting field sites in the beautiful Cliff-Gila Valley.

During the last year, I have been comparing data I collected along the Middle Rio Grande with data collected by colleagues along the much smaller Upper Gila River. Last week was the first time I had seen this stretch of the river, so I was quite interested in the composition of its riparian trees.

Like the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque, huge cottonwoods are found along the Gila.

Unlike the Rio Grande, the Gila also supports large sycamores like the ones above.

And boxelders, members of the maple family that grow in a variety of sizes and shapes. Boxelder forms a dense sub-canopy in the riparian forests, making the upper Gila area one of the most productive habitats for the endangered southwestern Willow Flycatcher.

I also hiked upstream of the valley in the Gila Wilderness Area. This area is so large and remote that wildfires are often allowed to burn unchecked, further diversifying the habitat.

Numerous monsoon thunderstorms moved through the area during my stay, possibly sparking new fires.

Publication!

Yesterday, I received word that data from a project I have been working on for over five years may finally be published! I have had little trouble publishing research on birds and arthropods, so I thought a paper on plants would be a breeze, but man, was I wrong.


In 2003 I marked several hundred plants that had sprouted following wildfires in New Mexico.


During the summers of 2004, 2005, and 2006, I looked for each stem to see if it had survived the previous year.


My assistants and I literally bled for this data, as the dense and thorny vegetation at the wildfire sites cut at our faces and arms while we slogged through the tangles to find the stems.


I spent much of 2006 processing the data and writing a manuscript that was soundly rejected because it lacked the sample sizes and study design forest biologists favor (my advisor and I designed the study as a bird biologists, and we apparently see the world differently than tree people). I completely re-analyzed the data, re-wrote the manuscript, and submitted the paper to a different journal. I received more harsh reviews, but the editor said that he would consider another revision. By the time I finished the latest version, I was so tired of re-thinking my methods, results, and interpretations that I was questioning my worth as a biologist and considering a career change. Happily, the editor appreciated the changes I made and he will publish the paper if I address a few minor issues.

So take note, aspiring biologists! This is the kind of work you should expect when you go to publish your research.


I am finishing up another paper comparing the nesting biology of birds along two New Mexico Rivers, the Rio Grande and the Gila. I have put a lot of time and creativity into the analysis of this data, so I hope the publication process is easier this time.

Postcards from New Mexico

A few months ago, I bought a packet of postcard-shaped watercolor pages.


You can paint your image on one side, address the other, and send them off. I had not found inspiration to use them in Oregon, so I brought them with me to New Mexico.



New Mexico has incredible natural and human-made features that have been inspiring artists for centuries, if not millennia.


The light there is incomparable to anywhere else, especially at sunrise and sunset. I find it nearly impossible to sleep in , afraid I'll miss another great sunrise.

I had no trouble finding subjects to paint. I painted in my rental vehicle, on benches at wildlife refuges, and at my friend's house in Bosque Farms.

Flowering cacti at Bosque Del Apache

Bosque at sunset from Herp Tech


Cliff swallow in nest at Bosque Del Apache

While visiting one of my study sites, I collected some deep red soil that is probably derived from Abo Formation shale.


I stained some of the postcards with the soil, to capture one of the dominant regional colors.


I experimented with painting over the soil and adding the soil to cards already painted. Here are the results:

Hot air balloon from Petroglyphs National Monument, watercolor painted on paper previously stained with soil.

Building in Old Town Plaza, Albuquerque, ink on paper later stained with soil, then painted with watercolor

Kachina in Old Town watercolor on paper, later stained with soil

Black-chinned hummingbird at Herp Tech, watercolor on paper previously stained with soil

Mazano Mountains from Airport, watercolor on paper previously stained with soil


I touched up my paintings in the Albuquerque airport before boarding my departing flight. I sent a few away to Sarah and my parents, but I will keep the rest for myself as reminders of a great trip..

Back From the Land of Enchantment

If you have wondered why I have not posted for a while, it is because I spent the last six days in my beloved state of New Mexico.


Though Sarah and I plan on living indefinitely in Oregon, I consider New Mexico a sort of home, along with my native state of Montana. I am a desert junkie and I spent three summers in New Mexico conducting graduate research. When I finished my thesis, I continued to work with the forest service on projects in or near my study sites. All of these projects are conducted in a large cottonwood forest known locally as "the bosque."


It is a one-of-kind forest made up of huge Rio Grande Cottonwoods (Populus deltoides spp. wislizenii). This forest supports an amazing number of birds and other animals despite the fact that the ecosystem has been completely restructured by humans to maximize water delivery to farms in New Mexico and Texas.

Over the years, engineers have sandwiched the forest between the river and levees. Floods, which are required for cottonwood germination, rarely occur and exotic shrubs have instead moved in below the giant cottonwoods.

These changes have resulted in big problems for the forest.


Wildfire is one of the most urgent of these problems. The bosque runs right through the center of Albuquerque, bringing the threat of wildfire into the heart of an urban area. To lower wildfire risk, managers are removing exotic vegetation and woody debris to reduce fuel loads.


My research projects examine effects of both wildfire and fuel reduction on populations of birds, plants, and insects in the bosque. More details of this work can be found here.

It had been two years since I last visited New Mexico, so I could not wait to return and soak up the rich culture and ecology of the state.


I planned an ambitious schedule to collect as much data and observations at as many sites as possible. I think that I largely succeeded and I will detail my activities in future posts. Apart from my luggage and data returning home 12 hours later than me, my travels went along without a hitch.

I am now back in Oregon adjusting to the change from hot and dry to cool and damp weather. I brought a lot of green chile back with me to ease the transition. I have a lot of data to enter and things to unpack, so I'd better get to it....