Category Archives: New Mexico

A Trip to the Harrell House

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The bug, buzzing and trapped on its back, caught my eye just as I was about to turn out the living room light. I didn’t recognize the inch-long insect, but it looked suspiciously like a cockroach. I was baffled;  we don’t have roaches (or at least not many) in Santa Fe.

Dave and I  relocate spiders and stinkbugs outside, if possible, but since I wanted to know more about this one I picked it up  with a tissue and put it in a baggie in the freezer.   Ollie, a local bug collector, had told me this trick to preserve a specimen–at the time, I hoped I would never have occasion to use it.

Photo by P. Nixon

Photo by P. Nixon

A few months ago when I was writing about cockroaches I called an exterminator to answer my questions, but since I wanted help identifying this bug I decided to pay a visit to the Harrell House of Natural Oddities in the DeVargas Mall.  The shop is filled with dinosaur models, butterfly t-shirts, and mounted spiders.  In back is a  bug museum.

Last week when Dave and I had a few errands at the mall, I took the roach out of the freezer and found it in perfect condition.  We stopped in the Harrell House and talked to Thomas, a high school student.  Fascinated with the blue-tongued skink in a glass case behind the counter, it was a while before we got around to showing Thomas the bug, but he didn’t know what kind of cockroach it was either.  I gave him the bug (and told him I didn’t want it back) along with a note for Wade, the shop’s owner.

By the time we got home, Wade had left a message identifying the creature as a Pennsylvania wood cockroach, not native to the West.  We decided it must have hitchhiked to Santa Fe, but on what?  Wade mentioned landscaping mulch, but I suspected a book that I had just received in the mail from a used bookstore, until I realized it came from Nevada.

Photo By: P. Nixon

Photo By: P. Nixon

I was still thinking about it a couple of days later when this pile of latillas (fenceposts) on our back patio caught my eye.  Dave and I had recently purchased them from a local company and loaded them into our Explorer–they had come from Arkansas.  .

I think that solves the mystery and I am happy to report that we haven’t seen any more cockroaches, outside or inside.

An Unkindness of Ravens

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Photo Credit: musubk via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: musubk via Compfight cc

They arrived a few days after we spread a load of pecan shells in the planting beds–six or seven at a time swooped down into the yard. Crows or ravens?  When I saw their huge beaks and heard their deep, croaky voices, I knew–Corvus corax, the common raven.

They came for the pecan scraps, but may have stayed for the eggs and baby birds that I suspect are (or were) out back in the stand of pinyons and junipers.   Twice, I’ve seen a magpie chase  one of them out of the trees.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology advises on their website, All About Birds, that you can attract common ravens to your backyard by, among other things, “not putting the top securely on your garbage can,” and goes on to say, “these tactics might cause more trouble than they’re worth . . . (they) may then raid nests in your yard.”

What they don’t tell you is how to get rid of them once they have moved in.  Since reading that crows (close cousins to ravens) recognize human faces, I’ve been hesitant to aggravate the smart birds.  I don’t relish one of them spotting me downtown and giving me a public scolding.

Lunar Eclipse

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Lunar Eclipse August 2007 Photo Credit: Matt Binns via Compfight cc

Lunar Eclipse August 2007
Photo Credit: Matt Binns via Compfight cc

Yesterday morning I woke to snow and overcast skies, but by midnight when earth’s shadow began to darken the moon it was clear and chilly, 32 degrees.  I had a great view from the front porch and watched until the moon was completely eclipsed. Throughout, the star Spica shown brightly next to the moon and Mars was high overhead.  I’m a little groggy this morning, but it was worth it.

The darker the moon got, the more the sky came alive with thousands of stars. Just before I came indoors I noticed  three stars lined up horizontally, the claws and head of Scorpius, just above the southern horizon, another sign that summer is coming.

Wonders of April: Mars and Mexican Wolves

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Snow is in the forecast this weekend for New Mexico, but the lilac bushes are full of buds and the temperature reached seventy degrees earlier this week.  Summer is inching closer each day.

In the meantime, April offers a great view of Mars and a new wolf pack in the Apache National Forest.

Earth and Mars to Scale Photo Credit: Bluedharma via Compfight cc

Earth and Mars to Scale
Photo Credit: Bluedharma via Compfight cc

On April 8th, last Tuesday, the sun and earth and Mars lined up.  The orbit of Mars around the sun takes about twice as long as earth’s so this opposition of Mars only occurs  once every twenty-six months. For a few more days as the sun goes down, Mars will rise in the east and will be overhead by midnight.  In the morning as the sun comes up, Mars will be setting in the west. The red planet is easy to spot since it is the brightest object in the sky, except for the waxing moon.

Photo Credit: James Zeschke via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: James Zeschke via Compfight cc

In another rare occurrence, a pair of wolves was released on April 2nd in Arizona, part of the Mexican Gray wolf recovery program.  The special thing about these two wolves is that the male, M1290,  was born in the wild in 2012 and his mate, F1218,  was born in captivity.  The two were paired after the male was trapped earlier this year and have spent the breeding season together in captivity.  If all goes as planned, M1290’s experience growing up in the wild will  help them establish a territory, dig a den (if the female is pregnant), and hunt deer and elk.  When F1218 does give birth to a litter, she will  bring new, much needed, diversity to the gene pool of the wild population.  The Arizona Game and Fish Department filmed the release of the pair, now known as the Hoodoo Pack.

Dark clouds gathered over the Jemez Mountains this evening and the air cooled quickly, no view of Mars tonight.   As I watched from the kitchen window,  the storm moved closer and I thought about M1290 and F1218.  So much depends upon their ability to learn quickly how to live wild.  But tonight they are just two wolves, eyes shining, ears tuned to every sound, running through the ponderosa pines and Douglas firs of the dark, quiet forest..

For more news and information about the Mexican gray wolf recovery program check out this website.

 

Springtime in the Rockies

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Tis a month before the month of May,
And the Spring comes slowly up this way.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Spring in Colorado!!  When I found Mom’s email on Thursday morning with that subject line, I was certain the photos attached would be of her garden–tulips and daffodils and hyacinths, all in full bloom.  Instead, this . . .

Photo Credit: J. Nixon

Photo Credit: J. Nixon

Winter is slow to retreat here in the Rocky Mountains.  I live 350 miles south of Mom near the bottom of the 3000-mile long range.  On the same day I received her email I was bombarded with a flurry of snow pellets when I stopped, on my way to the mailbox, to admire a forsythia shrub bristling with yellow flowers.

Spring is making inroads each day; a black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) has been hanging out at the bird bath in my backyard. I’ve scanned the still-bare trees looking for a pile of sticks that could mean she has nested nearby, but have yet to find a sign.  Inside, the Siamese cat sits near the fireplace, head cocked, listening.  I strain my ears to hear what she hears and wonder if the birds have built a nest near the chimney.

By the time I talked to Mom late Thursday afternoon, most of the snow had melted and she said the crabapple tree in her photo was covered with buds and would soon be full of pink flowers..

 

 

Bluestem Pack Update – Pups Have New Names

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Artwork by Eleanor W., 1st Grade

Artwork by Eleanor W., 1st Grade

On Friday Lobos of the Southwest announced the winners of their second annual wolf pup naming contest. Of the nine pups named, six were born to the Bluestem Pack,

Back in 1997 the Bluestem Pack got its start when a female wolf pup was born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs.  F521 was the pup’s official studbook number, but zookeepers called her Estrella, which means Star in Spanish.

She was part of the very first litter born in the zoo’s new habitat, Wolf Woods, built as part of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program.

In 2002 Estrella, her mate, and seven of their pups from two different litters were released into the White Mountains of Arizona.  Twelve years later the pack still runs, hunts, and in most years has a new litter of pups.  Estrella was killed illegally in 2010, but by then one of her daughters, F1042, had become the alpha female of the pack.  F1042’s six pups born in 2013 are Estrella’s grandpups.

The kids who submitted names for the wolf pups made drawings, wrote essays, and told the judges why their names should be selected.  To see all of the results check out this story.

The Bluestem pups have all been captured, outfitted with radio collars, and assigned studbook numbers.  And now they have new names:

Shadow (m1330) – named by Renea S. in the 2nd grade.

Niku (m1331) – means victory in Finnish, named by Hayley K. in the 5th grade.

Unique (f1332) –  named by Danielle H. in the 2nd grade.

Verde (f1333) –  means green in Spanish, named by Eleanor W. in the 1st grade (see above picture).

Esperanza (f1339)  – means hope in Spanish, named by Maddie D., Emily P., and Annabelle B. all in the 6th grade.

Essay by Lillian R.-6th Grade

Essay by Lillian R.-6th Grade

Zia (f1340) – named by Lillian R.in the 6th grade (see her essay to the right),

State Flag of New Mexico

State Flag of New Mexico

As of March 10th, the telemetry flight location report indicated that all of the Bluestem pups were still traveling together with their parents.  Soon they will be yearlings and may start to explore on their own or with wolves from other packs.

I’ll be keeping an eye on them and crossing my fingers that there is a new litter of pups later this spring.

Kids and Wolves

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Give a classroom full of kids paper and crayons and tell them about the endangered Mexican gray wolves  and prepare to be amazed by what they come up with.  My essay in yesterday’s  Santa Fe New Mexican featured two of the pups born to the Bluestem Pack in 2012 that were named in last year’s Lobos of the Southwest contest.

Winners in this year’s contest will be announced later this week.

 

Spring Arrived on Thursday Morning

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"Norman" by I. Major 1996

“Norman” by I. Major 1996

My fingers froze above the computer keyboard trying to find a way to write about the new season without resorting to baby ducks and daffodils.  All the while, these lines were running through my mind:

Up the airy mountain,
 Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
 For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
 Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
 And white owl’s feather!

I memorized William Allingham’s poem, The Fairies,  in Mrs. Thrash’s fifth-grade class.  Somehow, the memory of reciting that poem in front of my fellow fifth-graders fused with another one: bugging Mom to break or to, at least, bend her ironclad rule of no bare feet outside before Memorial Day.  Suddenly, I was eleven-years-old again and it was spring.  I struggled to focus on long-division problems while daydreaming about summer: endless hours of exploring the neighborhood on my bike, reading Trixie Belden mysteries, and looking over Dad’s shoulder as he mapped out our annual camping trip.

Things aren’t much different now.  I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to keep my attention on a pile of receipts that need to be tamed and tabulated.  When my eyes are about to go crossed from looking at the numbers, I take a break to check out the National Park Service’s  website, planning a  late summer trip to the Grand Canyon.

Outside, the wind blows and pollen fills the air.  It’s not very warm yet, but last week on Grant Street I saw a row of daffodils, heads nodding in the breeze–a sure sign that  spring is here.

 

 

 

 

Tweet Sixteen

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Okay, so it’s kind of silly, but kind of fun too.  Today is the first day of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s March Migration Madness. Sixteen birds. Eight match-ups in this round. And, a really cool set of brackets, just like the basketball tournament.

Today it’s the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) versus the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor).

Photo Credit: JayMilesPhotography via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: JayMilesPhotography via Compfight cc

 

Photo Credit: Kelly Colgan Azar via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Kelly Colgan Azar via Compfight cc

I’m rooting for the barn swallow–the home team.  Some of the blue and rust colored birds spend the summer in New Mexico and raise their young here; tree swallows just pass through on their migration.

A few years ago I spotted my first barn swallows at a rest area on the west side of  I25, south of the Colorado border.  They had built their mud nests in the corners of the covered porch, or portal, of the little stucco-covered building.  The adults were flitting back and forth between the field and nest, catching insects on the fly to feed the hungry baby birds.  The travelers and swallows scarcely seemed to notice each other.

Tomorrow’s match-up: the yellow warbler versus the rusty blackbird.

 

Memories of Monterey

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It was a Thursday, and it was one of those days in Monterey when the air is washed and polished like a lens, so that you can see the houses in Santa Cruz twenty miles across the bay and you can see the redwood trees on a mountain above Watsonville.  The stone point at Fremont’s Peak, clear the other side of Salinas, stands up nobly against the east.  The sunshine had a goldy look and red geraniums burned the air around them.  The delphiniums were like little openings in the sky. From Sweet Thursday by John Steinback

Photo Credit: betta design via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: betta design via Compfight cc

It’s February in northern New Mexico.  The trees are bare and with the exception of a recently installed “forever” lawn in front of an office building on Paseo de Peralta, there isn’t a blade of green grass in sight.  Nothing is blooming.  It’s been unusually warm, but it doesn’t feel right to wish for an early spring when we desperately need snow.

So instead, I am rereading Sweet Thursday.  I can picture the rocky coastline along Monterey Bay, cypress trees yawning east, where Doc in his rubber boots, wooden pail in hand, is collecting samples from the tide pools.  When he returns to Cannery Row, Mack and the gang will be waiting, hoping to bum a dollar or two for beer.

I was in Monterey in February once. In pouring rain we drove down from San Francisco and had a flat.  Dave changed the tire on the side of a dark road.  A stranger watched and shared his umbrella and bottle of whiskey.  I think it was a Thursday.

By Saturday, the day of the wedding that we had come for, the air was clear and bracing and smelled clean and briny.  Wearing a scarlet dress I posed with the bride for a photo on the emerald lawn outside the chapel, our satin heels sinking into the damp dirt. It was a magical place where sea otters played in the bay and geraniums bloomed in the middle of winter.

I look back across the years and miles, longing to return, but I know it wouldn’t be the same.  California is suffering from a drought as bad or worse than New Mexico’s.  The forecast in Monterey today is for a high of sixty-five, cloudy with no chance of rain.

Downstairs by the French doors I have three big clay pots on wheels, planted with geraniums.  Too long indoors, the leaves are leggy, large and pale, pressing towards the glass, reaching for the sun.  Today I will give them a drink of water, but it will be weeks before the last threat of frost of has passed and I can roll them outside.