Orange-billed sparrows are common in the garden and along the Java trail. On this occasion, unfortunately, the bird had hit a window and died.
Tag Archives: Las Cruces
Walk through the Wilson Botanical Garden
High-flow at Río Java and group photo!
The beginning of June was wet—it rained nearly every day—and the river was often turbid and high. This was our first visit to the river of 2019.
Crested Guan
Crested guan, Penelope purpurascens, are common in the Wilson Botanical Garden and the surrounding forests, including secondary and primary forests. They are often startling when the flee in the forest, similar to some pheasants in North America.
Trap-jaw brood
A trap-jaw ant (Odontomachus bauri) potential queen dispersing with the help of some wings!
Ginger herbivory
Some herbivory, possibly by leaf cutter ants, on a ginger.
Working wasps
Some wasps working away with couple of videos. I’m still getting used to this camera, and I like the video feature, particularly with the macro-lens.
Las Cruces Commute
First snake of the trip
My first snake sighting of this year’s LSAMP REU trip; perhaps a dryad or salmon-bellied snake (Mastiogodryas melanolomus), although quite a tentative identification. It appeared to be about to shed—much of its body appeared greyish white as the scales peel away. Edit: it looks like this is probably a bird eating snake, Pseutes poecilonotus, which varies quite heavily in their coloration and includes a morph with the greyish hue that we’ve found. I also reported it in 2015.
Darko and I encountered this specimen along the Loop Trail.
Trap-jaw ant
Trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus bauri) patrol a bed of moss and detritus on a tree trunk, jaws wide open. Disruptions to hairs on the inner side of their jaw trigger an explosively fast and powerful closure—check out the size of their head, which houses the muscles responsible for clamping their mandibles inward.
The closure is so powerful that the ant itself is sometimes launched off of the ground. In fact, they use the launch to escape predators.
Don’t worry, they’re unable to hurt humans.