(Looks to me like a Cooper’s Hawk, but feel free to correct me if you think otherwise….)

I realize the vantage points aren’t the the same, and the dates aren’t exactly one year apart. But check out the photos of this same side channel. The first is from March 11, 2013 and the second is from yesterday, March 27, 2013:

http://www.nmspj.org/

Those three conversations, plus a few others, made me realize just how little people understand about the water they use.  Many don’t seem to understand where it comes from, where it goes, who has what sorts of rights to it, and how the natural and political systems work.

Honestly, I wish this coming spring and summer were going to be a lot less interesting.

At any rate, here’s a piece I wrote for UNM School of Law’s Utton Center on the Texas v. New Mexico complaint Texas has filed in the US Supreme Court with respect to the waters of the Rio Grande.  I learned a lot while researching the story over the past couple of weeks–and I learned that it’s a helluva lot more complicated than “Texas versus New Mexico.”

Check it out and please pass it along to someone you know–who might need a hand understanding the issue:

http://uttoncenter.unm.edu/pdfs/tx%20nm%20paskus%20final-3-4-13.pdf

For comparison’s sake, here’s the view from the Alameda Bridge in early September, 2012, when I was reporting on the Rio Grande being so low that the City of Albuquerque had to stop drawing water from the river for its Drinking Water Project*:

Here was the view this morning, Sunday, March 3, 2013:

And here is the USGS graph, just in case you don’t believe your eyes:

The river is low, yes. That worries me, true. But I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that the Rio Grande, as it flows through Albuquerque, is some sort of lifeless, worthless stretch of river. In the hour I spent walking north of the Alameda Bridge today, I saw crows, ducks, great-tailed grackles, Canada geese, sandhill cranes, killdeer, and a heron. I also saw and heard tons of songbirds (which I’m not good at identifying; sorry) and came across coyote scat, beaver slides, and the tracks of raccoons and other small mammals. It’s a damn fine place, that bosque.

*The city’s move to stop drawing water from the river has to do with low flows, but also with timing. During certain times of the year, water users (including the city) have to ensure there is a base flow of 100 cfs through Albuquerque for the endangered silvery minnow.

Saturday afternoon, I went to one of my favorite spots in Albuquerque–that stretch of the Rio Grande between Paseo del Norte and the Montano Bridge. It’s a spot that last October (Oct. 28, 2012), was this distressingly low:

(That picture accompanied this KUNM story: http://kunm.org/post/rio-grande-could-join-ghost-rivers-southwest)

Here’s that same stretch in November, after irrigation season had ended (looking across to the other bank, rather than upstream):

Here’s the (Instagram) view upstream in November:

This was the scene yesterday, March 2, 2013:

Water was flowing on the left side of the island, so here’s the view about 1/4 mile downstream:

Here are the USGS numbers for the river’s flows at the Alameda Bridge, and then downstream in Albuquerque:

Get ready for one hell of a year, folks.