Rio Grande overbanking, Albuquerque, April 11, 2018

My “job”, as director of the University of New Mexico Water Resources Program, requires me to pay close attention to New Mexico’s water. So of course when I saw this morning that the Rio Grande’s flow through Albuquerque had topped 2,500 cubic feet per second, I had to conduct “field work”. Anything above 2,300 cfs right now and the water begins spilling through engineered cuts like this in the river’s bank into backwaters created to simulate natural “overbanking”. This spot just happens to only be accessible via a bike trail, so I simply had no choice but to go on a bike ride.

Best part – the cormorant, fishing where the ag outflow enters the river:

Cormorant fishing at a Middle Rio Grande ag water outfall, Albuquerque, NM, April 11, 2018