Allison Faucher: May 2011 Archives

con mucho gusto

By
Allison Faucher
on May 26, 2011 8:41 PM | | Comments (1)
Today was our free day and I chose to go zip-lining with Turin, Joe, Omar, and Forrest. It was fantastic - although I was scared most of the time. We all loved our exhilarating experience.

This morning I asked our guide Enrique if he could sing the Costa Rican National Anthem for us in the car on the way to La Fortuna. He said instead of singing it, he could share a recording with me later. When he drove us back tonight, we ran by his son, Steven, who had taken orders from Enrique to make me a CD of the National Anthem with video. He said, "See? I do my homework!" 

I love that every Costa Rican I've met has treated me with such kindness, respect, enthusiasm, and love.

As a psychology major, I am always interested in and appreciative of people's character. It looks like bird behavior wasn't the only behavior I was observing...con mucho gusto.

soaking up the heat.

By
Allison Faucher
on May 25, 2011 9:43 PM | | Comments (0)
I think the heat makes the bug spray melt away. Ever since Sebastian, Joe, and Forrest told us about bot flies on our night hike last night, bug spray has been a hot commodity around the cabins and in the field.

Turin and I completed our last observations today. This morning the mist-netters caught many birds, the most special being a Passerini's Tanager. Others were woken up and called down to the field to take a look. He was a refreshing start to a beautiful Costa Rican day.

Mireya, our cook, allowed Roselyn, Turin, Elise, John and me to steal two wonderful recipes from her this morning after some data entry: chayote soup and tres leches! I think we decided only our group gets to know the recipes, so if you are not a Costa Rican Mayterm student, don't ask. It's a secret.

We also went on an afternoon hike today, about which I'm sure others will share. 


Photos from yesterday and today:

katarata.jpg
playing in "la katarata" in the middle of the girls' horseback ride

Passerini's Tanager.jpg
Christian with the Passerini's Tanager

Mmm Mireya.jpg
Eating the Chayote Sopa in Mireya's kitchen

Richard the geologist.jpg
Richard sharing his knowledge on our afternoon hike.

- t-t-t tanager.

9:30 PM? Past bedtime!

By
Allison Faucher
on May 24, 2011 10:23 PM | | Comments (0)
Turin and I have been going to be around 9 (last night 8:30PM). We haven't gone to bed this early since...a long time. We are exhausted from waking up at 5 AM to join the mist-netters and start our bird observations. After some data-entry this morning, Dr. Brown allowed for the girls to go on an amazing horseback ride (which Roselyn has beautifully described) since horseback riding was my first choice for free day. Since there wasn't anyone else who had it as their first choice, I took the opportunity to go today. Oscar, one of the workers/guides here, arranged for a ride for us gals down and up to a beautiful waterfall in Monterrey. Upon our return, Turin, Elise, and I rushed out to do our evening bird observations, and Turin and I are up "late" entering in our data.

Henceforth, pictures will come tomorrow since the shower and my bed are calling my name. 

Birds of a Feather - Field Day 2

By
Allison Faucher
on May 23, 2011 12:55 PM | | Comments (0)
Turin and I started off the morning with finding two birds in the mist-nets set up by the Bird Brothers. Both Turin and I got to hold our first bird here in Costa Rica, a yellow-faced grassquit, and poor Austin got his hands pecked by a feisty smoky-brown woodpecker. It is a clear sunny day, so we are glad to be observing at dawn and dusk, and not in the mid-day heat. 

We also solidified our plans for observations. We want to compare how the birds behave differently in the monoculture forests versus the real forests.

DSCN1211.JPG
Turin with the yellow-faced grassquit

DSCN1214.JPG
Austin and the smoky-brown woodpecker


Buenos dias!

Birds of a Feather

By
Allison Faucher
on May 22, 2011 1:44 PM | | Comments (1)
Here are some pictures to go along with Turin's post of our activities yesterday. Today we tagged along with Christian and Austin at bird counts, starting bright and early at 5:30 AM in the rain. Turin and I discovered nesting behaviors might not be our guarantee for data, so we are thinking of narrowing our observations to most common species we see and record what they do in real forests versus teak and "cheese" monoculture forests.

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for DSCN1140.JPG
leafcutter ants on our morning hike on saturday!

DSCN1146.JPG
Sebastian eating a termite! (morning protein on our walk.)



DSCN1164.JPG
Elise's mot mot looking at her.

DSCN1168.JPG
stilt tree roots on the Arenal volcano walk!


DSCN1169.JPG
Christian, Austin, Richard.

DSCN1188.JPG
sorry i couldn't rotate this, Christian. our clay-colored robin caught in the mist-net this morning in the rain!

DSCN1132.JPG

and a shot of health and energy for good measure.

mucho gusto!





First day on the job.

By
Allison Faucher
on May 19, 2011 11:40 AM | | Comments (0)
This is Turin and Alli, writing from Irving, Texas. We are anxiously awaiting our departure from the Tower at 6:30 AM to Costa Rica. 

While in Costa Rica, we will be observing bird behavior and nesting habits. Turin has taken Gen Bio at UD, while Alli's last time in a biology classroom was four years ago in high school, so this should be interesting.

We have a rough outline of what we would like to study, but once we arrive at Leaves and Lizards we will know more about our project. As an interesting side note, we are both excited about trying mist-netting for animal sampling. 

Turin really likes learning about all the tropical birds, specifically the Toucans. Alli is interested in humming birds and finding trees that have stilt roots or buttressed trunks.  

We look forward to keeping you updated on our adventure!
Main Index | Archives