Dr. B: May 2011 Archives

A short post, but we all survived the rappelling today.  Four different rappells, with the shortest at 48 feet and the longest at 150 feet.  Between each we scrambled down a slot canyon through the creek and other mini-waterfalls.  Here are some of the pics--I'll let John, Elise and Roselyn post their pics tomorrow.

For our last day of field work the students were busy picking up last-minute pieces of data and trying to find out if there was anything else we needed before we leave.  We again got started with the birds early when I opened the nets just before 5, and had the busiest day yet at the nets.  I checked a normally fairly quiet set of nets to find four birds in it at once--two Buff-throated Saltators, one Passerini's Tanager, and a female Variable Seedeater.  The process of removing a bird from the net can't be rushed, but is made more difficult when the bird finds the most sensitive part of your hand and pecks at it repeatedly (as shown by Austin the other morning).  Somehow all four of the birds I removed wound up finding the same spot on me, but perhaps the retribution is deserved since we did interfere with their day by trapping them.  The netting was steady throughout the morning and brought in the most birds we've had all week.

So--day 3 is usually the day when the workload starts to push past the Day 2 high intensity effort into the downswing toward our Friday departure, but also when the heat and lots of hiking/less sleep tends to hit the students as well.  It's also the day when a group of vine snakes turn into vipers, so before anyone worries the students were all fine and the snakes were nonvenomous.  It is unusual to see that many at one time, so it was perhaps something that was a bit scary!

The habitat team did have some rough terrain to cover today and some thick plants to thrash through, making their concern about snakes very real.  They had a huge number of plants to catalog but got more efficient in their work today.

Another busy day starting with the bird group--I opened the nets just before 5 and we had a new net set up that brought more successes (shown in the great pictures by Alli).

Some photos of students in action today on Day 1 of their project work:


The habitat team (Forrest, Joe and Omar) install one of their HOBO temperature sensors for temperature readings over the next 24 hours.  They created a small shade out of teak leaves to insulate from the sun, and buried a second sensor in the ground to take soil and air temperatures in a monoculture reforest area.


John takes measurements of the canopy cover and vegetation composition at some of the sites being used for ant and butterfly studies.

Sebastian installs his pitfall traps in order to catch the ant species within the leaf litter.  He has a great story of purchasing his field equipment from the local shop that I hope he posts later.
Roselyn searches for butterfly species in some of the more intact forest areas of the site.  She has fashioned a very interesting butterfly bait trap that I'm hoping works for her tomorrow.

I'll post photos of the four students working on birds tomorrow.  This morning it was so wet (as you can tell from the one of Christian with the Clay-colored Robin) and this evening it also rained so photos of that work were hard to come by today. 

We have four groups overall--habitat, invertebrates, bird diversity and bird behavior.  It makes for a long day working with all of them, since I was out before 5AM opening the mist nets for Christian and Austin and doing behavioral observations along with them and the behavior team of Turin and Alli.  I tried to spend some time with each group throughout the day until we finished habitat work at 5:45, making for a lot of laps hiking around the property. We've tried to stagger the schedule so that they all get at least four hours of fieldwork a day, four hours of data entry and writing, and some rest time as well as mealtimes.  My only problem is getting them to go along with my recommended "lights-out" at 9PM to ensure enough sleep!

Here's the full group at the volcano yesterday (from left to right)--front row:  John Kabangu, Elise Tellez, Omar Faour.  back row:  Joe Edison, Roselyn Hoang, Alli Faucher, Turin Hansen, Christian Walker, Sebastian Scofield, Austin Walker.  on rock:  Forrest Statler.



And another of them working while at the volcano--it looks staged, really, but I caught them as they were looking at some of the plants that grow between the blocks of old lava and surprised them with a photo. Roselyn is sketching, Elise is photographing and John, Omar and Alli are looking on.

Greetings from Costa Rica!  The volcano just came into view and is here visible as I type, even with some remaining cloud at the top.  This has been a busy morning after a busy travel day yesterday.  The students did very well in spite of all of our hardships in travel yesterday--finding out our first flight was canceled and being moved over to the American flight in the evening, having to hang around the airport all day and then being delayed on departure by 3 hours.  We finally arrived in San Jose at 10PM  but still had a 3-hour drive ahead of us.  In spite of having very little sleep they were all out for our orientation hike this morning at 7.  Partway through our orientation they enjoyed a nice big breakfast and continued orientation until 10:30, and they are now working on their project protocols with a bit more context now that they've actually seen the site.

I'm very impressed with this group of students, since collectively they are seeing everything they possibly can--from Sebastian scouting the ground for ants, Roselyn snapping pictures of butterflies, and John spotting some amazing fungi in the forest.  Our habitat group has been focused on the plants, with Omar finding an interest in Heliconia this morning, Joe checking out the trees and Forrest noting everything in his notebook while we walk.  Christian got an early start spotting birds from his cabin porch, and Austin saw a Mot Mot pair that all of us had good looks at on the trail.  And Turin is picking up her bird skills by spotting a Smoky Brown Woodpecker nest, while Alli has focused a lot on the hummingbirds and is eager to use her background in psychology to study behavior.  All of them are being helped by our field assistant Elise, who is helping hold everyone together with her logistical support.  Richard and I feel very pleased to be working with such a great group.

We hike the volcano in a couple of hours, and they'll get a chance to see the surrounding area on the drive.  I hope everyone gets a better rest tonight (with homemade tacos and tres leches on tonight's menu they will eat well!), and be ready for tomorrow's earlier wake-up call at 5:30 AM.  With the enthusiasm they've had so far I think they'll be great!