New updates. Thought I'd mix some photos in this time. Also posting some wildlife list stuff.
DAY 36
Feb 13th 2010
Bird Survey
At last my first bird survey! It's an early start just before dawn to go and pick up our canoe from the ranger station and lug it into the main boat and head off to the start of our assigned canal – one of the one’s that tourist boats aren’t allowed along. It’s a beautiful calm and cloudy morning and the jungle echoes with mysterious bird calls and unexplained noises. I absolutely love it. I have actually been day-dreaming about becoming a river guide in Tortuguero when I’m finished with GVI. Buy a boat and a canoe, take small parties to these quiet canals for some hard-core wildlife watching (after negotiating access with MINAE, the Costa Rican National Parks authority), live in Tortuguero – it’s got a lot going for it…
The first major sighting that we have as we are unloading the canoe is of two Great Green Macaws flying over emitting their raucous calls. These special birds have had a rough time of it in the last few years, having suffered a dramatic fall in numbers; but very recently seem to be staging a bit of a comeback and Tortuguero and the area to the north up the Nicaraguan border and beyond is where they are being sighted more and more. GVI is taking GPS information and details of any sightings, at any time. In any case, this is my first sighting and the first sighting this year of them so that’s quite exciting!
The bird survey consists of a slow paddle down a canal at around 2km per hour. There are six of us and everyone is assigned an area to specifically search as we move along. We have 30 species of canal bird, mostly herons and kingfishers to look out for and we’ve all been rigorously tested on their identification. We need to record every individual of those 30 species that we see along the whole canal. We will be able to get information on whether canals frequented by the large tourist boats with big engines have a different species composition to those without any boat passage.
It’s a fairly slow start with a few common species seen quickly and one notable sighting of the stork-like Limpkin, which is very uncommon. The canal narrows and our patrol leader, Jo, skilfully negotiates us through several tangles of fallen branches. It is quite quiet in terms of bird life for about 40 minutes before we reach a tangle that we simply can’t manoeuvre the boat through. Having to turn back around it looks as though it's not going to be a very exciting survey except we catch sight of a heron hunting in the shallows under the overhanging trees. A closer examination reveals it to be a juvenile Agami Heron. This is another of our ‘special’ species.
The adults are a stunning mix of rich reds and green with extravagant silver plumes along the throat and head. They also have an unusually long beak. For such a charismatic species, very little is actually known about it. They breed along narrow waterways in thick forest such as this and any information we can gather is valuable. Again it’s my first sighting of this enigmatic species and it gives us plenty of viewing time. After we have left it to it’s fishing the final bit of excitement is a flash of the tiny Pygmy Kingfisher zooming along and disappearing into the canalside vegetation. Yet another first for me and a survey that was well worth waiting for. I can’t wait for the next one.
DAY 37
Feb 14th 2010
Valentine’s Day. I normally hate Valentine’s Day. But I couldn’t care less today. It rains in the morning and a few of us head out for a bird-spotting walk which is much more productive than expected given the weather. Highlights are a new bird species for the area, the rather boring looking Willet; and more excitingly a crocodile lurking at the river mouth.
For a bit of fun, there is a Valentine’s Ball at dinner time. Harvard displays an unexpected talent for flower arranging on the tables and we dress as smartly as possible given the circumstances. An Ipod is found with a suitably cheesy 80s power ballad soundtrack and singing along to the likes of Reo Speedwagon, Bonnie Tyler and Meatloaf is compulsory. Sadly (ahem..) a few of us have to cut it short to go out on a night walk. I forgot to mention them before but we have started doing a walk from 18:00 til about 20:00 along the jungle trail. The jungle ambience is completely different at night and last week there were plentiful sightings of snakes and frogs, plus very abundant, very large spiders. I really enjoy them.
We head down the south trail to the estuary where we see several sets of eyeshine most likely belonging to the crocodiles.
DAY 38
Feb 15th 2010
Camp Duty again today. Not much to say about that. It’s a long day but there is a spare slot on the night walk, which I almost decline due to tiredness but decide to go anyway. This proves to be a wise decision as we discover a hairy Two-toed sloth hanging down at head height by the trail.
Everyone is pretty stoked to see this guy up close and awake. He has a longer snout than the ‘smiley-faced’ Three-toed Sloth and is somewhat reminiscent of both an Ewok and a Womble, or maybe even one of those aliens in the Cantina Bar in Star Wars.
DAY 39
Feb 16th 2010
Another proper survey for me today. We are walking a trail known as the Mammal Transect which is a 1km trail leading from the canal across to the coastal trail that we use most of the time and leads back to base. We get dropped off at the canal end by the boat team who are out doing other things and make our way along the trail looking for signs of mammals – tracks and droppings basically. I like it up here deeper in the forest. It’s got a completely different ambience to the coastal trail. You can’t hear the sea all the time for a start – I feels like proper jungle. The bird species are different up here too though they are elusive today and I can’t see many of them. In terms of survey data, the only tracks we find apart from a single Brocket Deer track, are fresh Jaguar prints that we follow all the way along the trail right out onto the beach at the far end. They were probably made the night before.
A bit waterlogged on the Mammal Transect
Me practising the patented GVI welly-emptying manoeuvre.
There is a bit of excitement on the way back when my roomie Charissa nearly stands on a very long and thin, beautiful green Parrot Snake.
It’s not poisonous but Charissa is not too keen on snakes so it’s a bit of a shock for her. The snake poses nicely in the trail-side undergrowth and we all a good look at its strangely bug-eyed profile and bright colours. I later find out that though not venomous, the Parrot Snake is quite aggressive and can give a human a nasty bite that bleeds profusely, thanks to an anti-coagulant in it’s saliva. Never underestimate a snake!
DAY 40
Feb 17th 2010
We try and get out for some monkey monitoring this morning but it is raining hard. It’s kind of hard to be looking for monkeys when everytime you look up you get a faceful of rain. We call a day fairly early on.
We find out today that one of the cows in the field next door was killed by a Jaguar last night. Some of the staff went with the farmhands to see what was left of the corpse, and it wasn’t much. The photos are pretty unrecognisable apart from one of the head. I’m not too upset about the demise of the cow. As far as I’m concerned I hope the Jag gets them all. They’ve evicted me from the beach too many times, and now they’re getting their comeuppance. They shouldn’t be here anyway. It is still kind of frustrating though that the Jaguars are clearly quite active so close by and yet we can’t see them!
Kyle and James, two of the new guys go out for a walk in the afternoon, which decide against accompanying them on, at the last minute. Big mistake. They return with photos and a tale of encountering a herd of Peccaries (wild pigs) on the trail. I’m gutted – the photos are so cool and I have posted one here courtesy of James just to show you all what I missed.
We have a poker game tonight using Costa Rican Monopoly (Super Banco) money as ‘chips’. It’s a lot of fun and I manage to come out on top winning 6000 colones in the process (just under £6). That’s going towards a pizza at Budda Café tomorrow.
DAY 41
Feb 18th 2010
I am heading to Tortuguero today for my periodic shopping and internetting. Unfortunately, it decides to rain really heavily (déjà vu from our first trip). Luckily Budda Café is covered so we can still sit and use the internet whilst watching the torrential rain pelting down over the river. The pizza is pretty good although my capacity for eating has certainly diminished greatly over the last few weeks as I barely manage half of it (I take the rest with me to eat back at base!).
The journey back is quite simply a nightmare. It never lets up raining. Our waterproofs are largely already compromised, but we have bought a couple of cheap umbrellas that help to keep the water off. We also need to bail out the boat at regular intervals as the water level inside creeps up. Loaded up with shopping and people, we are not making a particularly high speed either. Then disaster strikes. The engine breaks (we would later find out it is a problem with water in the electrics) and we are helplessly drifting in the current, mid-canal. Luckily we have an emergency paddle. One paddle for a 30ft boat with 10 people and a large load of shopping (including a full gas canister). It’s pretty futile, even with other pitching in with shoes, box lids and umbrellas, the pace is slow, plus it’s impossible to steer straight. Due to all the rain, the current is pretty strong too. We have to turn back and head to Tortuguero because we won’t be able to paddle against the current further on. The problem being that we are about halfway between base and Tort at the moment.
The crazed rower
He told me to act natural
Luckily, after what seems like 30-40 minutes of paddling, a tourist boat approaches and we wave it down frantically. It turns out to be a boatload of American schoolchildren, who of course think this is absolutely hilarious. Thankfully, we have managed to retain our sense of humour throughout our ordeal. One of the local tour-guides climbs down and attempts to fix the engine, spilling out oil and various fluids into the river before informing us the engine is broken and has no oil! Really? I wonder why that could be? The American chap that is in charge of the group explains that they can’t take us onto their boat for insurance reasons. He does seem genuinely guilty about it but I can understand his point of view, particularly when he is responsible for a boatload of 13 year olds. They do say however, that they will alert the park rangers at Tortuguero who should be able to come and rescue us.
They leave us sat on the side of the river against a fallen tree to stop us drifting as night draws in. Eerie sounds drift out of the jungle and the silhouettes of three Boat-billed Herons emerge for their night of fishing. Spirit are still high and the rain has eased off for now. James hands out a six pack of beer that he bought in town and some packets of chocolate and biscuits are opened and shared.
There is no sign of the rangers but eventually a boat appears out of the gloom and we flag it down. It turns out to be three local chaps who agree to help us out by giving us a tow. It feels good to be on the move again and we make good time along the river. I end up talking to our new recruit Jess about music and we find out that we have quite a lot in common and both like some cool stuff that not many other people are into like Thrice and My Morning Jacket. I’m going to make sure I peruse her music collection before she leaves. We are also highly amused by the distinctive scent of weed floating back from the boat in front.
We eventually reach Tortuguero and are dropped off by the now-giggling threesome of locals at the CCC Offices (Caribbean Conservation Corporation) where some friendly American volunteers give us some coffee and buns. They are bird-ringers which means that we end up striking up an interesting conversation – they are based in the North of the park and we are in the far South so we have a few species of bird that are different from each other. I give the chap my email as I want to maybe exchange information with them, plus he has heard of the Greater Ani sighting – another well-known ornithologist has seen it a couple of times apparently, so he is going to send me the right forms in order to report the sighting.
Rich has organised a private water-taxi for us, which smells really nice. I don’t know why, but it certainly makes the journey more pleasant. The rain hisses it down again and the driver has some trouble finding the right turnings but eventually we get back to our landing. The guys at base have heard of our predicament via a text sent by us (we couldn’t get enough reception for a phone-call) to the head office in San Jose who in turn contacted the base camp. And they have turned out in force on the beach to help us carry all our shopping back up the trail, which is pitch-black by this time. Their high spirits certainly help us to keep going as we are all pretty bushed by now. Hot soup and coffee has also been prepared for us. I’m too exhausted to fully appreciate it but it is a really amazing gesture from everyone and shows what a great team we have here. Thanks!!
DAY 42
Feb 19th 2010
It’s still raining today.
I am pretty wiped out today but they keep me busy. I’m well within my rights to cry off if I want, but I think it would do me more good to keep active so I stick with the program. First of all it's off into the forest to set-up two new Jag-cams. Along the way we see a cool colour-changing lizard which is also shedding it's skin.
Then it’s a beach clean in the afternoon. It’s quite a chore collecting crap in the hot sun of the afternoon but it does seem like we are having a positive effect on the beach. It certainly seems a lot cleaner.
Then just to top off the day I go on the night walk as well, where we see lots of non-descript tree-frogs, a huge Marine Toad and excitingly a baby Caiman or Crocodile which is giving a chirping call. Thinking that maybe where there is a baby, there could also be an attentive mother, we leave it alone pretty quickly.
I sleep very well.
DAY 43
Feb 20th 2010
Still raining. It seems to come in blocks of several days at a time.
We go on a general wildlife walk this morning and despite it being quite wet manage to spot 6 different Eyelash Vipers. Not a lot else though. I’m still pretty tired but keeping active.
I do get an early night tonight though!
DAY 44
Feb 21st 2010
Huzzah! Sun is back. But quickly becomes too hot. There’s no middle ground!
We have a walk out to the beach and estuary where a croc is lurking just offshore, we see a new species of wading bird and a possible rare kingfisher, although I just can’t be sure of it as it flies by so quickly. There are also what are most likely Ocelot tracks on the path in the mud. The Ocelot is an elusive small spotted jungle cat which would be almost as cool as a Jaguar to see.
We are back early and take the opportunity to get some washing done before everyone else gets back.
The boat still isn’t working which puts a damper on the week ahead. Without it we can’t do the Jag-walk today for example, and bird surveys are right out of the question. It’s a bugger actually – because I saw the rota for this week and it was awesome for me. I did not have a bad day! That will of course all change now, and it’s unlikely to work out that way again.
DAY 45
Feb 22nd 2010
It’s a very hot day today. The most exciting walk we do just involved myself, Havard and Andrew walking down to the estuary. First of all, Harvard walks right through a Golden Orb-web Spider web and ends up with a rather large nasty-looking and probably quite shocked spider sat on his shoulder. Luckily, I manage to scoop it off in my hat and deposit it on a leaf to the side of the trail. Thankfully, Harvard was not too bothered by it – some other people I think could have panicked at that point!
When we reach the estuary the dog bounds on ahead of us as there is a tourist boat just offshore. That’s the first thing I see, closely followed by the object of the tourist’s attention – two huge Crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank. Jack the dog seems quite oblivious to the danger presented but thankfully the crocs aren’t in the mood for a canine snack and slide out into the water. There actually isn’t enough room for the largest crocodile to reach his full length away from the beach before reaching the tourist boat. I suspect he actually has to go underneath it. That’s both harassment of the crocodile and also very dangerous as the boat is low in the water and the beast was easily big enough to have snapped up into the boat and anyone’s trailing arms or people leaning out to take pictures.
We have a night-walk later on and manage to set a record of six Red-eyed Treefrogs in one walk, including possibly the largest one yet seen.
DAY 46
Feb 23rd 2010
This morning finds me out on the beach looking for tracks in the sand. Thankfully it’s stopped raining so we can find some good tracks. The most exciting is the proliferation of crocodile tracks on the beach. There are several possible nests as well and there is even a spot where the croc has pressed it's body so far into the sand that it has left an imprint of it's scales. Very cool.
We have a meeting after lunch to discuss the second half of our internship. I can’t believe we are coming up to 10 weeks already! Sara tells us about our trip to Nicaragua to take Spanish schooling for two weeks. The school and the area sounds really nice and apparently the other interns had a blast when they did it a couple of months ago. We will also be learning a bit more about our options for a work placement elsewhere in Costa Rica when Dave returns from San Jose very soon. Sara quizzes us about what sort of things we would like to be doing. I’m not certain yet. I think Tortuguero still has plenty to offer, particularly increased numbers of turtles in the next few months, and of course I haven’t seen a Jaguar yet!! But I also want to broaden my horizons too. I really just want to know what is going to be available before I make my choice.
This afternoon we start our self-prepared surveys for out BTEC course and Andrew leads us on a butterfly survey, which is rudely interrupted at one point by the bloody cows. There appear to be some bulls amongst them now, which I had never noticed before. I wish the Jags would hurry up and get some more of them. Incidentally, we put up a Jag-cam by the dead cow last week and the next day, what was left of the cow was gone and there were some pictures on the camera.
Our night walk tonight is very productive with a new species of frog (Red-webbed Treefrog), snake (Ringed Snaileater) and lizard (some kind of skink) being recorded and a record number of Red-eyes and Eyelashers seen with 7 apiece.
DAY 47
Feb 24th 2010
I am up for the bird survey this morning, but this time I’m on the boat-team. This involves dropping off the team with the canoe from the motorboat and waiting for them to return so we can transport them and the canoe back. It means a few hours sat out at the edge of a canal keeping whichever staff member is driving the boat (in this case, Rich) company and being the second person should there be an incident that befalls said staff member. I quite like actually. It’s peaceful as ever out on the canal first thing in the morning and we see some parrots and waterbirds whilst we wait. We even hear a Great Green Macaw somewhere in the distance. I get to have a good chat with Rich and we end up playing Scrabble on his Iphone. He gets off to a great start by using all his tiles on his second turn which nets him a 50 point bonus. I don’t give up though and manage to hold my own. The battery runs out unfortunately, but we do finish the game later on at base and despite battling valiantly I can’t make back that points difference.
After we return we find out that there is a small Boa Constrictor on a branch above the trail we’ve just walked from the estuary to base! Andrew, Rich and myself head down there to take a look and sure enough there he is stretched out on a branch at about head-height basking in the sun and looking as though he is digesting a meal of some kind. The icing on the cake is when a long Brown Vine Snake also slithers through the branches past the Boa whilst we are watching.
Boa
Vine Snake
I haven’t seen a vine snake yet so that’s pretty exciting.
We have another long weekend coming up and I have planned a trip with Andrew, Kyle and James to a wetland Wildlife Refuge named Cano Negro. During this time of the year large quantities of resident and migrant waterfowl gather here in apparently spectacular numbers and the birdwatching is world class by all accounts. We discuss with Sara who is happy to ring and arrange some accommodation for us. Should be good.
It's really hot in the afternoon, but thankfully after it cools off a bit towards 15:00 I get to lead my BTEC survey looking at Eyelash Vipers. It all goes smoothly and I’m pleased with my efforts. The Boa is still there when we walk past.
We finish off the day with a trip to a local bar who kindly arrange some boat transport for us. It’s fun to get off base and unwind with a couple of beers and get bombarded by some really loud Bob Marley and Latin America music pumping out of a pretty decent sound system. The bar has opened specifically for us but I think we drink enough beer to have made it worth their while and all the guys running the place are friendly enough.
DAY 48
Feb 25th 2010
It’s our day off today and Sam, Andrew and myself are planning an early start to go and head off deep into the jungle looking for hard-to-find wildlife. Unfortunately, as I’m getting up at 5:30 in the dawn half-light, the sky to the south is being periodically illuminated by flashes of lightning followed by ominous rumbles of thunder. The time between the lightning and thunder indicates that the storm is some distance away but it wouldn’t be particularly wise to go wandering if it’s heading our way. I go out and sit on the beach for a little while around 7:30 and the atmosphere is incredible. The sea is usually really rough (I think it's a shallow beach and the force of the ocean makes the waves break early and with a lot of force) but now is eerily calm beyond the breaking waves and a deep green colour.
Pelicans glide soundlessly low across the surface of the sea, skilfully maintaining formation and avoiding the breaking waves with an aerial agility that belies their cumbersome-looking shape. The clouds are forming a dark front to the north and there are several pterosaur-like Frigatebirds gliding high along the dark edge of the front almost like they are harbingers of the oncoming storm. Even as I watch one in the binoculars the grey clouds swallow it up. I can see that visibility to the north is getting less all the time which means that the rain is on it’s way. There is still the odd rumble of thunder and flash of lightning out to sea and I can guess that any moment now it’s going to hit. The wind picks up sharply and sets the coconut trees swaying behind me, yet I can’t bring myself to leave until the first few spots of rain start to patter onto the dry sand. I hurry back to base, which is quiet as a lot of people have gone to Tortuguero for the day, just as the rain and wind intensifies. I do not envy the people on the boat.
The heavy rain persists for much of the morning and I end up playing several games of Scrabble with the newer volunteers Jess, Kyle and James, as well as a one on one rematch with Rich, which goes pretty well until he drops the bomb of Zebras on a triple word score near the end. Game over. We also have a bit of entertainment by looking up the dictionary definitions of dork (stupid, useless person), nerd (socially inept person) and geek (single minded knowledge of a particular subject – or something like that..).
The rain eases off later on and everyone arrives back from Tortuguero in one piece – they had to shelter for a little while at the nearby Ranger Station for about half an hour to avoid the worse of the storm, but otherwise all ok.
I head out to the beach again just before dark and again there is quite an atmosphere. The rain has stopped but there is still a strong onshore wind that feels incredible after the usual humidity of the evenings here. It’s almost cleansing. We actually get to sit outside (on some nice new plastic chairs brought in today) this evening for a change. The wind keeps the temperature perfectly cool and as a bonus keeps the mosquitoes away. Perfect.
DAY 49
Feb 26th 2010
It rains a lot during the night. I’m supposed to be up at 4:00am for a bird survey, but I am awakened by someone knocking on the door at 4:42am. We are due to leave at 4:45am. Luckily, I packed the night before so I hurry out of bed faster than I have ever got out of bed before and grab some snack bars (purchased by Charissa for me from Tort yesterday) and I’m good to go. It turns out that I’m not the only one that had to be woken up either, and I find out that though I clearly remember setting my alarm last night it was for 4:00pm not 4:00am. I feel like such a dork (stupid, useless person)!
It’s drizzling as we do the usual trip to pick up our canoe from the ranger station and the rain develops as we start our survey. It’s still fun even though it’s a bit of a battle to keep your binoculars free from water. But unfortunately, all the rainwater has created quite a strong current in the canal and we simply cannot paddle the canoe against it so we have to abandon the survey and instead explore a few small side canals. We don’t really see anything new, which is a shame, but at least we got to get out.
The afternoon is sketchy. At lunchtime it brightens up and gets quite nice. I am roped into doing a video diary interview by Helen, which no doubt will be going up in the GVI website some time in the future for everyone to laugh at. I think I was pretty good though!
It then gets a bit overcast and drizzly again. We head out in the afternoon to explore a potential new trail which turns out to be too waterlogged to get any distance so we end up heading into the forest for a walk and see a few birds and Eyelash Vipers and a Two-toed Sloth sleeping high up in the crook of a branch.
Night walk is exciting. I’m not there but apparently they chose to walk the beach back to camp and came across some Leatherback Turtle tracks. These guys are the largest turtles in the world and come ashore to nest in small numbers in Tortuguero around this time. The tracks are really fresh and they possibly missed the turtle by minutes. There are also fresh Jaguar tracks over the top of the turtle tracks indicating that they missed it by even less than the turtle!!! Exciting, but frustrating for them.
DAY 50
Feb 27th 2010
Wow. Nearly two months already.
Camp duty today which is never good, especially when you have to get up at 4:00am to make breakfast for the bird survey team and then wait at least another hour for everyone else to start getting up! Then to top it all off the bird survey team comes back having seen a really rare Sunbittern and a nest of Boat-billed Herons (everyone’s favourite freaky looking bird) with downy chicks. Sigh…
I do get the chance to wander around base looking at the birds. It seems to be quite an active time at the moment. It’s migration season so we are seeing a few new species turning up on the coast, presumably on their way back to North America for the Spring. The resident species all seem to be nesting as evidenced by the Bananaquit building a second nest, Boat-bills on the canals and a new Hummingbird (species to be determined) nest discovered in the garden by James. Many birds can be seen gathering nesting materials (as fellow intern Lydia put it recently, “Every bird at the moment’s got crap hanging out of it's mouth”. Succinct.), in particular, large numbers of the bold and noisy Montezuma Oropendola are plundering the coconut trees for bits of fronds that they carry off to an unknown nesting site.
I also manage to head out early evening just before the sun goes down to see the Leatherback tracks. It looks as though someone has driven a tractor in a U-turn up the beach. It’s a very impressive sight and I can’t help but get some photos taken with it just for the size comparison.
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