22nd August 2010
Routine day today with a nest check in the morning and a turtle walk in the evening.
23rd August 2010
Sleeping in and duty staff day means I am on base most of the day except to oversee a Forest Nightwalk that one of our interns is leading. Sadly, there is not a huge amount about tonight apart from a notably large tarantula.
24th August 2010
A bit more interesting today as I am leading the Mammal Transect Survey. I always like being up in the forest here and though today we do not see a large amount of stuff, there are plenty of tracks (Tapir, Peccary, Jaguar, Deer) and at one point whilst I am showing the team a trail from a peccary herd come across a good-sized Fer-de-lance coiled up on the other side of a log, which I happen to be standing next to. True to form it doesn't move and remains coiled whilst we take some pictures. Such a beautiful snake.
I'm overseeing a nightwalk tonight that my Canadian friend Sonja is leading. She does a really good job and is rewarded with a very productive nightwalk full of frogs and snakes. We see two species of parrotsnake draped in the trees above us. They are one of my favourite types of snake and I haven't seen one in ages.
25th August 2010
The five week volunteers head off on their long weekend this week to go rafting.
We have a visit today from people from the MINAE Head Office. These are the guys that run the National Parks. It is an interesting meeting which I am not completely involved with but it turns out that they have not been receiving our reports and don't have much idea of what we are actually doing here! Luckily, I am able to produce pictures of some rare birds (Agami Heron and Black Skimmer) and a species list. This seems to impress them and with Andres explaining how we do things in his native Spanish, the meeting is pretty successful. They actually want me to write a report for the Incidentals Sightings Project. It feels great to actually have my work recognised outside of GVI and I am going to produce something awesome for MINAE! I actually relish the thought of putting everything together in a report. Bring it on!
My main activity today is to go with Sonja along the back edge of the field behind us where I went with Andres the other night. I need to see some species for my challenge as at last count I was some 6 behind. Since then I have had some degree of luck but I don't want to get complacent. Sure enough before long we have seen a Taylor's Leopard Frog and a couple of the biggest Smokey Jungle Frogs I have ever seen. Then something really cool happens. The weird call of the Great Potoo echoes across the field behind us. I frantically start looking around and the headtorch catches some eyeshine up on top of one of the trees. Wasting no time Sonja and myself hustle over to the tree and sure enough up on a dead branch near the top of the tree sits the bird. Its cryptically coloured like a dead branch and has a huge wide mouth and massive eyes. I'm amazed to finally see one of these things as I have heard them before and seen pictures, but nothing prepares you for the sheer size of the bird. It's the size of a good-sized owl! And those eyes. When they reflect the torchlight they look like spotlights. They are massive and glow a deep purple-red. I've never seen eyeshine like it! It is looking in different directions for prey to fly past and when it fixes its glare on us with both of those big glowing eyes it looks like some kind of supernatural creature! This feelings is further enhanced by the call it makes - a kind of low, drawn out moan. It also makes a completely different sound, like a kind of whoop, that sounds like the sort of noise Andres would make when messing about. I can't stop babbling about how cool this is and the whole affair is made perfect by the sight of the full moon emerging from the clouds behind where the Potoo is sat. Amazing! The rest of the night can't really match that although I do unwittingly see a new type of lizard, a Neotropical Chameleon. It is sleeping in a tree and I take some pictures thinking it must be some kind of pale basilisk lizard or something. Andres helps me identify it later and it turns out that he has only seen this species in captivity. This area is a gold-mine for species at the moment.
26th August 2010
Andres captures a really cool Oriole Snake today on our way down to the boat. It must be around the 2 metres mark and its a beauty. Sadly, because the boat is waiting we don't really have too much time to spend with it. Good pics though.
Spend the day in Tort today and have a nice meal of Caribbean style Rice and Beans in Coconut Milk with my buddy Marcus. Then its internet time. My nephew Callum finds me online again and contacts me. I wasn't planning to call home today but its good to speak to him and we even play a couple of games over Skype. I also answer a big list of questions that me friends have asked about when they come to stay. Also start booking some accommodation for my Panama trip. Exciting!
27th August 2010
It's a quiet but busy day for me today. Lots of computer work trying to sort out the rota for the rest of phase and catching up on some data that I lost whilst 'tidying' up one of the memory sticks, in preparation for my MINAE report. Good start!
Guys come back from rafting today and have had a great time. Alex and the rafting crew never fail to deliver!
28th August 2010
Andres and I have an update of our Spotting Contest Scores. It turns out that I am in the lead by one! Shocking! I manage to further increase that lead by another one with a very cool Giant Parrotsnake during my incidentals walk. It lies draped across a trailside branch posing nicely for some pictures and displaying its full metre plus length.
In the afternoon myself and Marta are setting up some of our new cams on the boundary trails which are less travelled by people and normally covered in fresh animal tracks. We are also marking the tracks on the GPS with the potential of linking the two into a circuit so that we can run another (closer) mammal transect survey. This would be a lot of fun as these trails are a completely different atmosphere and sub-habitat of the forest to both the North Coastal Trail and the current Mammal Transect. Our mission is a success and we now have some cool GPS tracks which are some distance apart but with a bit of work and some permission from MINAE we have another route soon. The cams are also set-up so hopefully we may have some mammal pics. I'm hoping for a Tapir!!!!!
29th August 2010
Busy day today trying to collect and mark people's BTEC work and also preparing stuff for next phase. I also have to go out in the afternoon to repair some fallen mile markers on the beach that the nesting turtles have knocked down. Damn vandal turtles....
30th August 2010
My bird survey today and for the first time ever I get to survey Cano Sirena. Sirena has a mixed reputation. People tend to like the atmosphere along it as it is heavily forested with some really big trees, but on the down side, you don't see may birds along it. This is not strictly speaking true as there are plenty of birds along there as it is good forest habitat but there are not many of the birds (herons, kingfishers etc) that we actually are surveying for. Still Andres has seen some rare Hawks down here, so you just never know what you are going to see. I'm excited.
The current is quite strong today and I need another volunteer to help me paddle or else I just end up veering from side to side. Sirena is a very nice place without doubt though it proves frustrating as there are birds around here – I can hear them. Hummingbirds are squeaking away in the undergrowth without revealing themselves. A pair of brown woodpeckers flash overhead – they are almost certainly the Chestnut-coloured Woodpeckers, which are new for me, but I just can't see them clearly. Their call is very distinctive though. Its different to the similar Cinnamon Woodpecker which is loud and raucous. A Hawk circles overhead that I just can't identify even from photos taken. Still we do see a few things and everyone enjoys themselves.
Back on base just before brief there is a moment of excitement just outside the gate where a Parrotsnake has caught one of the big Smilisca treefrogs. Again. It's a bit of deja vu for me as they are exactly the same species that I saw last time. This time the snake is considerably smaller and has the head of the frog in its mouth. Apparently, according to Suzie who discovered them, they both fell out of a tree and are now struggling on the ground. The frog is inflating its body again and pushing against the snake with its front feet (hands). As the snake struggles for position you can actually see its rear fangs digging into the poor unfortunate amphibian. Now whether its because a crowd is gathering and the snake feels vulnerable out in the open or whether its because the frog suddenly unleashes a mighty jump with its back legs that sends them both flying backwards, but the snake lets go and retreats into a nearby hedge. The frog lays there bleeding and battered. Taking pity on it, I scoop it up and place it gently on a leaf in the shade of the hedge, where it eventually recovers and hops away. Snake vs Frog 2 – Frog survives!
I spend the afternoon helping people to identify birds species for their BTEC Course.
31st August 2010
We check our forest-cams today. No tapir sadly. But we do get Opossum and Agouti on one of them. That's a good start.
1st September 2010
Duty staff day means looking after camp and doing some more computer work. I'm also busying trying to make sure everyone's BTEC work is done.
2nd September 2010
Day off today, which I spend doing computer work. Most people have gone to Tortuguero.
Then its on to my turtle walk tonight. Thankfully, this time I have the early shift. It is me and my two friends from Canadia, Deanna and Sonja. They are both in high spirits tonight and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun. Within 15 minutes of us leaving, I spot some very interesting tracks and sure enough following them up the beach we come upon a Hawksbill. It has not begun to nest yet and is still on its way up to the vegetation line. This is exciting as we have only managed to work two Hawksbills fully (marking the nests and counting the eggs, rather than just tagging and measuring). We decide that we simply have to wait and get this turtle. So we find a comfortable log and sit there whilst I make periodic checks to see what stage she is at. First of all the first nest site she selects proves unsuitable for some reason so she decides to move further in under the tree line. She then starts digging her nest chamber. Excellent! We are busying playing the 'name countries beginning with a certain letter' game. Did you know that there are not many beginning with 'D'? Denmark, Djibouti.... Anyway back to the turtle. I have been watching her dig a nest chamber for some time now. She is a beautiful creature and I can clearly see her distinctive beaked mouth and the ridged edge to her shell. She reaches the stage where she stops digging and manoeuvres herself into laying position. Sonja is ready with the gloves and egg counter and belly crawls under the trees into position and the turtle begins to lay her eggs. Awesome! She lays five eggs(!) and then inexplicably starts to leave. We can't believe it! I've never heard of a turtle begin to lay her eggs and then leave – they normally go into a trance-like state when laying and nothing can budge them – and we've been pretty quiet. We back away as she emerges from her body pit and she circles around us and back towards the vegetation line again. Could she be going somewhere else for another go? We stand stock still and let her go past us and then head back to our log. Then a few minutes later she crawls back past us and heads back to the sea. We are highly disappointed to say the least. I have been denied my Hawksbill nest. The whole process took nearly 2 hours as well.
Not to be deterred we still manage to go and find a couple of common Green Turtles to tag and work, so the shift is not completely wasted by any means. We did get a really good look at the Hawksbill as well, which is not always possible.
Routine day today with a nest check in the morning and a turtle walk in the evening.
23rd August 2010
Sleeping in and duty staff day means I am on base most of the day except to oversee a Forest Nightwalk that one of our interns is leading. Sadly, there is not a huge amount about tonight apart from a notably large tarantula.
24th August 2010
A bit more interesting today as I am leading the Mammal Transect Survey. I always like being up in the forest here and though today we do not see a large amount of stuff, there are plenty of tracks (Tapir, Peccary, Jaguar, Deer) and at one point whilst I am showing the team a trail from a peccary herd come across a good-sized Fer-de-lance coiled up on the other side of a log, which I happen to be standing next to. True to form it doesn't move and remains coiled whilst we take some pictures. Such a beautiful snake.
I'm overseeing a nightwalk tonight that my Canadian friend Sonja is leading. She does a really good job and is rewarded with a very productive nightwalk full of frogs and snakes. We see two species of parrotsnake draped in the trees above us. They are one of my favourite types of snake and I haven't seen one in ages.
25th August 2010
The five week volunteers head off on their long weekend this week to go rafting.
We have a visit today from people from the MINAE Head Office. These are the guys that run the National Parks. It is an interesting meeting which I am not completely involved with but it turns out that they have not been receiving our reports and don't have much idea of what we are actually doing here! Luckily, I am able to produce pictures of some rare birds (Agami Heron and Black Skimmer) and a species list. This seems to impress them and with Andres explaining how we do things in his native Spanish, the meeting is pretty successful. They actually want me to write a report for the Incidentals Sightings Project. It feels great to actually have my work recognised outside of GVI and I am going to produce something awesome for MINAE! I actually relish the thought of putting everything together in a report. Bring it on!
My main activity today is to go with Sonja along the back edge of the field behind us where I went with Andres the other night. I need to see some species for my challenge as at last count I was some 6 behind. Since then I have had some degree of luck but I don't want to get complacent. Sure enough before long we have seen a Taylor's Leopard Frog and a couple of the biggest Smokey Jungle Frogs I have ever seen. Then something really cool happens. The weird call of the Great Potoo echoes across the field behind us. I frantically start looking around and the headtorch catches some eyeshine up on top of one of the trees. Wasting no time Sonja and myself hustle over to the tree and sure enough up on a dead branch near the top of the tree sits the bird. Its cryptically coloured like a dead branch and has a huge wide mouth and massive eyes. I'm amazed to finally see one of these things as I have heard them before and seen pictures, but nothing prepares you for the sheer size of the bird. It's the size of a good-sized owl! And those eyes. When they reflect the torchlight they look like spotlights. They are massive and glow a deep purple-red. I've never seen eyeshine like it! It is looking in different directions for prey to fly past and when it fixes its glare on us with both of those big glowing eyes it looks like some kind of supernatural creature! This feelings is further enhanced by the call it makes - a kind of low, drawn out moan. It also makes a completely different sound, like a kind of whoop, that sounds like the sort of noise Andres would make when messing about. I can't stop babbling about how cool this is and the whole affair is made perfect by the sight of the full moon emerging from the clouds behind where the Potoo is sat. Amazing! The rest of the night can't really match that although I do unwittingly see a new type of lizard, a Neotropical Chameleon. It is sleeping in a tree and I take some pictures thinking it must be some kind of pale basilisk lizard or something. Andres helps me identify it later and it turns out that he has only seen this species in captivity. This area is a gold-mine for species at the moment.
26th August 2010
Andres captures a really cool Oriole Snake today on our way down to the boat. It must be around the 2 metres mark and its a beauty. Sadly, because the boat is waiting we don't really have too much time to spend with it. Good pics though.
Spend the day in Tort today and have a nice meal of Caribbean style Rice and Beans in Coconut Milk with my buddy Marcus. Then its internet time. My nephew Callum finds me online again and contacts me. I wasn't planning to call home today but its good to speak to him and we even play a couple of games over Skype. I also answer a big list of questions that me friends have asked about when they come to stay. Also start booking some accommodation for my Panama trip. Exciting!
27th August 2010
It's a quiet but busy day for me today. Lots of computer work trying to sort out the rota for the rest of phase and catching up on some data that I lost whilst 'tidying' up one of the memory sticks, in preparation for my MINAE report. Good start!
Guys come back from rafting today and have had a great time. Alex and the rafting crew never fail to deliver!
28th August 2010
Andres and I have an update of our Spotting Contest Scores. It turns out that I am in the lead by one! Shocking! I manage to further increase that lead by another one with a very cool Giant Parrotsnake during my incidentals walk. It lies draped across a trailside branch posing nicely for some pictures and displaying its full metre plus length.
In the afternoon myself and Marta are setting up some of our new cams on the boundary trails which are less travelled by people and normally covered in fresh animal tracks. We are also marking the tracks on the GPS with the potential of linking the two into a circuit so that we can run another (closer) mammal transect survey. This would be a lot of fun as these trails are a completely different atmosphere and sub-habitat of the forest to both the North Coastal Trail and the current Mammal Transect. Our mission is a success and we now have some cool GPS tracks which are some distance apart but with a bit of work and some permission from MINAE we have another route soon. The cams are also set-up so hopefully we may have some mammal pics. I'm hoping for a Tapir!!!!!
29th August 2010
Busy day today trying to collect and mark people's BTEC work and also preparing stuff for next phase. I also have to go out in the afternoon to repair some fallen mile markers on the beach that the nesting turtles have knocked down. Damn vandal turtles....
30th August 2010
My bird survey today and for the first time ever I get to survey Cano Sirena. Sirena has a mixed reputation. People tend to like the atmosphere along it as it is heavily forested with some really big trees, but on the down side, you don't see may birds along it. This is not strictly speaking true as there are plenty of birds along there as it is good forest habitat but there are not many of the birds (herons, kingfishers etc) that we actually are surveying for. Still Andres has seen some rare Hawks down here, so you just never know what you are going to see. I'm excited.
The current is quite strong today and I need another volunteer to help me paddle or else I just end up veering from side to side. Sirena is a very nice place without doubt though it proves frustrating as there are birds around here – I can hear them. Hummingbirds are squeaking away in the undergrowth without revealing themselves. A pair of brown woodpeckers flash overhead – they are almost certainly the Chestnut-coloured Woodpeckers, which are new for me, but I just can't see them clearly. Their call is very distinctive though. Its different to the similar Cinnamon Woodpecker which is loud and raucous. A Hawk circles overhead that I just can't identify even from photos taken. Still we do see a few things and everyone enjoys themselves.
Back on base just before brief there is a moment of excitement just outside the gate where a Parrotsnake has caught one of the big Smilisca treefrogs. Again. It's a bit of deja vu for me as they are exactly the same species that I saw last time. This time the snake is considerably smaller and has the head of the frog in its mouth. Apparently, according to Suzie who discovered them, they both fell out of a tree and are now struggling on the ground. The frog is inflating its body again and pushing against the snake with its front feet (hands). As the snake struggles for position you can actually see its rear fangs digging into the poor unfortunate amphibian. Now whether its because a crowd is gathering and the snake feels vulnerable out in the open or whether its because the frog suddenly unleashes a mighty jump with its back legs that sends them both flying backwards, but the snake lets go and retreats into a nearby hedge. The frog lays there bleeding and battered. Taking pity on it, I scoop it up and place it gently on a leaf in the shade of the hedge, where it eventually recovers and hops away. Snake vs Frog 2 – Frog survives!
I spend the afternoon helping people to identify birds species for their BTEC Course.
31st August 2010
We check our forest-cams today. No tapir sadly. But we do get Opossum and Agouti on one of them. That's a good start.
1st September 2010
Duty staff day means looking after camp and doing some more computer work. I'm also busying trying to make sure everyone's BTEC work is done.
2nd September 2010
Day off today, which I spend doing computer work. Most people have gone to Tortuguero.
Then its on to my turtle walk tonight. Thankfully, this time I have the early shift. It is me and my two friends from Canadia, Deanna and Sonja. They are both in high spirits tonight and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun. Within 15 minutes of us leaving, I spot some very interesting tracks and sure enough following them up the beach we come upon a Hawksbill. It has not begun to nest yet and is still on its way up to the vegetation line. This is exciting as we have only managed to work two Hawksbills fully (marking the nests and counting the eggs, rather than just tagging and measuring). We decide that we simply have to wait and get this turtle. So we find a comfortable log and sit there whilst I make periodic checks to see what stage she is at. First of all the first nest site she selects proves unsuitable for some reason so she decides to move further in under the tree line. She then starts digging her nest chamber. Excellent! We are busying playing the 'name countries beginning with a certain letter' game. Did you know that there are not many beginning with 'D'? Denmark, Djibouti.... Anyway back to the turtle. I have been watching her dig a nest chamber for some time now. She is a beautiful creature and I can clearly see her distinctive beaked mouth and the ridged edge to her shell. She reaches the stage where she stops digging and manoeuvres herself into laying position. Sonja is ready with the gloves and egg counter and belly crawls under the trees into position and the turtle begins to lay her eggs. Awesome! She lays five eggs(!) and then inexplicably starts to leave. We can't believe it! I've never heard of a turtle begin to lay her eggs and then leave – they normally go into a trance-like state when laying and nothing can budge them – and we've been pretty quiet. We back away as she emerges from her body pit and she circles around us and back towards the vegetation line again. Could she be going somewhere else for another go? We stand stock still and let her go past us and then head back to our log. Then a few minutes later she crawls back past us and heads back to the sea. We are highly disappointed to say the least. I have been denied my Hawksbill nest. The whole process took nearly 2 hours as well.
Not to be deterred we still manage to go and find a couple of common Green Turtles to tag and work, so the shift is not completely wasted by any means. We did get a really good look at the Hawksbill as well, which is not always possible.
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