Part 1: Arrival; Playing catch up at Bosque del Tolomuco

The idea of this mini series is to attempt as close to real time updates as possible while at Bosque del Tolomuco. Unfortunately, I arrived yesterday, but only I thought of this idea while out hiking today. So, here's what you missed on an exciting day one:

The bus from San Jose to the entrance took only about 2 1/2 hours. I was dropped off at the sign and proceeded to make my way up the steep hillside:

I immediately noticed that there was a hummingbird species in the garden that I had never seen

White-throated Mountain-gem

White-throated Mountain-gem

I made my way up to the reception area and met the owner, husband and wife, Lise and Rolf. Never have I been treated to better hospitality than what I am receiving from these two; they're simply amazing.

I noticed a few hummingbird feeders and  fruit feeders baited with bananas. Here were some of the visitors:

 Banana-stealing squirrel

An odd assemblage at the feeders
Golden-hooded Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Rufous-collared Sparrow

Rufous-collared Sparrow mania in this place

Take a guess at the identification of this bird...

The front yard

Now help with the identification of this little guy.
I'm thinking Paultry Tyranulet

Now help with the identification of this little guy.
I'm thinking Paultry or Rough-legged Tyranulet

I've seen more Silver-throated Tanagers this March than
in all of my previous time in Costa Rica combined.

Female hummingbird, anyone want to take a guess at the species?

Costa Rica's national bird: Clay-colored Robin

LISTEN UP! Clay-colored Thrush singing as the clouds move through the forest

Slate-throated Redstart

After some shooting around the clearing, I decided to check out the trail system. It was already around 4pm and with the cloud cover it was already getting dark. I decided to go fast just to get a feel for the trails before I went out at night.

Not five minutes into the hike, this beauty makes an appearance:

Black milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae) in-situ on the trail

First of two found

Black milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae)
Close up of head

Some video, don't laugh, I was super excited to find this snake...

Black milk snake

Part 1 of 2:

Part 2 of 2:


On the way back to my room I came across this big fellow

Tarantula

That spider is lucky that he didn't come across this lady. Wasps in genus Pepsis are large, shiny, and specialized tarantula hunters. They first sting the spider, which paralyzes it, then bury it in a burrow and lay their eggs on the spider's abdomen. Once the wasp larvae hatch, they consume the paralyzed tarantula alive.

Pepsis wasp digging a burrow

Large Pepsis wasp

This spider wasn't so lucky. Pardon the talking, a couple that was also hiking walked up as I was filming.




I ended the night with a three hour night walk through the forest, going down the Pizote trail and spending some time in the clearing. Here are a couple of pocket camera snapshots during the walk.

This forest is full of fuzzy white caterpillars,
watch  where you put your hands

Sleeping migrant

Terrarana in a bag, real photos to come.
 Red eyes are always cool on a frog.

Shawn, Orthopteran? ;-)

That about does it for yesterday.  The specimens collected last night were photographed today, so the real photos of them will have to wait until that post. I hope everyone enjoyed!

Feel free to ask questions or start a discussion, let's make this interactive!

Pura Vida,

-Don

Birds off of the top of my head:

Barred parakeet

Sulphur-winged parakeet

Black Guan

Pigeon- Scaled or Band-tailed, it was SUPER far away

Bare-shanked Screech Owl

Green-crowned Brilliant

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

White-throated Mountain-gem

Emerald Toucanet (heard)

Rough-legged Tyranulet ?

Tufted Flycatcher

House Wren

Black-faced Solitare (heard)

Clay-colored Thrush

Slate-throated Redstart

Golden-hooded Tanager

Silver-throated Tanager

Blue-gray Tanager

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Buff-throated Saltator

Baltimore Oriole

Herps:

Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae

Geophis downsi

Norops woodi
Norops sp.

Diasporus 

Assorted terrarana

A few days at Bosque del Tolomuco, real time (almost)!

Hey everyone, I had an idea today... Does anyone want to spend the next two days exploring Bosque del Tolomuco with me? If so, you have two options: pull out your credit card, book the next direct flight to Costa Rica, get a car, bus, or helicopter and head down to the Talamanca mountains. The other option to do it digitally and follow this sort of mini-series of blog posts. There's a "follow" button somewhere on the top of the page.

I'm always trying to think of new ways to display my photographs and tell the stories of the things I've seen in the rainforest. While down the trail this morning I had an idea: why not take advantage of the fact that I have internet this time around and keep a running blog of real time field updates. The idea is to update the blog with photos and videos with short narration two or three times a day, ideally after meal times. Basically, you can take walks through the Pacific highland rainforest, searching for its inhabitants and soaking up the scenery all from the comfort (or confinement) or your home or office. Nothing formal, no academic entries, just sharing the experience with photos and video.

The focus of the blogs will be the experience of being here. As many of you know, I have a slight inclination towards amphibians and reptiles, but I think you will find these entries well balanced with general natural history. Some ideas I have are to post photos and videos of the animals, the trail and scenery, and some of the tropical fauna that I come across. As I'm a day late, I am including encounters from yesterday as well, such as a Pepsis tarantula-hawk wasp carrying its paralyzed arachnid prey away and the finding of two adult Black milk snakes. For you bird lovers out there, I will try to keep a running list of what is seen or heard, though it will be a casual list, nothing exhaustive. I am also including short video clips to share some of the bird calls and songs that I have been hearing on the trails; I could really use some help with some of the identifications of these calls too!

What do you all think? Countless times people have said how they need to live vicariously through me while they finish their essay, work shift, dissertation. Well, here's your chance. “Follow” this non-monetary blog to keep up to date with what's moving in the highlands of Costa Rica's Talamanca cloudforest- ~1800 meters above sea level.  

If I know you're continually reading along I'll try to give you a "shout out" and focus at least part of the day on something particular that you like (I know Daniel likes spiders, Mo and Atilla like vipers, and a whole slew of you like birds). I'll also take requests for photos or videos of something specific if at all possible (I know there'll be at least one funny guy who asks for a bushmaster :-)

Photos with Nikon D7000 and Olympus Tough

Videos with Olympus Tough and iPhone 4

I am open for all discussion, questions, and suggestions!

Pura Vida

-Don

Beauty from Death

Dominical, Pacific coast of Costa Rica
30 January 2013

110ft up in the crown of a Camaron tree

After a morning spent climbing in the rainforest canopy I decide to take it easy for the rest of the day. At around 4:30pm I start to make my way to the beach via an old dirt road/trail. This should give me plenty of time to enjoy the hike to the coastline and still be able to walk up the beach for a ways while the lighting is good. On my trek through the forest I encountered all of the usual suspect for this area of the country: Black Spiny-tailed Iguanas, Great Kiskadee flycatchers, a troop of White-faced Capuchin monkeys that are smashing their way through some fruit trees, and I am even treated to one the forest's more elusive denizens- a jungle cat.

Black-hooded Antshrike (Thamnophilus bridgesi)
A male eating a katydid in the forest's understory.

Black-hooded Antshrike (Thamnophilus bridgesi)
While not shown in this picture, the female was near by.

Black Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura similis)
A miniature dragon if I've ever seen one.

Cherrie's Tanager (Ramphocelus costaricensis), female

The jaguarundi, also called a weasel-cat due to its long body and low stance, makes a dash across the dirt road about 50 meters ahead of me. I raise my camera for a photograph only to realize my folly too late. I had left my camera in mirror lock-up mode which basically meant that two presses on the shutter button are required to take a photo. It takes me only a second and a half to remember about this and press the shutter button the second time. Unfortunately, that second and a half was all the cat needed to cross the road. The blurry photograph that resulted shows nothing more than a black tail and hind leg poking out from the heliconias that line the road.

A couple of Gray-necked Woodrails (Aramides cajaneus) could be seen
skulking in the stream beds.

Brown Basilisk (Basiliscus basiliscus)

White-faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus)
A mother and her baby

The smash and grab on the fruit tree

NOM NOM NOM

Their facial expressions are priceless!

Shocked!

The troop's lookout was keeping an eye on the the Black Hawks that were
 following the monkeys. And perhaps making sure that I didn't come too close either.

Full of fruits, sun setting, time for sleep.

The beach is relatively clean and devoid of sea shells, though it is littered with drift wood ranging from piles of splinters to pieces easily larger than my truck. Both hermit crabs and more traditional crabs scurry out of my way as I march northward in the sand. It's amazing how well these crabs' coloration matched the sand. I watch a White-necked Puffbird sally back and forth from its snag a few times.

In the distance I see a gathering of large dark birds at the shore line. Even at such a distance, their shape is unmistakable, Black Vultures. Time to go see what putrid carcass they've hauled up this time.





As I near, I realize what it is, an adult sea turtle. With the sun quickly setting and the tide coming in I have little time to work; the bravest of the waves are already coming up past the turtle carcass. I decide on a wide angle approach to try and capture some of the beach's beauty in hopes of offsetting the heartbreaking scene in front of me. I whip out the 10-24mm lens, a couple of flashes and get close and low.

I shoot until the tide line has reached me. Covered in sand and turtle water I call it quits. A couple of sunset shots and a beer finish off this coastal excursion; I head back to base.

Now, of course I would have much preferred to see this gorgeous creature alive and well, photos or not, but you know what they say about life giving out free lemons... Make margaritas.

Pura Vida,

-Don
www.RainforestDon.com
AsydaBass@yahoo.com



The setup:

Here We Go Again

   “Well ladies and gentlemen, we’re next for takeoff. I’d like to ask the flight attendants to please take their seats.” So here we go again… Coffee in the lobby with Dad before the flight, an overly thorough inspection of my bags at security (they act like they’ve never seen 600ft of rope and a bag full of metal ascenders and carabiners before), a cramped economy seat on a Spirit Airlines flight and I’m off. It’s business as usual. The takeoff is windy, pushing the plane left and right as we accelerate. It takes a second for the inertia of the plane to catch up to my body as I feel like my head is being smushed down into my neck. We take off east- I-95, the Intracoastal Waterway, and finally the coast gives way to the Atlantic Ocean. I close my eyes a second before we bank right- it’s time to head south. I know this route well. 

My first night in Alajuela was great. I made a friend on the way over here, spent the afternoon shopping and showing her around San Jose, and honestly, smiling all day- it just feels so good to be back! I'm off to meet the Forman team at the airport. We're going to drive up to the Poas Volcano and then spend the night in the Sarapiqui region. First thing tomorrow morning- we're off to Plastico and Rara Avis! Will update in two weeks when I return to San Jose. Then it's off to the Osa to meet up with the group from FIU.

PURA VIDA!

-Don

Costa Rica Bird Post

Slaty-tailed Trogon. Seconds after this picture was taken
the bird swooped down to a lower branch, where it
quickly grabbed a large green caterpillar. Moments later
I was covered in gooey caterpillar guts that went flying
as the bird bit down.

     I decided to devote a post to my experiences with the birds down here. Most of these pictures are pretty bad quality, as most of them were taken while working with the birds, so getting off a clean, well lit shot was not first priority. I'll keep narration to a minimum.

Here they are!


Some bird banding in the Tortuguero area. Cano Palma Biological Station, 8km North of Tortuguero. Owned by COTERC (Based in Canada).

The first surprise of the morning: American Pygmy Kingfisher!
I remember being jealous when I saw a picture of Carolyn
Sedgwick holding one of these at La Selva.

The banding station

At 11:30am we were all ready to close the nets, as it had slowed
down considerably. The two girls went off to check nets 11-15,
while I went to check nets 1-5. Net 2 had one bird in it, not
too bad... net 3 had five birds in it at once! And two of
the birds were nothing less than:

Keel-billed Toucans! These were two of the five birds in the
net. I had never heard of toucans being caught in a single
net, much less in the bottom pocket.

It was a good thing that I had some cloth snake bags in
my pocket. The bird bags that I had with me were
hardly big enough for thrushes.

The color on these birds are amazing; even their feet are blue!
And they can bite hard! Glad I got that out of the way early.

We give the birds a pretty new anklet, record a bit of data,
and then set them on their way.

Northern Barred Woodcreeper. This is one bird that
I regret not taking the time to get a good picture of.

Northern Barred Woodcreeper. The tail feathers are
extremely firm, almost spike-like.

American Redstart with slightly unusual plumage.

This Gray-chested Dove caused a bit of confusion due
to the color of its iris.

Bare-throated Tiger Herons were common along the canals.

A few random birds

Mottled Owl at Cerro Dantas

A beautiful and inquisitive Mottled Owl

This Spectacled Owl was found eating a sub-adult
Green Iguana- Osa Peninsula

Blue-crowned Motmot - Monteverde

Collared Redstart- This is the most common bird in the
clearing at Cerro Dantas, 2050m asl.

American Pygmy Kingfisher - Carara National Park

Great Curassow- female, La Selva

Here are some hummingbirds from the Monteverde area

One of my favorite birds- Bananaquit

Bananaquit at a hummingbird feeder in Monteverde

Coppery-headed Emerald- 3 inches

Green Hermit

Violet Sabrewing - One of the largest hummingbirds

Green Violet-ear

Green Violet-ear

Purple-throated Mountain Gem (Great name!)

Stripe-tailed Hummingbird

A rare site, everyone getting along at the dinner table.

A more common scene

 Purple-throated Mountain Gem- female

Earlier this year I spent a few days at Finca la Escondida, just outside of San Isidro de General

Golden-naped Woodpecker, Green Honeycreepers,
Blue-gray Tanagers, and a Golden-hooded Tanager
at the feeder in the morning.

Five bird species at once- Blue-gray Tanagers, Green
Honeycreeper, Baltimore Oriole, Golden-hooded Tanager,
and Cherrie's Tanager.

Palm Tanager

Female Shining Honeycreeper, Bay-headed Tanager, Blue-gray
Tanager, Palm Tanager

Palm Tanager, male and female Shining Honeycreeper

Speckled Tanager, Bay-headed Tanager

Golden-hooded Tanagers

Fiery-billed Aracari

Golden-hooded Tanager

Shining Honeycreeper

Speckled Tanager

Speckled Tanager

And now here's a little love for Rara Avis

Broad-billed Motmot sitting on the bridge over the
Rio Atelopus. This was from January of 2010. I remember
taking this picture and then running to Josh to ask him
what kind of bird this was. Wow how things have changed...

Emerald Tanager in the clearing at Rara Avis

A fledgling Emerald Tanager that had just fallen from the nest.
As any good ornithologist would do, Lauren Harter banded
the young bird. 

My first White-tipped Sicklebill! He was caught in the
comedor one morning, trapped in the vegetable storage area.
These large hummingbirds have evolved to pollinate the
Heliconia plants that they feed on. The tops of their heads are
almost always covered in yellow pollen.

White-necked Jacobin- male, one flashy bird!

Violet-crowned Woodnymph- male. A common species
around Costa Rica.

Green Hermit- One of the first pictures I took in Rara Avis,
January 2010

Still Rara Avis, but I thought a special section was deserved for the bird work done in March 2011.

Bird Team 2011
Forman Rainforest Project
Chris Moran, Faye Curran, Matt Markelon,
Donald Filipiak, Frank Gallo

Matt weighing a bird that was captured in a mist net.

Chris posing for a picture before releasing
this Carmiol's (Olive) Tanager

Faye recording data for an Orange-billed Sparrow

Team work! White-collared Manakin- female

Wood Thrush
The purpose of this on going study is to track North
 American migrant species that spend the winter in Rara Avis.

This Water Thrush was also a migrant from up North.

White-collared Manakin- female
This was a commonly caught species.

Bay Wren and Frank
This photo hardly does this bird justice. 

White-shouldered Tanager

Cinnamon Becard

I'll end with some flashy birds captured in March

Shepack (2011) proposed the new name Blueberry Bird. It is
yet to gain community wide acceptance, though time will tell.

Red-legged Honeycreeper- male

A rarely seen side of the Red-legged Honeycreeper. As if
this bird needed any more bright colors!

Royal Flycatcher raising his crest trying to scare us. Normally
the colorful crest sits flat against the top of his head. What
you can't see in this picture is that the bird is twisting his head
around like the Exorcist! 

The minute Black-bellied Hummingbird- male

Another one of my favorite birds, the
Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant is one of the smallest members
of the flycatcher family. Common at Rara Avis, it took me
over a year to finally see my first one. 

Green Honeycreeper- male

Tawny-capped Euphonia- male

Black and Yellow Tanager- male

Thanks for a great time!

Total number of bird species seen in Costa Rica: 322

Total number of bird species caught/banded in Costa Rica: 53

If I may gush for a moment...

I would like to express my deepest and most sincere appreciation for the guidance, support, and inspiration I have received from Lauren Harter and David Vander Pluym- two orithologists, tropical biologists, naturalists, and friends that I look forward to sharing MANY more field hours with in the future. 

Lauren, I remember the exact moment that you opened my eyes to a world of more than just snakes and frogs. Spring of 2010, late afternoon, standing at the East entrance of the Rancho. You explained and attempted to show me a mixed flock that was passing through the clearing at Rara Avis. You called out bird after bird, and even with your binoculars I could not spot a single one. And then, for the briefest of seconds, the iridescence of an Emerald Tanager flashed through the lenses and I was in awe- hooked for life.

Thank you.

And to Frank Gallo for taking the time to teach me while I attempted to teach others. The lessons learned were innumerable; I look forward to many more to come.

PURA VIDA

Don