quick update

Just a quick update. Things are hectic here! We finished the FLP and presented it this morning; Amanda and I have 3 days to write it up. I also have a second draft of my first independent project due in 3 days, and Becky and I are collecting data for our joint IP over the next couple of days, analyzing, and presenting. Not enough time to enjoy the forest properly! But no worries, I'm making time somehow. We'll be here at La Selva for the rest of the week.

The last couple of days the station got really busy. A group of undergraduates from Dartmouth arrived, they'll probably be here for the rest of the week. There have also been one or two big birding groups, retired US Americans with really nice binoculars, spotting scopes, and cameras. They hire guides to show them the birds. It looks like fun, but not nearly as much fun as roaming the forest alone, doing science and catching birds on the fly (so to speak.) Plus I don't think they ever look down to notice the plants and non-feathered animals.

I saw two more fer-de-lances today, both little fellers (1-1.5 feet). I also got to see an anole flaring his red and yellow dewlap. The most exciting bird was the keel-billed toucan, which has an amazing bill -- not as big as the chestnut-mandibled toucan, but so colorful! We spotted that while walking between sites for our IP, looking for Pentaclethera seed pods. Apparently the macaws are elsewhere this time of year, but I'm happy to report that I did finally see both local species of manakins. Very charming birds! I haven't seen them do the moonwalk, but I hear you can see it on YouTube. :) Somebody saw a kinkajou on the bridge, but I missed it.

On to the bird list so I can get to bed! (Hopefully in a few more days things will be less hectic and I can write more descriptive, less bird-centric posts.) This is 3 days of birds: long-billed hermit, mangrove swallow, violaceous trogon, chestnut-colored woodpecker, northern barred-woodcreeper, plain-brown woodcreeper, cocoa woodcreeper, western slaty-antshrike, bright-rumped attila, gray-capped flycatcher, cinnamon becard, masked tityra, white-collared manakin, red-capped manakin, bananaquit, golden-hooded tanager, orange-billed sparrow.