wrapping up

the day we spent at Las Alturas was wonderful, a much-needed respite before coming back to Las Cruces to finish everything. Las Alturas is a tiny little station, just a few rooms and a big wrap-around porch, right on the edge of La Amistad National Park. It hasn't been used much in the last few years -- in fact, apparently no one has been there since the last OTS Fundamentals course a year ago. It was quiet and cozy, at least until we got there. Then it was loud and cozy. The first thing I did was take a nap, then a leisurely walk, then another nap. Amanda and I spent 30 minutes finishing up a paper; luckily it didn't take long, because there was no electricity to recharge the computer. In the evening we ran a generator for lights for a few hours, while we danced and sang and generally made merry. Everybody looked happier than they had in a long time -- no work hanging over our heads!

The next morning we got up, loaded into taxis, and drove back to Las Cruces. The work was waiting for us there. I spent a long day working on all four of my papers. But Erika (the coordinator) assured me that going out mist netting this morning should be a top priority, so I left my papers as they were and went to bed last night at 9pm.

One of the students here, Chris, has some kind of connection with Chase, the fellow who is currently coordinating the bird banding studies out of Las Cruces. Anyway, he managed to get an invitation for three of us to go along this morning, so Becky, Chris and I were out standing by the dining hall at 4:20 this morning. Chase came out to meet us with Federico, an expert bander and all-around local naturalist who speaks more English than he lets on. The four of us jumped in the car and headed down the road, where we picked up 5 more people. It was so Costa Rican, 9 people crammed into a normal-sized car, radio blasting, jokes flying in spanish. It felt great. Maybe if I had been under the pile of people instead of on top it would have been less great, you'd have to ask Becky about that.

The drive to today's field site took about 20 minutes. When we got there we all more or less rolled out of the car and took all the equipment out of the trunk and down the hill to where the banding station would be. This is the biggest bird-banding operation in Central America -- nearly every day of the week, they are at one of their sites with 20 mist nets open from ~5:20 to 11:20. They don't usually have 9 people; Chase said they'd never set up the nets so quickly before. We were in a pine plantation/forest fragment site, with pasture visible on both sides. The plantation is connected to a piece of primary forest. I helped a bit with setting up the nets, and got to take a hummingbird out, but mostly the three of us just sat back and watched the well-oiled machine collect and process the approximately 50 birds that landed in their nets over 6 hours. I saw some completely new birds and got a chance to look closely at several birds I had only seen from afar. I handled all the birds I wanted to; I even got my first hearty finch bite from a thick-billed finch (imagine slightly smaller cardinal bill, ouch!). It was entrancing. I learned a lot about molts, how to age a bird from feather condition, how to take blood and feather samples. They caught their first Kentucky Warbler ever (the study has been running for 9 years). My favorites were the scale-crested pygmy-tyrant and the green honeycreeper; i'll try to remember to post photos of them.

When we got back to Las Cruces at 12:30 it was back to the computer. I finished my last 3 papers and turned them in before dinner. Now we've got our final wrap-up slideshow, evaluations to fill out, and bags to pack. It's not quite the end -- we'll all have dinner together one last time tomorrow night -- but the class is really over today. It's been such a crazy, busy, magical time... it's hard to believe after 8 weeks that we're not just driving to a new site tomorrow where we'll unpack, get orientation walks, meet new faculty, and spring into another set of projects. Instead, we'll be heading our different ways after tomorrow night; most of us to Panama together for a few more days, but important people will be missing. And no more schedule, no more assignments... I'll start thinking about my own field work again, the plants and insects waiting for me in Michigan. Luckily I love home and the people there, so my sadness at the end of this adventure is mixed with excitement at returning.