Sunday, March 9, 2008
Feb 28 -- traveling to La Palma
We piled on another bus early this morning – an air-conditioned one, yuck! I was freezing, and then got off for a break and sweated, got back on and froze again. Took Dramamine and slept the trip away, as I always do. We started on the Pan-American Highway but spent the last couple of hours on progressively worse roads into the Osa Peninsula, definitely vomit-worthy. We drove into the small town of La Palma and unloaded. We have time to unpack and repack here – internet access, too! (That was unexpected). Tomorrow we’ll hike in to Corcovado National Park, where we’ll be staying at Sirena Biological Station for 8 days. It’s the best place in Costa Rica to see wildlife, something like 40,000 hectares, most of it old-growth lowland rainforest. I should have some good stories when I get out.
Feb 27 -- oak forest
Last day in Cuerici. It was a great day; we had FLP presentations in the morning and then time for writing, but I had somehow managed to not have anything to work on. So I walked down the hill for a couple of hours in the morning, and then in the afternoon Becky and I walked up to the old-growth oak forest and back down, the loop. We took our time, looking at birds and plants. It is such a beautiful place! The oaks are evergreen and enormous. They are covered in moss and other epiphytes; lots of bromeliads. And there are hummingbird-pollinated plants everywhere. I think it’s probably too cold for very many insects up there, so the plants do better with bird pollination. The clouds lifted while we hiked up, so we saw both the mist in the trees and then the long view from the platform on the ridge.
For dinner we had some Cuerici-farmed trout, which tasted amazing. We’re having a party tonight, there will be guitar-playing, latin dancing, and beer pong (I won’t be participating in that last one.) Tomorrow morning early we leave. I’m definitely going to miss the cold and dry – as soon as we come down from the mountains I’ll start sweating and probably won’t stop for 2 weeks.
For dinner we had some Cuerici-farmed trout, which tasted amazing. We’re having a party tonight, there will be guitar-playing, latin dancing, and beer pong (I won’t be participating in that last one.) Tomorrow morning early we leave. I’m definitely going to miss the cold and dry – as soon as we come down from the mountains I’ll start sweating and probably won’t stop for 2 weeks.
Feb 26 -- strolling in the mora
The thrill of seeing the Quetzal hasn’t worn off yet. My partner in warbler data collection Chris and I had another good day in the field, saw some cool birds and really enjoyed the forest. This is the first day I’ve noticed an improvement in my performance at altitude – the amount of puffing and rapid heartbeat I’m experiencing now when I try to walk up tiny slopes seems more in line with everyone else. In the afternoon I finished my post-course proposal and the paper that was due at this site; that means tomorrow is free for birding!
This is my favorite site so far. Good food, comfortable beds, great weather. The first part of every day is sunny, blue skies. Great for appreciating the beautiful views into the lowlands all around. Then sometime in the morning the clouds roll in, cool and refreshing, and mist blows all around us. It makes the most familiar views mysterious and romantic. Sometimes it retreats and returns a couple of times during the day.
The best part of the day was the walk Becky, Neil and I took off through the blackberry fields. We had a spare hour, so we walked a tiny path along a steep hill with mora bushes and cows, each field separated by barbed wire fences with tiny gates made of wired-together sticks stuck into loops on fence posts. We must have walked through 4 or 5 of them. There were great views down into the valleys, tops of trees, farmsteads. Of course there were excellent birds, too.
Yesterday and today’s list: RESPLENDENT QUETZAL! Black guan, emerald toucanet, spot-crowned woodcreeper, mountain elaenia, flame-colored tanager, hairy woodpecker, ruddy treerunner, ochraceous wren, gray-breasted wood-wren, long-tailed silky-flycatcher, Tennessee warbler, flame-throated warbler, yellow-bellied siskin. Plus that dot-winged ant-wren I saw in La Selva and just remember to add.
This is my favorite site so far. Good food, comfortable beds, great weather. The first part of every day is sunny, blue skies. Great for appreciating the beautiful views into the lowlands all around. Then sometime in the morning the clouds roll in, cool and refreshing, and mist blows all around us. It makes the most familiar views mysterious and romantic. Sometimes it retreats and returns a couple of times during the day.
The best part of the day was the walk Becky, Neil and I took off through the blackberry fields. We had a spare hour, so we walked a tiny path along a steep hill with mora bushes and cows, each field separated by barbed wire fences with tiny gates made of wired-together sticks stuck into loops on fence posts. We must have walked through 4 or 5 of them. There were great views down into the valleys, tops of trees, farmsteads. Of course there were excellent birds, too.
Yesterday and today’s list: RESPLENDENT QUETZAL! Black guan, emerald toucanet, spot-crowned woodcreeper, mountain elaenia, flame-colored tanager, hairy woodpecker, ruddy treerunner, ochraceous wren, gray-breasted wood-wren, long-tailed silky-flycatcher, Tennessee warbler, flame-throated warbler, yellow-bellied siskin. Plus that dot-winged ant-wren I saw in La Selva and just remember to add.
Feb 25 -- Quetzal
I saw my first Quetzal today. Just a shadow in a misty valley, a medium-sized bird with a long flowing tail and a distinctive call. There is nothing else it could have been. This is the one thing I wanted to see more than anything else in Costa Rica.
Feb 24 -- warblers
Spent the day exploring a bit and writing a lot; found out I’m in Tom Langen’s FLP group, which is great! He’s an ornithologist, and the project is looking at habitat preferences of resident and migratory warblers. Perfect, because that means lots of time out birding, I mean “collecting data.” ☺ We went mist-netting this morning and I took a bird out of the nets for the first time. It was amazing, holding this light little feathered thing in my hand, feeling its heart beating. We got to look at a lot of birds up close.
The day’s list: wilson’s warbler, collared redstart, swallow-tailed kite, magnificent hummingbird, white-throated mountain gem, black-capped flycatcher, blue-and-white swallow, sooty-capped bush-tanager, yellow-faced grassquit, yellow-thighed finch.
The day’s list: wilson’s warbler, collared redstart, swallow-tailed kite, magnificent hummingbird, white-throated mountain gem, black-capped flycatcher, blue-and-white swallow, sooty-capped bush-tanager, yellow-faced grassquit, yellow-thighed finch.
Feb 23 -- Paramo
Got up to the paramo today first thing in the morning. We were way above the clouds, and the sun was shining. Other mountaintops were like islands in the cloud-ocean, one of them smoking with volcanic activity. Our guide, Jenny, looked Norwegian but was born and raised in Costa Rica. Her parents moved there from Michigan. She and her siblings grew up bilingual and were homeschooled, and they spent so much time talking to each other that they developed their own family-specific accent. In English and Spanish. She spoke either of her languages super-fast and bubbly, and seemed to know every plant on the paramo. The walk included lots of stories about what she did with this or that plant as a kid (eating unfamiliar berries, breaking off stalks for sword fights).
We went into the oak forest in the afternoon, slippery and full of Spanish Moss. I walked a bit by myself, enjoying the rare quiet and seeing how many more animals are about when you are one person rather than 10. Tomorrow we’ll get the chance to mist-net birds; it will only be my second time ever. Should be exciting.
We went into the oak forest in the afternoon, slippery and full of Spanish Moss. I walked a bit by myself, enjoying the rare quiet and seeing how many more animals are about when you are one person rather than 10. Tomorrow we’ll get the chance to mist-net birds; it will only be my second time ever. Should be exciting.
Feb 22 -- lowlands to mountains
It was a sleepy day. We set off by 8:00 for San Jose, and I slept the whole way. We stopped at Hotel City One (the official OTS hotel now, I guess) to drop off a resource person and pick up two more, and then it was off to Cuerici. I slept through that trip too. We piled out of the bus at ~10,000 feet, loaded our luggage on smaller trucks, and started walking. Luckily Don Carlos came back with the OTS truck after it was unloaded to take us the rest of the way down. The high elevation was really affecting me – I was dizzy and unfocused, and got loopier as time went on. I ate a lot at lunch and then went to bed for 4 hours. When I got up, I felt okay again.
Cuerici, the station we’re staying at, is beautiful. The temperature is fabulous – up to 60ยบ F in the day, and down to freezing or a little below at night. I can wear my wool sweater, long underwear, and scarf. It even smells good here; it just feels more like home. And they serve amazing hot chocolate with dinner. We live in two buildings. The two-story has a small kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and porch; the bunks are upstairs. The classroom is a separate building attached by a covered walkway so you can move between them without getting rained on. (It rains a lot here.) There are 2 big woodstoves to huddle around, one in each building. There is absolutely no insulation here; I think the buildings are thin wood planks covered in corrugated metal roofing material to keep out the wet. It means that anything that goes on in the main building is audible everywhere, but it also means that when it rains it sounds beautiful.
I haven’t gotten outside today (slept through the introduction hike) but I got the full story. We’re staying at a small diversified sustainable farm. They grow blackberries (a big cash crop in this area) and have a rainbow trout farm. Fish farming is a tricky business environmentally – lots of wastes associated with it – but they are more conscientious than most, letting the fish wastes settle out and using them to fertilize the fields instead of washing them into the waterways. We get most of our electricity from hydro, a mountain stream running down near the buildings. They also keep ducks, chickens, cows, and a horse. There is a forest reserve nearby (montane rain forest, higher elevation than cloud forest) and a short drive up to get to subalpine paramo – the habitat just above the treeline. There are some cool bogs, too. We’ll get an introduction to these three habitats tomorrow.
There are lots of new birds and plants here. So far the only new birds I’ve seen are the large-footed finch and sooty robin, but that’s because of the altitude. I saw lots of birds on the way up and couldn’t focus or remember well enough to identify them. Tomorrow will be better, we’re going out at 5:30 am. I’m looking forward to seeing some friendly familiar plants in addition to the new ones. Oaks, Indian Paintbrush, Spanish Moss. I wish we had more than 6 days here!
Cuerici, the station we’re staying at, is beautiful. The temperature is fabulous – up to 60ยบ F in the day, and down to freezing or a little below at night. I can wear my wool sweater, long underwear, and scarf. It even smells good here; it just feels more like home. And they serve amazing hot chocolate with dinner. We live in two buildings. The two-story has a small kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and porch; the bunks are upstairs. The classroom is a separate building attached by a covered walkway so you can move between them without getting rained on. (It rains a lot here.) There are 2 big woodstoves to huddle around, one in each building. There is absolutely no insulation here; I think the buildings are thin wood planks covered in corrugated metal roofing material to keep out the wet. It means that anything that goes on in the main building is audible everywhere, but it also means that when it rains it sounds beautiful.
I haven’t gotten outside today (slept through the introduction hike) but I got the full story. We’re staying at a small diversified sustainable farm. They grow blackberries (a big cash crop in this area) and have a rainbow trout farm. Fish farming is a tricky business environmentally – lots of wastes associated with it – but they are more conscientious than most, letting the fish wastes settle out and using them to fertilize the fields instead of washing them into the waterways. We get most of our electricity from hydro, a mountain stream running down near the buildings. They also keep ducks, chickens, cows, and a horse. There is a forest reserve nearby (montane rain forest, higher elevation than cloud forest) and a short drive up to get to subalpine paramo – the habitat just above the treeline. There are some cool bogs, too. We’ll get an introduction to these three habitats tomorrow.
There are lots of new birds and plants here. So far the only new birds I’ve seen are the large-footed finch and sooty robin, but that’s because of the altitude. I saw lots of birds on the way up and couldn’t focus or remember well enough to identify them. Tomorrow will be better, we’re going out at 5:30 am. I’m looking forward to seeing some friendly familiar plants in addition to the new ones. Oaks, Indian Paintbrush, Spanish Moss. I wish we had more than 6 days here!
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