Hi!

…I was most definitely drowsy for birding. But it was cool! Very foggy but we still managed to see lots of birds like a trogon with a square tail and some flycatchers. A great start to an incredibly long day of hiking and setting out camera traps.

We spent the morning hiking on trail along the 50 Hectare Plot set up outside Las Cuevas. There were hills and jagged rocks, making it very difficult even along the trail (there were some places we had to leave the trail because trees had fallen, other places we just climbed over the trees). It was on this trail though that we saw our reptiles of the day!

We saw an Anolis lizard that I couldn’t identify right away, but I took a picture of his dewlap so we can identify him later using field guides. We also saw what I’m pretty sure was a Middle American Ameiva (Ameiva festiva) because it was about the right size and had a distinct pattern (a dark stripe along the body that crosses the eye, darker zigzags on the back, and alternating dark and light vertical stripes on the side). At the end of the trail (or I guess the beginning because we went down and back) we saw a Green Anole (Anolis biporcatus) eating a cricket!

 

After lunch we hiked the Monkey Tail Trail. It was flatter and easier than the 50 Hectare Plot but resulted in some unfortunate encounters with arthropods. We had to jump over this huge log that was covered in very angry ants (and got very covered in ants in the process) and also had to avoid Acacia Ants protecting a fallen Bullthorn Acacia. We also, due to some very tall grass on the trail, left with ticks all over our bodies that we then spent an hour pulling off. Yay nature.

Now that I’m tired, sore, and sufficiently bitten for one day, time to sleep before another full day: birding and exploring the caves around Las Cuevas!

-Kelsey

UPDATE: The Anolis lizard I couldn’t identify right away was a Lesser Scaly Anole (Anolis uniformis), which I was able to tell from his red dewlap with small rings of white spots and blue basal spot (5/17/19)