All posts by xz33

Day 6: Birds getting it on

There were Plumbeous Kites mating on the tree in front of the main building this morning. It was kind of interesting to watch the ordeal. The male performed a mating dance where it would stand face to face with the female bird and spread its wings. When the started mating the female would actually hang upside down on the branch.

After breakfast we went out to collect our urine traps and counted the number of types of insects there were in the vials. We created some posters and presented our finding.

In the evening we had a guest lecture from Lauren the grad student that’s been here for 9 months. It was very interesting to hear about her research and perspective on being here. I was especially interested in the technology that she used to conduct her research. I tried to come with a couple of different ideas in my head that would potentially help her with her research, specially the data collection and or implementing machine learning in her data processing process. I thought about potentially using her camera trap stations themselves as a communication network and relay the images between stations and eventually onto her computer. I thought about maybe applying image recognition algorithms to help her sort false triggers from images that actually have animals in them. Maybe this could turn into a senior design project. We’ll just have to see.

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After the talk we went on a night hike and saw some pretty amazing stuff. We found an interesting species of cockroach that can hiss and spray a sticky substance. There were a bunch of really larger spiders. But the thing that was the most exciting for me was at the end of the hike we found a mother Pauraque nesting on 2 eggs. That really made my night.

-Randy

Day 5: Look, a hole in the ground. Let’s go inside it.

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Today we hung vials of our urine on trees and went to the Las Cuevas Cave. It was so sublime. Get it? Sub-lime… stone. Sub limestone. Like going under the limestone, you know? Into a cave and stuff. Doing cave stuff like crawling through mud and bat poop.

I discovered an interesting biological phenomenon. There is a very blatant negative correlation between my fatigue level and my mental capacity. I sincerely apologise for the poor English and abysmal humour I’m subjecting you to. Although who am I kidding. Is anyone even reading this? Hi Scott and Adrienne, thanks for reading.

-Randy

Day 4: Ants on ants on ants on ants…

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Today’s bird watching session was really awesome. I saw almost all the birds I saw yesterday again. The vultures seem to have multiplied… maybe they know something we don’t. The Plumbeous Kite was hanging out in its tree again. In addition to those guys, there were a pair of Toucans, which were extremely pretty, and an Montezuma Oropendola, which added its distinctive cry to the morning symphony.

In the morning we did a study on the Cecropia tree and the Azteca ants. Usually these ants will defend adult cecropias but we wanted to find out what types of defenses against herbivores the juvenile cecropias have before they get colonized by ants. My group wanted to look at the potential difference between juvenile and adult leaves, maybe a change in characteristics can mitigate herbivore damage before the ants arrive. We took size and toughness measurements of leaves from 5 adult trees and 2 juvenile trees. We’ll do more data analysis tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes.

In the afternoon we went and dug out some leaf cutters ant nests. We started with a young nest, then moved up to a slightly older nest and finally a mega nest. We dug until we hit their fungi chambers where they keep their fungi gardens (their food) and their babies. The mega nest was pretty dangerous, a couple of people, including myself, bitten whilst trying to find the chambers. Their bites are pretty gnarly but at least they don’t sting.

I didn’t die from ants, so it was a good day.

-Randy

Day 3: Ouch

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Woke up at before my alarm at 4:50 today. Guess I was too excited for bird watching. Funny thing is that I actually woke up before the birds. Saw a bunch of different birds once they started coming out. Apparently the big dried up tree in front of the main building at Las Cuevas is a popular chill out spot for birds. Social Flycatchers are pretty common over here, they pretty small and I think they’re pretty, they have brown wings and a yellow chest. Parrots were constantly fly overhead. I was lucky enough to see a Plumbeous Kite, which is a hawk looking thing, chase a flycatcher around. After we had breakfast, we saw some pretty rare birds that I can’t really talk about.

Today we set up our camera traps. We put 12 of them out there in the field. We went around the 50 hectare plot trail, the bird tower trail, and the monkey tail trail. All in all we hiked 13.47 miles today. My feet hurt. My brain is switched off. I would write more but nah. Not sure how ready I am for tomorrow.

-Randy

Day 2: Ruins and lots and lots of birds.

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Had breakfast with all sorts of birds. The workers at the resort left papaya out on the balcony and a Blue Crown Motmot, a Brownjay, and a Melodious Blackbird flew down to feed. Took some awesome photos; will upload when there’s more reliable internet.

After breakfast we took the van to go see the Caracol Ruins. Along the way, we spotted a bunch of different types of birds, including a Great Black Hawk. So far, I haven’t been doing too well on IDing birds. It turns out I only researched really pretty but rather rare birds. So I end up not knowing all the birds that we do end up crossing paths with. Hopefully that’ll change; Scott gave me a bird guide so whenever I get the chance I’m going to be flipping through that thing.

We got a tour of the Caracol Ruins from our local guide Hugh. The ruins were just absolutely jaw dropping. It’s amazing that something constructed over 2000 years ago is still standing and is still the tallest structure in the country. At the ruins there was a tree full of Oro Pendola and their nests. These are extremely pretty birds, they are black all over except their golden yellow tail. They build really interesting looking nests too.

After encountering some technical difficulties with our vehicle, we eventually made it to the Las Cuevas Research Station. LCRS is literally in the middle of nowhere, it’s kind of awesome. We saw a Black Vulture perched on a dead tree when we first got here. Once everyone got here we settled into our rooms and then had dinner. Had to present my lecture topic tonight. Was really nervous, it didn’t go very well but at least it’s done now.

Overall, this was a solid second day to the trip. So psyched for tomorrow.

-Randy

First day fun day

The first day was full of excitement but also a series of unfortunate events. Hobby was out of water so no one could get lunch. Scott lost his laptop, and had a toad pee on his hand. The projector didn’t work for the presentation. But even though all these unfortunate things happened, I still had a great time. No one has died yet so that’s good.

I discovered that Adrienne gets progressively funnier and less filtered as her blood glucose level falls. Mandy and Anna really like talking about food and meat lover’s pizza. Clare turned 21 today. I really enjoyed the way the presentations work, it’s like we are each other’s teachers. I say this now… maybe I’ll feel different tomorrow after I present.

Oh yeah. Saw some animals too, those are cool too. Actually I was interrupted whilst typing this because Scott found a Boa Constrictor in a tree. Super awesome, props to his 20 20 night vision.

Can’t wait till tomorrow. Hopefully I don’t get sunburnt.

-Randy

Pre-departure

Only 3 more days till we leave for Belize. I am both nervous and excited, but that’s to be expected. Getting all the different pieces of equipment was a hassle but it’s finally done, although I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to fit the rubber boots that weigh a tonne and those flippers into my camping backpack.

I’m looking forward to walking around the rainforest looking for different plants and animals. Hopefully it’ll be the break I need from school even though this is technically a class. For those that don’t know I’m actually an electrical engineering student. So whilst this trip is a good change of pace I’m at the same time super nervous for all the presentations that I have to do. I’m mostly worry about not being able to meet the level of academic content expected. There’s no turning back now.

I hope going on this trip will be like hitting a reset button for me. Maybe I can finally stop worrying about school and internships and jobs for a minute and appreciate the life that I have and everything around me. At the same time maybe learn something about what Tarzan does for a living.

-Randy