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

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

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