Tag Archives: Bird Tower

2022

Day 10: New Heights

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This morning after breakfast, we created our camera trap experiment in which we are going to use fifteen motion cameras that will take photos over the next few days. We are going to try to identify the different predators and prey and see where they might be most abundant in the different areas of the foot trails, untouched forest, and the “paved” roads. We set out for a couple of hours before lunch to begin our camera set up, mainly putting up our five cameras for the road areas. After lunch, we then set out for the true hiking experience to put up the other 10 or so cameras. I was impressed with the amount of elevation that we gained throughout the hike, rubber boots adding to some of the difficulty when we had to go down hill (they are super important for protection against snakes and also great for the rain and puddles) but I think this is because mine could do with some extra traction but I still very much enjoyed the hike. The vegetation within the forest was unbelievable. I just feel like everything is magnified by 10x, it’s gorgeous. I saw huge Give and Take Palms, plenty of fish tail palms, huge Tillandsia utriculata (the same genus as the small airplants but this one can grow up to 60cm) in many of the tree canopies, and a lot of house plants that were obviously thriving more out here in the jungle than someone’s plant room: Philodendron radiatum, Philodendron hederaceum and a lot of Monstera spp. I also saw a lot of air-plants that were both on the tree at around eye level but also a few that had fallen to the ground because the branch that they were connected to had broken off. These were Tillandsia spp. but they all are so similar that I’m learning that deciphering the exact species is going to be more difficult than I expected. Along the way, we saw so many different butterflies, a huge cockroach, lots of cicada shells, leaf cutter ants, and even got to eat some termites. Since they were so small, it wasn’t scary to eat them – they mostly had a woody aftertaste to them but I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to find and eat them.

Tillandsia schiedeana (This grows on all of the large tree branches)
Gigantic Leaf Cutter Ant nest
Red-Eyed (maybe also Morelet’s) Tree Frog eggs!
A wide angle selfie (of course) at the Bird Tower!
Philodendron radiatum

After we finished the elevation climb, we made it to the Bird Tower where we went up this questionably stable structure that had the most amazing outlook I have ever seen. You could see so much of the forest yet only understand that it is only a part of the whole thing, it was gorgeous. On the hike down from the top, we stopped at the smaller Mayan cave were we found some Mayan clay pottery shards and got to explore the room that had been built by building a wall into the natural constrictions of the cave. The stalactites were so impressive and I could have stared at them all day, but I’m excited for the cave we get to explore in a few days. As we were trying to pass the time, I have also learned so many riddles and I can’t wait to stump everyone one at home. On the way back down Dr. Solomon also pointed out some orchids but I couldn’t identify them because there were no flowers. However, pseudobulbs led us to believe that they were orchids. Our final stop was a ginormous leaf cutter ant mound that was about 6ft wide (at least). It is so cool to watch the Leaf Cutter ants all line up and create their foraging trails as they cut down the vegetation to bring into their home to cultivate the fungus that they eat the byproduct of. I’m starting to understand why Dr. Solomon loves ants so much. We also stopped by a wallows (in the dry season)/frog pond (in the wet season) and found a bunch of Red-eyed Tree Frog eggs on a hanging tree branch – super cool!

-Sophia

2022

Day 10: Bird Observation Tower + Cave + Lots of Taxa!!

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For our first project was designed to monitor mammals using Morrison sensor cameras to collect data about the relative abundance of species on roads, trails, and the rainforest around Las Cuevas Research Station. So into the forest we went!

Inside of Cave! See the stalagmites and stalactites? The Maya used to perform ritualistic sacrifices here.
The red paint is still on a piece of Mayan pottery which is thousands of years old!

In a small cave, we saw giant spiders, went through a cave and got to pick up remnants about Maya  pottery!

Top of the Bird Watch tower after an long hike

 We got to witness the beautiful view of the heart of the Chiquibul forest from the bird watching station.

We also saw some tree frog eggs.

I was incredibly excited to see a beetle species called the darkling beetle tenebrionidae hegemona. Adrienne pointed it out on wood. It was incredibly good at climbing and I held it for 15 minutes! I loved the iridescent elytra and exoskeleton.

Darkling Beetle

I also saw some earthworms (oligochaetes).

Michael is showing me an earthworm on the rainforest floor helping to recycle nutrients back into the soil!

 Caio also managed to find a leech in the middle of the rainforest He was brave enough to hold it and told everyone when it bit him three times!

Rainforest leech? Definitely didn’t expect to find here!

Overall incredible day! Loving Las Cuevas!

~Maegan

2022

D-10 the bird tower trail

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Hi everybody!

Today was such an eventful day! We started our day by developing a research question regarding the movement of the biota of the Chiquibul  and spent most of the rest of our time setting the gadgets out in the field to collect data during the next few days. It was during our time in the forest that we went to the Bird Tower, which has now become my favorite stop of this trip. Although we did not actually get to see birds from the tower, the view we got was still mesmerizing. From the top of the tower you could see many hectares of rainforest to any and every side. There was also spots with fog that just made the view even more beautiful. One thing about the tower is that the hike is a bit challenging, particularly when the ground is wet; some of us had trouble with the slippery slopes coated with mud, yet thankfully everything went well! Although a bit difficult in some places I would definitely recommend this hike to anyone coming to the Chiquibul forest, personally I plan to come back just for that hike!


The Bird Tower trail also leads to a really cool cave. In the cave you even get to see remnants of Mayan pottery!


Another great thing that occurred today is that I got to see many of my taxa before even leaving Las Cuevas for our two hikes. Three of the species I got to see include the Carpenter bee and the Red-tailed stingless bee. Here is a photo of the Carpenter bee!

Also as an aside the food here is really amazing. Here is a photo one of the vegetarian meals I got yesterday!

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Day 6: we did not want to take any risks

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Today’s general agenda: project leaf diversity —> project mutualism —> bird tower 

Having given my presentation on ants, I was beyond excited that we were going to focus on ants even more on this trip! In particular, today, we were tasked to examine the relationship between Azteca ants and Cecropia trees. These two different species form a mutualistic relationship where both parties benefit by working together. The ants get food while the tree gets protection. We wanted to know how Cecropia trees, before hosting these ants, protect themselves from being eaten. 

click for video showing the Azteca ants and Cecropia trees

720p

We have been constantly examining organisms on the ground that we decided to change up our perspective this evening. Near the research station is a bird tower that is three stories high. From the bird tower, we got to observe the Chiquibul forest in its entirety. We also got to see the Belize sunset. I don’t know if it was the wind, the greenery, or sunset, but, in the moment, I never wanted to get off the tower. Of course, all good things have to come to an end, so we turned on our headlamps and hiked back. 

selfie on the bird tower!

As I was carefully walking in the front, I hear Pierce call out “snake!” in the back. The snake turned out to be a venomous jumping viper hidden in the leaf litter! Though the snake was small in length, we did not want to take any risks. We kept our distances and safely moved forward.

Each night, as you may know, we give presentations that focuses on either specific taxonomic groups or topics. Today, Liz addressed tropical diseases. I was excited to learn more about Dengue Fever because the disease is somewhat prevalent in Taiwan. We even talked about how climate change can affect Dengue Fever. In short, climate change can exacerbate Dengue Fever and increase its range. 

Brendan Wong

Las Cuevas, Belize

5/19/2019

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Banana Smoothies and A Gorgeous View

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May 19, 2019

Today was incredibly busy. We spent the entire morning and afternoon collecting and analyzing data for two different experiments. Lunch included some delicious banana smoothies with the perfect consistency (hopefully I can replicate it when I’m back home).

In the evening, we hiked up to the bird tower. The bird tower doesn’t really have anything to do with spotting birds. This is because the bird tower is so high up, you have a view of the vastness of the Chiquibul Forest, and any bird in view would likely be too tiny to make out.

Beetle highlights from today included a rove beetle (unknown species) and the elusive headlight elater (Pyrophorus noctilucus). In my research before this trip I learned that rove beetles lift their rear ends up in an exaggerated scorpion-like manner when threatened. Sure enough, when I brushed against a rove beetle’s leaf today, the beetle lifted its rear end high into the air so that its tail was literally perpendicular to the rest of its body (pretty wild).

After our night hike back from the bird tower, Kaela described seeing a beetle with two bright lights on its body. Even though I didn’t see it myself, this was pretty exciting to hear because this was undoubtedly a headlight elater. These beetles have two bioluminescent spots on their thorax that are meant to startle predators. Some say the headlight elater is bright enough to read by.

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19/05/19 I finally caught a blue Morpho.

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6:00am breakfast as usual. In the morning, the class hiked up the Maya Trail to examine an area disturbed by a hurricane a few years ago. The damage was apparent in the tree fall, but also in the difference in species composition between the disturbed and undisturbed areas of the rainforest—most notably, cecropia trees inhabited the disturbed areas abundantly, but not the undisturbed areas. The class surveyed plant species in both disturbed and undisturbed areas of the rainforest along the Maya Trail.

On an exciting note, I finally caught a blue Morpho! The butterfly made the mistake of settling on a leaf too close to me and not darting away while it had the chance, thinking that its leaf-like underside camouflage would save it. This bad boy was rather large at a wingspan of around 13 cm (blue morphos can reach a wingspan of 20cm). These iconic rainforest species have an easily recognizable iridescent blue topside, but with wings closed (as butterflies have the tendency to perch), the brown underside with eyespots blends into the butterfly’s surroundings. Blue morphos are also incredibly adept flyers, making them difficult to catch both in flight and not.

Blue Morpho, Morpho peleides

That afternoon, the class returned to the hurricane-disturbed area along the Maya Trail to examine firsthand the ant-plant mutualism between cecropia trees and the Azteca Ants that inhabit and defend them.

That night, the class hiked up the PAINfully steep bird tower trail to the bird tower. Although the hike was hard and the sky was cloudy, the stunningly beautiful view from the bird tower was unparalleled. The class spent over an hour at the bird tower until the sun began to set. I sat with my feet dangling off of the edge of the bird tower and enjoyed the breeze. We returned to the research station in the dark, and the downhill hike back was much easier. We saw a cave, and nearly stepped on a jumping pit viper, and at one point we all turned off our headlamps and (surrounded by darkness) just listened to the rainforest sounds.

(From left to right) Keegan, Cassia, Michael, Me on top of the bird tower

The class ended the day with lectures on fungus, reptiles, beetles, and a lecture from yours truly on tropical parasites, diseases, and medicinal plants.

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Day 7: In Which I Do Not Catch a Blue Morpho

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Our last sunset from Las Cuevas

Our last day in the Chiquibul Forest started with a 5 am hike over some extremely steep paths that were still wet from yesterday’s rain. The leaves, tree roots, and mossy rocks were so slick, and I took two nasty spills – I landed on a tree root with my left butt cheek. Despite my searing leg muscles and the blossoming bruises on my butt, the view from the top of Bird Tower was worth the strenuous uphill hike. The sun was still low in the sky, and the forest still seemed to be waking up. Mist rolled in across lush montane forests as far as the eye could see. It was  breathtaking – both literally and figuratively.

View from the top of Bird Tower.

After breakfast, we set out for another long trek to retrieve our camera traps that we set on our first day at Las Cuevas. The hike was long, but the forest here is so inherently beautiful that I didn’t mind the sweat, sore muscles, and countless bug bites. I caught this strange goldenrod-colored butterfly that was bobbing along San Pastor road:

As per usual, every single blue morpho butterfly that we saw flew out of my reach. I’m very, very sad that I haven’t managed to catch Belize’s most iconic butterfly on this trip, but I guess it just means that I have to come back someday to finish my mission!

In the afternoon, we dug up a couple of leaf cutter nests to examine them from the inside. Scott, our resident ant expert, located the queen of a smallish nest for us, as well as the ants’ fungus garden in which they grow their food. The excavation was great exercise, but the ants that we uncovered were definitely not happy with us.

I got bitten by a mosquito right in the middle of my forehead as I was excavating the nest. Here’s Elena helping me put Cortisone on the largest bump in the history of ever.

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the checking of the camera traps. I don’t think any of us expected to actually find anything. Maybe a peccary or two if we were lucky. See, as loud, clunky humans that make huge amounts of noise as we travel along the trails, any mammals in the area were aware of our presence before we could even come close to spotting them. By this point in the trip, spotting large mammals in the Chiquibul seemed equivalent to seeing a unicorn.

But.

In the very first trap! A tapir! And a magnificent jaguar, in perfect profile! Right there in the first trap, we captured two of the mammals that we most wanted to see. It only got better and better as we opened the rest of the traps. Of course, not all yielded anything, but most captured at least one or two animals. We saw so many peccaries – nine total.

We also saw a few curassows, two pumas, a coatimundi (kind of like a mix between a raccoon and a red panda), a coral snake, and a 9-banded armadillo. It was truly wild. When the first jaguar appeared on screen, all of us started screaming our heads off – spotting a jaguar is like the mother of all animal sightings in the Chiquibul.

But that wasn’t all! We saw not one, but TWO jaguars in our traps. Practically unheard of!! The big cats were of stocky, muscular build, and had intricate rosette patterning on their hide. I’m still in awe of them and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at these pictures.

What a satisfying end to our stay at Las Cuevas and the Chiquibul Forest. It’s been an amazing, eye-opening experience. I can truly say that I’ve fallen in love with this place – chiggers, ticks, and all. I’m sad to leave tomorrow morning, but look forward to experiencing the reef.