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Day 6: Belizean Circus, Belizean Monkeys

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Sadly, the birding streak has officially ended. I was woke up TWICE by the howler monkeys in the trees near the clearing: once at 2:30 AM and another at 4:00 AM. They made up for it in the morning though, as we got to see a family of five this morning.

We then got to explore a cave that was part of the Chiquibul cave system. It was huge. We only got to walk into the first chamber, but we caught a glimpse of the second which felt like double the size of the one we were in. Sadly, they didn’t allow us to take any pictures.

It was also super breezy. It felt like natures own AC. If only we had that in our rooms 😔.

After we came back, we went back out to collect our pitfall traps. A ton of people found a bunch of different species, totaling up to over 300 total invertebrates! I managed to contribute a whopping 4!! Of my four pitfall traps, I only captured an ant, a mite, a fly, and a cricket. Hopefully my camera trap is more successful…

While we were working, Dr. Solomon came in carrying a basilisk lizard (aka Jesus Christ Lizard). By some combination of physics and wizardry, this lizard is able to run right on water.

Right before dinner, we hiked to the bird tower to watch the sunset. Though the hike was steep, we made it just in time. The structure was slightly wobbly but we got up high enough to see the entire forest! The sunset was super pretty too.

Near the base of the tower, we also saw a white-tipped dove!

Walking back wasn’t as fun though. As it got dark pretty quickly and my headlamp was really dim. I even almost took a little tumble while taking a pic!

However, after many a slips, trips, and almost falls, I made it back in once piece! Now just time to do it all over again tomorrow morning for the sunrise!

Ian C

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Day 4: Crickets, Grasshoppers, Katydids and More!

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Today was the day I finally got up early to go birding! And boy was it worth the 5:30AM wake up. We got to see a bunch of parrots, hummingbirds, and even a couple woodpeckers! The morning view was also super pretty.

After breakfast, we began setting up the first of two research projects of the day, involving nitrogen pitfall traps! During our pre lab discussion, we found a live scorpion, named Sean, hiding inside one of the drawers at our desks.

Anyways, back to the pitfall traps. We set them up on trees and in the ground along a trail, and while we were setting them up, we saw this super cool bug eating another one.

We also found this super long Liana hanging from a tree, and took turns swinging on it!

In the afternoon, we started a second project, looking at Cecropia tree defenses with animals before and after they’re colonized by ants. When looking for an uncolonized tree, we found one with a new queen hiding inside it.

While looking for Cecropia, we found this super cool tarantula molt and it’s chilicerae.

Some other cool finds of the day include another dead (this time fully grown) scorpion and a spider with an egg sac!


We also found and captured a bunch of Orthoptera, including two species of katydids (angle-winged and common true), a South American lesser field cricket (I think), a spotted winged grasshopper, and three other grasshoppers that I couldn’t identify. It was a great day for Orthoptera!

Tomorrow we might have the opportunity to go on a night hike, which I’m super excited about. See y’all then!!

Ian C

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Day 2: Entering the Rainforest

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Today was our first full day in Belize!! We tried starting our day at 5:00AM to go birding, but none of us could get up so we began our day at 6:15AM to get breakfast. We left Crystal Paradise Ecolodge at 8:00AM and headed towards Caracol and the Chiquibul forest.

On the road, we stopped to see a dead green vine snake in the middle of the road and a Brazilian cashew tree.

When we got to Caracol, we learned a ton about the Maya civilization, and how we can trace their history by observing their structures and gods moving from southern Mexico and Guatemala up to the Yucatán Peninsula! We also looked at a ton of their temples and palaces.

We saw a ton of really cool plants and animals too! Among my favorites include the tree of life, a baby gray fox, and Montezuma oropendola birds.

Additionally, I saw my first grasshopper of the trip! It was a medium sized gray grasshopper, which I think looks like a gray bird grasshopper, but I’m not quite sure. We saw a second one of the same species later on in the middle of a field, and tried to get it to jump! However, we were unsuccessful and nothing happened.

We ate lunch there and then began our drive to Las Cuevas Research Station, where we’ll be staying for the next six days. On our way, we saw three black howler monkeys!!

We arrived at Las Cuevas Research Station (LCRS) a couple hours later and went on a short hike exploring the Maya ruins the center is on, where I saw my first cricket too! It was a bit too high up for me to identify it, and I didn’t get a picture (😔), but it was small and brown, with darker brown coloration through the main body. But that also means I’ve seen the big three groups of my rainforest taxa! Missing locusts but I have a feeling we won’t be seeing any of those.

We wrapped our day up with dinner, and with that, our last travel day (for a week) is over! Tomorrow marks our first full day at LCRS. See you then!

Ian C

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Day 1: Wow

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Where did the day go? I woke up on my friend’s couch this morning exhausted and now I’m falling asleep to crickets in Belize! (Still exhausted)

I’ve had plenty of time to catch my breath today and do some personal observations. My favorite thing to do in the field right now is to listen. There are hundreds of voices in the darkness, each belonging to a different organism, determined to have his pulses or drones or chattering chirps heard by a mate. How romantic, no? Let’s not think about their creepier, crawlier side just yet—I’ll have close-up pictures of that tomorrow.

I heard a fascinating lecture on life in the rainforest canopy. One point stuck out to me, as I listened to Sam. These paradoxically nutrient poor soil conditions produce the most astounding variety of plant life on Earth, which in turn supports the entire trophic web here. In turn, without the wealth and diversity of life in the rainforest, each organism with an integral role to play in this game, these plants could not survive such oligotrophic soils. If you don’t think about it, you could take for granted the unique biodiversity hotspot we are in.

Simply put: Life… UHHHHH … finds a way. (Pictured: me, today)960

P.S. Mom and Dad, our accommodations are like paradise. Dinner was outstanding, but also represented the only substantial meal I’ve eaten today. Hobby airport had no water, which meant restaurants were all closed; even the toilets were roped off. But here I am, stomach full and brain active all the same.