Jan 2 2012

Today our first charge was to take Martín in to San Juan del Sur to the clinic to see a doctor. He was feeling slightly better yesterday... Enough to join us netting bats behind the house... But was back to feeling I'll again. Carol, Bill and I took Martín in at 7:30am and dropped him at the clinic so he did not have to walk and take the bus. We then walked around town: got breakfast, did some shopping at the market, tried to get postal stamps (closed for some reason), and returned to check on Martín about 11am. He'd gotten his blood sample taken but had to wait until 1pm (or so) before he could see the doctor. He would wait and we should go back to the house and do our work. So we did... I'm processing photos for Carol and helping with GIS work. We even Skyped my "help desk" (David) to help with some data issues. Victor, our 9 year old helper, was hanging around looking up English words in our Spanish-English dictionary and giving us lots of practice. He also offered to do the dishes for us. He and Bill looked so cute working at the sink, whistling and chatting while doing the dishes! :)
Mid-afternoon, Carol went back to town to pick up Martín. As best we can understand, he has some parasites, a kidney infection and a mild case of dengue fever and received a pile of medications and orders from the doctor to rest.
No netting today. Tomorrow our Nicaraguan help is back and we'll be doing netting back over in the Las Campas area, with a longer hike in to the larger piece of intact forest. Sounds promising if the wind cooperates. It's been windy all day today!
Saw a small falcon this morning, but like the green parrots, I could not get a good enough look to figure out what kind. We have commented that there seems to be few birds around... Maybe it's the season?

Jan 1 2012 Río Escamaquito

Tonight we netted a short time at the river behind the house (Rio Escamaquito). It was a very windy/gusty evening so we only netted from 5-9pm. And we only got two bats, but both new species for Stu and me. The were:
Sturnia lilium Little yellow-shouldered Bat
Artibius literates Great fruit-eating bat

We also saw:
Solitary Sandpiper (caught in net)
Howler monkeys and babies
Parrot sp?
Spider eyes sparkle in the grass
A giant toad (zapos grandes)
Fireflies (kieva plata)
Kinkajou (cuyuso )

Then we played "Shut the Box" with Martín and Victor.

Jan 1, 2012 Around the House

Carol resting on the porch

The porch

The courtyard in the center of the house

Bill, the cook

View from the house

Stu with Little yellow-shouldered bat (Sturnia lilium)

Missy with little yellow-shouldered bat

Big Bat!  Great fruit-eating bat (Artibius literates)

Victor with Great fruit-eating bat

More for Dec 29 2011

Stu feeding Estella

Bill and Stu repairing mist nets

Frog at the capture site

Jose taking a picture of Jamaican fruit-eating bat (I think) that Stu is holding

Missy logging data

Stu with a Seba's short-tailed bat (I think)

More from Dec 30 Las Campana

Stu taking measurements

My first vampire!

Common Vampire

Christian with scorpion

Scorpion at the trap site

Carol, Missy and Stu working through ID of a bat

Common vampire biting my glove

These are photos from our night of netting on Dec 30 2011at Las Campana.

Missy setting up nets.

Jose and Marlon setting up an Anabat detector

Dec 31 Las Tortugas

Unfortunately my camera broke on arrival to Escamaquita.  Today is a get things done around the house, so I have time to sort through photos that Carol took for me and post a few.  Below are pictures from Dec 31.
Martin y Muneco;
Stu, Virginia, Jessica, Victor, Bill, and Missy at a turtle nest; Signs from the Refuge.

Dec 31 San Juan del Sur

Today we slept in, then about noon we took Martín in to town because he wasn't feeling well. Unfortunately the clinic closed early for the holiday.
Carol took Martín home while Bill, Stu and I wandered around San Juan del Sur. We did some shopping and window shopping is the various shops and sight-seeing, then met Carol for a late lunch at El Timon. I had lagustina con salsa (lobster) with rice and fried plantains and two Toña beers for less than $20.
We had been seeing these straw men around the area and we learned that they are called Muñeco de oja seca and they represent the old year. They are set on fire at midnight to escort the old year out.
For the evening we drove south along the coast to Refugio de Vida Silvestre La Flor to look for sea turtles (tortugas). Martín was still not feeling well, but we took Virginia (27), Jessica (12) and Victor(9) with us. There were no more laying female turtles on the beach like Carol and company had seen last month. We did however see hundreds of baby turtles (Ridley's olive) hatching out of the sand. The refuge has staff and armed guards to protect the turtles. Our guide encouraged our two young guests to help gather turtles and release them in the water. Victor had never seen turtles before and was very excited to help. Even though Virginia was born just down the road, she had never seen baby turtles before. The trip was a big hit.
Once back at the house, we had Flor de Caña rum and some dessert wine while playing "Shut the Box," a dice game. We all headed off to be "early" at about 11pm, with the sounds of music and occational fireworks around us as we get close to 2012.
A very good day.