Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Jan 11
Today I get pack up and wait for a ride. Took some pictures around the house. Tieki, porch, Zolita, Flaquita, Victor, house
Pictures from Jan 10
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| Dan with the fishing bat ... very long wing! |
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| Walking the beach near midnight |
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| Look at those teeth! |
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| Releasing the fishing bat for Anabat data collection |
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| Missy and the fishing bat |
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| Greater Fishing Bat!!!!! |
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| Orange-fronted parakeet |
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| Carol with a Mayan panther head that Marlon found |
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| Mayan eagle head |
Jan 10 Escameca Grande closer to ocean
N 11.17411 W85.80196
Tonight was my last night of netting. We went to Escameca Grande, but closer to the coast. We were searching for a place where Carol had permission and José suggested this spot. We had to stop and get permission from "Freddy" was National Director of Parks and is now managing this Reserve Area. He escorted is personally to get the key to the gate and got us to the area we were going to net, then walked back to his house. Very nice.
On the way there we saw:
Short-tailed hawk (Buteo brachyurus)
Pacific screech Owl (Otis cooperii)
Orange-fronted parakeet (Ataringa canicularis)
Thick kneed heron?
We set up the triple-high with 12 m nets, plus an 18 and 12 m nets. Just as the sun was setting we caught three solitary sandpipers in the triple. Shortly after that we started catching bats... Including three Greater fishing bats. I got the first one... Way beyond cool!
32 bats, 9 species with the new species of the Great fishing bat (Noctilio leporinus). So my total for species handles during my stay is 24 species.
After we packed up all the gear about 11pm, we drove the short distance to the beach. We walked along the beautiful beach by the light of an almost full moon as the tide was coming in. Very nice end to my Nicaragua bat netting experience.
I said farewell to Christian, with the help of Dan and Jose. I got to thank him for his patience and wonderful conversations.
Home 1am
Tonight was my last night of netting. We went to Escameca Grande, but closer to the coast. We were searching for a place where Carol had permission and José suggested this spot. We had to stop and get permission from "Freddy" was National Director of Parks and is now managing this Reserve Area. He escorted is personally to get the key to the gate and got us to the area we were going to net, then walked back to his house. Very nice.
On the way there we saw:
Short-tailed hawk (Buteo brachyurus)
Pacific screech Owl (Otis cooperii)
Orange-fronted parakeet (Ataringa canicularis)
Thick kneed heron?
We set up the triple-high with 12 m nets, plus an 18 and 12 m nets. Just as the sun was setting we caught three solitary sandpipers in the triple. Shortly after that we started catching bats... Including three Greater fishing bats. I got the first one... Way beyond cool!
32 bats, 9 species with the new species of the Great fishing bat (Noctilio leporinus). So my total for species handles during my stay is 24 species.
After we packed up all the gear about 11pm, we drove the short distance to the beach. We walked along the beautiful beach by the light of an almost full moon as the tide was coming in. Very nice end to my Nicaragua bat netting experience.
I said farewell to Christian, with the help of Dan and Jose. I got to thank him for his patience and wonderful conversations.
Home 1am
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Jan 10 San Juan del Sur
Thus morning was my last trip into Dan Juan del Sur. We did grocery shopping and I did some last minute shopping. Got two small paintings from a famous Nicaraguan artist to remind me of this beautiful place and the great people.
Attached are pictures around town, and a picture of Martín, Victor and Pinto ready to go work in the bean fields today.
Attached are pictures around town, and a picture of Martín, Victor and Pinto ready to go work in the bean fields today.
Pictures from Jan 9
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| Dan releasing a common vampire, Marlon and Jose collecting Anabat data. |
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| Missy, Carol and Dan processing a bat |
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| Dan Taylor with Pteranotis |
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| Male Anole |
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| Marlon and Jose collecting Anabat data |
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| Missy and Carol skyping with Chris Corbin for Anabat troubles. |
Jan 9 2012 Escameca Grande
N11.19467 W-85.75893
It was very nice to get a nice long night of sleep last night. The morning I spent helping Carol work with Chris Corbin to trouble shoot the Anabat detectors. We've had 5 units out and no data collected. It's amazing to be able to Skype with people from here. We think we know what the issues are and hope things work tonight.
A couple of days ago I got bitten up by I think gnats, and man do they itch! Much worse than "no-see-ums" in Colorado! Reminds me of chiggers.. I hope they aren't. Thank goodness for benedril and hydrocortisone at "bed time"!
Tonight we drove back up the Escameca Grande drainage; swapped out Anabat units so we can check those and continue collecting data; installed one new Anabat station; then set up netting about half way between Jan 7 and Jan 6 sites. We put up the triple-high with 6m nets, then two 12m, and one 9m nets across the pools in the river. We were missing Stu and Christian tonight. Not quite the same without them.
On the way in we saw:
Scissor-tailed flycatcher (Muscivora forficata )
Bare-throated Tiger heron (tigrisoma mexicanos)
Dusky ant bird (Cercomacra tyrannina rufiventris)
At the site we found:
Anole lizard
Giant toad
Turtle
Tonight's haul: 14 bats (plus 2 escapees) and 8 species. Nothing new for me but Dan Taylor got to handle/release his first common vampire. I got to get the VERY tangled vampire out of the net. Moon was full, so we took the net down about 10:30pm. Home by about 11:45pm. Downloaded Anabat cards: one worked (yea!), one did not. This one may be the problem Anabat... More trouble shooting tomorrow.
It was very nice to get a nice long night of sleep last night. The morning I spent helping Carol work with Chris Corbin to trouble shoot the Anabat detectors. We've had 5 units out and no data collected. It's amazing to be able to Skype with people from here. We think we know what the issues are and hope things work tonight.
A couple of days ago I got bitten up by I think gnats, and man do they itch! Much worse than "no-see-ums" in Colorado! Reminds me of chiggers.. I hope they aren't. Thank goodness for benedril and hydrocortisone at "bed time"!
Tonight we drove back up the Escameca Grande drainage; swapped out Anabat units so we can check those and continue collecting data; installed one new Anabat station; then set up netting about half way between Jan 7 and Jan 6 sites. We put up the triple-high with 6m nets, then two 12m, and one 9m nets across the pools in the river. We were missing Stu and Christian tonight. Not quite the same without them.
On the way in we saw:
Scissor-tailed flycatcher (Muscivora forficata )
Bare-throated Tiger heron (tigrisoma mexicanos)
Dusky ant bird (Cercomacra tyrannina rufiventris)
At the site we found:
Anole lizard
Giant toad
Turtle
Tonight's haul: 14 bats (plus 2 escapees) and 8 species. Nothing new for me but Dan Taylor got to handle/release his first common vampire. I got to get the VERY tangled vampire out of the net. Moon was full, so we took the net down about 10:30pm. Home by about 11:45pm. Downloaded Anabat cards: one worked (yea!), one did not. This one may be the problem Anabat... More trouble shooting tomorrow.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Jan 8 Granada
N 11.92762 W 85.94218
Today we went to the Cuidad de Granada to drop Stu off with a Paso Pacifico employee to go to Managua for the evening and fly home tomorrow. The "fair well" that Stu received from the Lopez family was so touching. Carol said that especially Martín and Victor have gotten very attached to many of her volunteers. What a nice, loving, caring family!
While waiting for Stu's ride in Granada, we did a little wandering around the town square. We visited some of the craft stalls. One was a Women's Cooperative from Isla Zapatera (www.zapatera.org) that had some great woven items and jewelry made from native seeds. I got a nice seed neckless. We also stopped in an ice cream shop... I had passion fruit frozen yogurt. Yum! We found Stu's ride from Paso Paifico, said good bye, then headed back to San Juan del Sur. In Rivas we came across a great drum band. They were awesome. The two bass drum players were throwing and dancing with their drums. Aaron and his marching band friends need to see the video! It's even more impressive than the CSU marching band "trombone suicide!"We watched them for about 20 min and they were going strong with no sign of slowing down!
We made it back to San Juan del Sur by about 6pm. Too late to go to the grocery store, but we went to dinner in town. The pace is slower, so dinner took about 2 1/2 hours. We got home about 9pm. Early bed time tonight. We'll try going back into town for groceries in the morning, before the Nicaraguan members of the team get in from the weekend.
Today we went to the Cuidad de Granada to drop Stu off with a Paso Pacifico employee to go to Managua for the evening and fly home tomorrow. The "fair well" that Stu received from the Lopez family was so touching. Carol said that especially Martín and Victor have gotten very attached to many of her volunteers. What a nice, loving, caring family!
While waiting for Stu's ride in Granada, we did a little wandering around the town square. We visited some of the craft stalls. One was a Women's Cooperative from Isla Zapatera (www.zapatera.org) that had some great woven items and jewelry made from native seeds. I got a nice seed neckless. We also stopped in an ice cream shop... I had passion fruit frozen yogurt. Yum! We found Stu's ride from Paso Paifico, said good bye, then headed back to San Juan del Sur. In Rivas we came across a great drum band. They were awesome. The two bass drum players were throwing and dancing with their drums. Aaron and his marching band friends need to see the video! It's even more impressive than the CSU marching band "trombone suicide!"We watched them for about 20 min and they were going strong with no sign of slowing down!
We made it back to San Juan del Sur by about 6pm. Too late to go to the grocery store, but we went to dinner in town. The pace is slower, so dinner took about 2 1/2 hours. We got home about 9pm. Early bed time tonight. We'll try going back into town for groceries in the morning, before the Nicaraguan members of the team get in from the weekend.
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