Costa Rica Part II: Monkey Business

I'll describe my stay Curu, Costa Rica on the Pacific Coast.

The number of lizards here is impressive, both in species and total numbers I saw a lot of them. This is the place with the most monkeys I saw anywhere. Curu has three of the four monkey species found in the country; I saw spider, white faced capuchin, and congos. The congos were the easiest to find as they would howl at the farm equipment from trees along the road into the reserve. There were also a couple of congos who would approach the main house for food. White Faced Capuchins visited our cabin a couple of times, and a troop of them could usually be seen in the treetops on their way to or around the main house early in the morning. Other interesting finds were scarlet macaws flying overhead (heard others in the jungle), good snorkeling tours depart daily (schooling fish, eels, lobster, puffers), coati & deer (found while horseback riding), and lots of bats. Bats can be found hiding in the gift shop and at night they are quite numerous. There is one semi-tame spider monkey that lives in the attic above the eatery.

As far as the lodging itself, the cabins are very private. There is a good deal of trees/vegetation between each cabin, so everyone has their own little space and beach. The cabins have electricity and running water/toliots. The conditions are quite basic, nothing fancy, but beds with matresses are included. A mosquitto net is recommended for the really uptight, but the cabins are *mostly* insect free ie. you won't be eaten up by mosquittos but you will see a giant insect or two. The food was really excellent, some of the best food of the trip really, no complaints there. There are a lot of trails to hike, and they do not close at a certain time if you are sleeping over. If you visit as a daily guest only, the hours of arrival must be followed as the front gate is locked and you won't be able to get in. I've attached some photos for fun.

Lending a Helping Hand

Lots of folks like to do a little something to help wild life. Here are some ideas I've gathered that are realistic things just about anyone can do to help.

• Visit a bird sanctuary or wildlife rehab center. Even a donation of a few bucks or sponsoring a single animal will make a difference. They often need supplies as well, so you may have things around your house that are useful as gifts. Sponsoring an animal often gets one special privleges, such as a backstage pass, as well.
• Create a butterfly garden. This doesn't take much space or water and requires no pesticides, as many plants suitable for butterflies are also well adapted to your local conditions. In addition to books, conservation departments and community colleges have one day courses on creating butterfly gardens.
• If there is a nearby park with a lake, I'd be willing to bet in the summer evenings you will see bats there. Ask the local parks director if you can sponsor a bat house for the property. On public land, I think it's best to locate the bat house where people won't look up into it and disturb the bats or rope off a small area around the bat house. One could also put up nest boxes instead of bat houses. In the east where there is a few acres of prairie, grass, or other open land, purple martin houses might be erected. The martin houses are not cheap for a quality one, but they will last a long time. The design should be custom made for the martins in a way that helps exclude sparrows. I've also seen the hanging gords with martins in them.
• Some people suggest that feeding animals, such as with bird feeders, is helpful. I am no expert, but I have to say I am not convinced that this is the case. I've seen more than a few hawks that have learned to wait for lunch at birdfeeders. Many birdfeeders are also placed in yards with cats/dogs. In many cases, I wonder if bird feeding is not simply luring birds into predator rich grounds. Teaching mammals to frequent human dwellings is not a good idea either. Many garages are laden with mice posions and dangerous chemicals. It is also been suggested than without the proper care, feeding stations might become a source of disease.
• Volunteer to improve habitat on public lands. Depending on your location invasive species may need removed, controlled burns may need to be conducted, or a park watch may be needed to reduce misuse of the park.

Locking up Stealth Cams

I've heard of stealth cams being stolen. I also have some concern that someone might pop out the memory card and batteries. To address these concerns, I decided to lock up my digital stealth cams. Stealth cam sells locks for 14.00, but I found I had all the supplies on hand I needed to create my own lock. I am using a bicycle chain lock around the tree trunk. I connect the chain to the stealth cam via a small padlock. This also prevents entry to the memory card and batteries. This setup new would cost around 8$ at a department store.

Blanchard's Cricket Frog

Cricket frog's are easy to find along pond shores. Notice the wartiness.

How Nocturnal?

I often find raccoon, such as this one, during the daylight hours in both in urban and rural areas. Apparently, some people believe this means such raccoons are ill (being active in the daytime). I've checked with several conservation employees and none have correlated daytime activity with ill health. Enjoy raccoons, in day and night... just don't forget to purchase quality garbage cans.

Look where you grab

Today, I found a speckled kingsnake hanging out in a tree cavity. Here are a couple of shots.

Leaping Lizards

Here is a beautiful male fence lizard I saw today.

Deer stalking

I managed to get pretty close to this guy. All good things must end though, and he eventually heard me and fled the area.

Toad transformation

I've been spotting lots of toads testing out their newly aquired hoping skills. There are still lots of tadpoles left in pools waiting to turn onto land as well. I found about 20 tads in a lake overflow this morning along with hoardes of these guys.

Streamside

I stumbled upon this yellow crested night heron today. One of my favorite birds.

Film & Processing

Film and processing are racking up. I've started using a digital stealth cam to scout out new areas. Once I find the best places to put up cams, I'll go back to the MC2 for its picture quality.

Dear Cries

I found 2 small deers crying for mother. I heard them long before I saw them. Here is a very blurry photo of one of them.

Bat House

Today I made the mistake of looking directly into a house filled with little brown bats. It's not only birds which poop on people! On a side note, I saw my first Cave salamanders today. They are really neat, little guys.

Loose, Domestic dogs & feral/stray cats

In many nature parks I visit, offleash dogs are a problem. I am contacting the parks whenever I see this behavior as it has always been unlawful in the parks that I visit. It would be helpful to both other trail users and animals in the parks if more people would inform the parks departments of these infractions. If I have cell phone signal, I have been able to contact the parks quite easily through the information service on my phone. I am usually asked for a description of the dog and (if present) any associated person(s)/vehicle(s). It would be helpful if anyone calling this kind of information in notice a few of these details when possible.

As far as feral cats in neighborhoods, I have found these are very easy to trap with a medium sized live trap. A very good bait I have used in the past is canned Jack Maceral which can be found in grocery stores. Pouring some of this on newspaper is good enough to draw in any nearby cats. The cats can then be taken to the nearest animal control office. Despite what some self-serving interest groups claim, I have found that when I trap the cats they are not so quickly replaced. Generally, removing them has produced good results. It is simply a matter of using the right trap and bait so as to get all loose cats in the area. Another effective strategy has been to find their source of food, often apartment dwellers or store personnel. Once these sources have been identified, I have had good success explaining my concerns to the building owners. I cannot remember of a single incident where notifying a building owner has not resulted in a change of behavior.

It is unfortunate that so many people dump cats or let them run wild where they are ran over, become a source of disease, and become a nuisance for people and wildlife. Let's all work together to get cats where they are safe and belong, indoors.

Last Nights Catch

Ever wonder who crawls inside hollow logs at night? I've answered this question for at least one downed tree in the woods by placing the MC2 inside it. The only problem is too much light in the tunnel, if only I had a slower speed of film on me!

Carry Pack

For a typical walk in the woods I carry a small backpack.
My current pack list:

• Flashlight (for looking in holes by day and scanning by night)
• 12" ruler (to measure tracks)
• binoculars (useful for scanning shorelines for reptiles, looking for birds, etc.)
• Poncho
• First Aid Kit
• Extra Batteries
• Compass

Natural Landscape Ideas

One of the things most landscapes need is a ground cover. These might work for areas that do not need to be walked on and would certainly offer wildlife much more cover than a lawn. Both species can grow well with a fair amount of shade as well. Virginia creeper (to the right) is low growing as a ground cover, much better for brick than english ivy, and offers good fall color. As a ground cover I usually see it at less than a foot tall. (Top) Jewel weed offers a taller ground cover (think waist high or a little less) with redish flowers in the summer. Legend has it that this plant can be used to relieve Posion Ivy irritations by rubbing its leaves onto one's skin.

Black Crested Night Herons

Walking along a prarie pond I came across some night herons. I've attached a couple of photos for everyones' viewing pleasure. The top picture was of a different bird sitting in a tree overlooking the pond. The bottom picture was of an individual stalking the shoreline.

MC2 in action

Here is a picture of the MC2 in ACTION. There is plenty of light for sure, this was shot using generic 800 film.

MC2 Rewind ^%%$

The MC2 reqind feature is frustrating. The camera shop owner says this is a common flaw he has seen in this camera. Fortunately, he was already experienced at rewinding by hand. Unfortunately, I've ruined two rolls of film already! At least I've finally got it in my head to stop checking to see if the film is rewound, it won't be, so from now on I am just taking the whole camera in.

The woods were fairly active today. The photo above is a little friend who posed and insisted I take his photo before departing.

Herpetology

The leaping lizards, turtles, and more have been out in force. Here are some photos of recent finds.

Costa Rica Part I

The Costa Rica trip was some fun. In part I., I'll describe Tirimbina. The staff was fabolous, the AC'd lodge rooms clean & bugfree--actually more like an upscape hotel than a jungle lodge, and the food was some of the best of the trip. Real, unprocessed food and cooked just for us.

We saw tucans, parrots, dozens of bright-colored birds (too many species to list and many unidentified), sloths, wolly opossums (on the bridge at night), giant toads, ghost frogs, blue jeans dart frogs, white tent bats, green basilisks, kingfishers, herons, ducks, congos, iguanas, etc. The tours we took were chocolate tour, boat tour, night tour, and bat tour.

Duck Levee Walk

The daytime, duck-levee walk was very successful. Most of the group spotted a mink (which I missed). Alerted to their presence by calls, several of us were able to see racoons in a strip of forest. Great Egrets and posed for the cameras while cuckoos and dickcissels sang for us.

Camera is up

After my last roll of film was exposed, I called stealth cam. Apparently, the MC2 rewind feature is flakey. I am told I should detect an audible difference when the film is rewound. At any rate, the camera was placed on a tree this afternoon in an area that should attract minimal human attention.