Jamaica- Day 7

So it's my last morning in Jamaica and I am determined to at least do a short walk around the town as my last attempt to see some birds. I didn't see much other than a lot of American kestrels, doves, pigeons and mockingbirds. There was also another Bananaquit.

The most interesting thing I observed was a hummingbird trying to scare off an American Kestrel.

 But the kestrel ultimately ignored it completely.

Unknown bush

Bananaquit

 And as every morning the lizards are out sunning themselves in the trees

Unknown lizard

The late morning was spent on the beach again and snorkeling. I was out in the water for over two hours and  I had more success on my own in scattered reef than I did on the large busy reef tour.

This was my first interesting find of the day and probably my favorite. 

Spotted moray eel and small reef fish

 

 I didn't see this founder until I scared it. Then I watched as it tried to catch small fish for lunch.

Peacock flounder

 There were a lot of puffer fish scattered through the sea grass beds.

As I looked back to see the moray again he was trying to catch some small fish. It made for a good pictures so I couldn't resist.

Spotted moray

 I barely noticed these lobster barely sticking out from under a shelf of old reef. It was tempting to grab one for my own lunch.

Spiny lobster

 I saw this gorgeous fish that I didn't recognize. Turns out it is a juvenile french angelfish. They start to swim in odd ways when they are trying to get away from you. This one turned itself horizontally. Maybe this scares away predators somehow?

 Anemones are pretty common on the chunks of reef here and there were multiple species around. This one I found particularly beautiful. There are tangs and a blue headed wrasse in the background.

 This small fish actually followed me back to shore for some reason that still baffles me.

 Another juvenile french angelfish.

Juvenile french angelfish

 OOoops I scared him... but it made him even cuter to take pictures of.

Puffer fish starting to puff up.

 There were a lot of urchins in the sea grass and they attached the grass, bits of shell and other things to themselves. I even saw an urchin wearing a dead urchin shell.

 Another small ray that is the same species as the large one seen before.

 

Sadly this is my last day in Jamaica but I do plan to return to find the Jamaican owl and many other species that I did not see on this trip as well as to visit the many friends I made. I also an very interested in seeing more of the country since most of my trip was spent very close to Negril. The luminescent bay is one place where I am very interested in seeing next time I go. It is famous for bioluminescent zooplankton that glow when you swim.


My advice for anyone visiting Jamaica:
1) Try authentic local food or do one better get them to teach you how to cook it like I did!
2) Rent a car or motorcycle and see the countryside. If you do this. Honking is a very common way of saying I'm here when backing up, taking tight turns, passing etc.  Also cop cars are not always well marked but they will usually be standing outside of their cars in uniform. 
3) Relax and watch the wildlife
4) Do day trips out of wherever you're staying (I didn't do this as often as I would have liked)
5) If you're a girl and not comfortable with foreign strangers talking to you... travel with a guy.
6) Jamaican hospitality is amazing if you can get them to stop treating you like a tourist and treat you as a friend.

Jamaica- Afternoon Day 5

Crab on the beach

For the afternoon we went on a catamaran tour with Red Stripe Catamarans. When traveling I usually avoid tours like this and prefer to find things by myself or get locals that know wildlife to take me to specific places. These tours can give you a good chance to see a lot of wildlife though.

The tour took us to a reef nearby at the far corner of the bay.  On our way there we passes royal terns, fishing boats and a man catching conch in a kayak.

Royal tern

On the catamaran

We went snorkeling on the reef for about an hour or so and I got to see a few things that I hadn't seen in the deeper patchy reef that I discovered on my own. 

Edge of the reef away from the other people

There were squirrelfish, Sergent majors, jackfish, grunts, dusky damsels, blue tang, multiple species of wrasse and many other species.
Blue Chormis are one of my favorite reef fish and there were a fair number of them on the reef here but I didn't see any the day before. 

Blue chormis

 This is a fish I have never seen before but I think I managed to figure out what it is pretty easily.

Indigo hamlet

This reef was definitely well trafficked and that day there were many boats and people around.  I saw some evidence of coral dying 'bleaching' but still saw a lot of healthy coral and many fish. The colouration of certain fish species  (such as squirrelfish) here seamed duller than in other  places where I had seen them.  I am curious if this is indicating declining health of fish on the reef or something else.

Fan corals on this reef were very majestic.

 I saw some things that I had never seen before.

School of unknown fish

 There were a lot of inverts such as sea cucumbers, urchins, worms and conch.

Sea cucumber

 More of one of my favorite reef fish.

Blue chromis

Aurora swimming

We went to a little island at the end of the beach that was near the reef we had gone to that morning. There was a small trail where I saw some interesting birds and insects.

Grey catbird

These very interesting insects were all over this small island.

Unknown insect

Royal tern

Eastern kingbird

Eastern kingbird

Bananaquit

Bananaquit

Spotted sandpiper in non-breeding plumage

Spotted sandpiper?

Little blue heron

Little blue heron

This little blue heron was fishing around the entire time lunch was being cooked and for a while after eating it so I couldn't resist the gorgeous photo opportunity.

Ohh he got something

Last one I promise

I was visiting friends that evening so I didn't go out birding again after an amazing dinner of curried crab and stuffed jack fish that was caught from the catamaran. I do have to take a moment to mention that authentic Jamaican cooking is delicious (If you like spicy food).

Costa Rica 2011 Part 9: Pacific Coast

Leaving Palo Verde, I saw roseated spoonbill, great egrets, tiger heron, wood stork, turquoise browed mot mot, pygmy owl and a roadside hawk.  We headed for our final destination on the coast

On the Pacific coast we stayed at Villa Huetares. The hotel is within walking distance from the beach.

The view from our room

Snorkeling on the pacific coast we saw frigate birds, pelicans, brown boobies, octopi, needlefish, blue angelfish, three species of pufferfish, ocean triggerfish, blueheaded wrasse,yellowtail damselfish, dolphins and flying fish. I didn't see any squirelfish, grunts or blue tangs here.

The beach

I also found out the hard way that I am very sensitive to jellyfish. There were a lot of them and I felt very sick and luckily Liz gave me allergy medicine. I dumped a whole lot of vinegar on it but even hours after getting out of the water it felt painful long after everyone else felt fine.

Some of the girls

 

 The water seamed colder and there was a lot less coral and more rocks. The water was also deeper.

I found it very amusing that birds actually chase fishing boats and steal food from them. 

Birds following a fishing boat

It was sad that this was our last destination. The next day we had a 5.5 hour drive to San Jose where we stayed overnight. We went out to a bar called Cabana as a final hurrah before flying out the next morning. 

Costa Rica Field Course 2011- Part 1 Cahuita Lodge

For University I am required to go on at least one field course or do an equivalent course at Guelph. I couldn't pass up the opportunity so I went to the tropics. The Costa Rica Rainforest and Reef course is amazing. The prof Hamish is equally as amazing. The group of us met up at Pearson airport in Toronto and flew into San Jose and stayed overnight in a hotel there.The area was very nice and we explored a bit but there wasn't many wild areas nearby.

Our wonderful tour bus for the two weeks

View in the city

On our drive to Limon the next day we stopped by the coast just to walk around a bit in a small town.This drive was long and as I was staring out the window I wished I could stop so many times. 

Lesser Kiskadee? on the coast

The lodge we stayed at (Atlantida Lodge) was near Cahuita National Park. It was fantastic. Close to the beach, very wild, nice atmosphere and so much wildlife right there. It rained pretty much every day but was clear for half the day too.

Very pretty orchid at the lodge

I dont know how to flip this around on here yet....

We saw many cool things in the ocean near our resort such as sand dollars. Walking down the dark sandy beach I eventually found some tidal pools in a rocky area. There where urchins, chitons, hermit crabs, small fish and anemones.

Taryn and her buried treasures

 There were always dogs wandering around and these two puppies were the absolutely cutest things ever!

Liz and the puppies on the beach

Many of the local boys played soccer on the beach every day and the group of us would always join in. Most of them spoke very good English and it was really fun.

Beach near the lodge

 We had lizards in our rooms every day and geckos at night...

 And many sloths were climbing around the lodge at night.

Mother sloth with baby holding on after we had a lot of rain

 We were supposed to have a fire on the beach with the group of locals that we played soccer with for two of the days but the intense thunderstorm kinda ruined that idea.

On the beach at night

 To my enjoyment I saw two of my favorite groups of frogs right at the lodge. Poison dart frogs (Dendrobates) and tree frogs (Hylidae).

Green and black poison dart frog (Dendrobates auratus)

Large toad!

 We saw many males and a few female red-eyed tree frogs in a shallow pond with a lot of vegetation that was nearby the pool. These guys were so cute.The males are smaller and brightly coloured but the females are dull and larger.

Red eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas)

  We went birding every morning when I was there but I didn't have any field guides with me. I learned my lesson from that!

The place where we got on a boat to go out snorkeling had a beautiful orchid growing on a sign that I just couldn't resist taking pictures of. So many orchids were in bloom when I went. It was fantastic.

Cattleya?

Some cool invert life was crawling around too

Waking up early to go for a 6am birding walk near the lodge is where I saw:
Eastern kingbirds
Howler monkeys
Black cheeked woodpecker
Passerine tanager
Many iguanas and basiliaque lizards starting to sun themselves in trees

Blue-grey tanager

Black chested jay
Short billed pigeon
Great kiskadee
Grey headed chachalaca
Keelbilled toucans
Oropendulas
Rufus tailed hummingbird
White lined tanager
Clay colour robin
Social flycatchers
Banded back wren
Variable seed eater
Mastetyra- red face white body
Great kingfisher
Melodious black bird
Bright rumped tila
Crimson fronted parakeets
Blue headed parrots

Blue headed parrots nesting in a tree nearby our lodge

A lot of these birds were seen near or on a noni tree that has white fruit that they eat.