Bright and early this morning we went across the canal to the cerro for the mammal transect. The survey was highly based on animals tracks. Our local expert identified which animals they were from and which direction they were going. The tracks mostly belonged to armadillo and red brocket deer. The only live mammals we saw on the transect were bats rooting under logs and cliff overhangs. On our way home we saw spider monkeys near town.
We walked down to the lagoona before lunch along the only road in town. It was one of the few times it didn't rain and butterflies and birds were out in force.
Indigo bunting
Common black hawk
Tenessee warblers
Great crested flycatcher
Common Tody flycatcher
Little blue heron
Broadwing hawk
Turkey vulture
Plain breasted wren
Collared aracari
Black-cheeked woodpecker
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| Caiman |
The night before, Wawa (the German Shepard owned by the station manager)
had bit a porcupine. Chris and a few of the other guys at the station
were recruited to restrain this large and normally very unfriendly dog. During this time I went our for an afternoon kayak trip. The aracari and mealy parrots were loudly chatting in the trees with green iguana basking up high in the branches. This was quite contrasted with the silent yellow-crowned night heron on the branches of fallen trees.
Caiman and Black River Turtles were basking in the afternoon heat.
Orchids seam to thrive in the well lit areas on the canal. They cling to branches and trunks with roots winding across the bark. As well as some familiar species there were many new species. Again the diversity in shape, size and colour amazed me!
Some were large with curly white flowers others of the
Stelia genus were tiny plants with leaves a few centimeters long and the flowers a few millimeters.
Standing up in a kayak was challenging but it allowed for this mediocre photo of a new species of orchid for the trip.
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| Maxellaria sp. |
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| Epidendrum cf rigidum |
The largest plant was an epiphyte with bulbsand leaves over a foot in length. The white flowers had an orange lip and were emerging on short stems from the base of the bulbs.
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| Mormolyca hedwigiae (Maxillaria hedwigiae) |
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| Mormolyca hedwigiae (Maxillaria hedwigiae) |
The weather turned nasty before dark and by the time we started caiman census it was pouring. Any caiman in the right mind would retreat farther into the flooded forests. We saw no sets of eyes glaring back at our flashlights that night. Ringed kingfishers, little blue herons, green herons and oragami herons were roosting in the branches trying to stay warm and dry.
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