Tracking in Turrialba

Hey all,

I hope everyone back in the states is doing well, I am doing fine. After two weeks volunteering at CATIE (Centro Argonomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza), I feel that I have a strong grasp on radio telemetry and am having a fun time mist netting Toucans and Aracaris. My days start at the crack of dawn around 5am and I end at 6pm with a three-hour siesta somewhere in the middle. I typically walk over 5 miles a day tracking the toucans, taking GPS coordinates, or manning the nets we set up. When tracking we triangulate the position of the birds every fifteen minutes and make any and all observations we can when we spot them. It is fun and tiring work but I am having a great time learning new skills and gaining unique experiences. I also have the opportunity to help another student here mist netting small songbirds, which requires me to wake up around 4:30am, but as they say the early bird gets the worm…or the early field researcher gets the bird. It is such a delicate process holding a wild bird in your hands, especially the smaller songbirds. Since I have been here we have caught two of the Firey-Billed Aracaris and are still attempting to catch their larger cousin the Keel-billed Toucan (looks like the Toucan on the Fruit Loops box). 

The group of volunteers I work with are great too! There are two girls from Philadelphia, two girls from Montreal Quebec, another girl from Minnesota, a guy from New York, another from Maryland, another from Massachusetts, and another who just arrived yesterday from central California. They are all really unique and interesting people who share a common interest in the outdoors and wildlife. On weekends we often go on day or overnight trips to some of the better sites to see in the area. When I first arrived we had gone down to Puerto Viejo to stay and swim in the Caribbean. The water was so warm and the surf was amazing. Later on we traveled the Aquaires Waterfall where we could jump in the water and slide down a natural rock waterslide. There is a Volcano located really close to where we are staying and we can see smoke rising from the top of it, but officials won’t let us summit it because it is too active and there is a high probability of becoming sick from the noxious fumes. However, there are other Volcanoes down here, which I will definitely get to one weekend. We are also planning a trip to go whitewater rafting on some class four to five water. I also hope to get in some scuba diving, which I think would be an incredible experience in the Caribbean.

Well that’s all for now, I will keep you all posted on my adventures to come,

-John

A Caiman inhabited lake on campus

The Turrialba Volcano

A work station in the Rain Forest

Radio Telemetry Equipment

Firey-Billed Aracari

Fer-de-lance Venomous Snake

Aquaires Waterfall

 Puerto Viejo, Caribbean Sea

Landon Jones and the Toucan Warriors

Cloud Forest

Hey Gang,

So I am having an excellent time down here. I have just finished up my stay at the Aula Global Wildlife Reserve in the Cloud Forest of Monte Verde, and have now moved down to CATIE to study Toucans in Turrialba.

The Cloud Forest was amazing. I got to share the entire reserve with just Kathy and Hannah. Hannah was there doing a study on Bee, Hummingbird, and Butterfly pollinators and their habits in primary and secondary forests. When we would help her out we would watch a patch of flowers for about and hour and a half and record all the data we could about it. I also took it upon myself to do some repair work to some of the paths and created a couple steps, I also reconstructed a hanging compost system. Our time there was basically split between helping out in the mornings, then relaxing in the afternoon and the occasional night hike after dinner.

The reserve that we stayed on was created in 2001 and founded by Colin Garland when a Jaguar had been spotted on the property. It is a private reserve not open to the public to reduce the human impact on the wildlife. Although we didn’t get to see any Jaguars, a camera trap had caught on Ocelot on the property just before we showed up. The 700-acre reserve has some unique features to it. On one end of the property there is a lookout where if on a clear night it is possible to see Arenal Volcano, the property is split by a river cutting through it which we hiked down one morning, and on the far opposite side there is a large Fig tree named the Grandmother Tree “Arbol Abuela”, which we bush-wacked to one day.

The reserve is a beautiful and peaceful place filled with wild life. While There we spotted White-nosed Coatis, Emerald Toucanets, Peccaries, lizards, a couple frogs, a bunch of different Hummingbirds and even gotten close enough to hear the call of the elusive and radiant Resplendent Quetzal.

Now I got to get back to tracking Toucans,

Let you know how it goes.

John

Costa Rica!

Hola!

Just arrived down in Manuel Antonia, Costa Rica. For those who dont know I will be in Costa Rica for two months, the first two weeks I will be traveling with my friend Kathy, then I will make my residence in Turriabla where I got a possition as a volunteer field assistant studying the Aracari and Keel-Billed Toucan. Today I went to Manuel Antonio National Park and already spotted a couple three toed Sloths, a bunch of Capuchins, a few Howler Monkeys, two Agoutis, a White Tailed Deer, a Basilisk, and a bunch of othe Lizards... Should be a good trip.


Hasta Luego,

John

Three Salty Dogs

Ahoy Matees,

I have a tale for ye of the high seas that be sure to impress any a landlubber. It started after hitching a ride with two German blokes from Townsville to Airlie Beach, when John and I could not resist the call of the seas any longer. So we set out down to the Marina to find volunteer work on any sea vessel that would take us on. Unfortunately, there be no ship needing a crew, so slightly dismayed we headed back to town to continue our search with some of the local sailing companies and to check all the posting boards we could find. After only a short while we found a posting of a scallywag looking for two crewmates to help him sail the 32-foot “Southport Mentor” from Hamilton Island to Southport, an 700 mile voyage down the coast, and leaving as soon as possible. We tore down the posting and gave Heikki a ring. Two hours later we were on a ferry to Hamilton Island to set sail in the morrow. Heikki, a Finlander who moved to Australia 40 years ago, has been sailing and transporting boats around the Oz and the rest of the world most of his life. We had set sail the following morning by 4:00 am and were heading down to Mackay Harbor, the trip there was relatively uneventful other than the occasional humpback breaching and a review of how to work the sails and man the boat. We arrived in Mackay, refueled the tank, and check the weather prediction for the next day. Accu-weather called for 5-10 kn SSE winds so all was fine for smooth sailing. We left the Marina around 3:30 am but it didn’t take long for us to realize the prediction was seriously inaccurate, winds had picked up to 23 kn with swells over 1 meter high, Heikki was reluctant to say that we had better turn back and try again later. Around 9:30 am we tried at it again but after 3 hours we decided the seas were still to high for the “Mentor” so we turned back rather than continuing the 36+ hour trip to the next port in Hervy Bay. From then on the weather had not cooperated with us for about a week so we stayed in Mackay taking it easy and relaxing by the beach. Finally, the winds turned for our favor and we headed out down the coast. Along the way we spotted many whales performing some impressive breaches, but not nearly as impressive as the delicious Spotted Mackerel that we caught on a tow line off the back of the boat. We arrived in Hervy Bay around noon the next day when we noticed there was some gas in the oil; we had to stay over for two days when we waited for a new valve to be mailed in and installed in the motor. We set out again around 3:00 pm the next day and after about 15 minutes or so we got caught in a sandbar that Heikki said had “moved” since the last time he had been in that Marina. So we flagged down a dingy that was coming into port to tie onto the Main Halyard and pull the boat sideways so we could motor out into deeper water. After less then a minute we were free and on our way sailing down the Fraser Island through the Sandy Straight and Cooloola Colored Sands passing Sea Turltes, a Dugong, and a very close encounter of two Humpbacks. We had Finally made birth at the Southport Marina in Gold Coast around 7 am the following morning, then made breakfast and washed down the Mentor. Heikki offered to let us stay on his boat “Daily Rate” for the night so we could plan out our next leg of the trip. We’re thinking about hitching up to Brisbane for a week then heading down the coast again to find more HelpX hosts. All in all it was an incredible experience getting to sail around Australia and I could only help but think how proud my Grandpa, Jack Mellor would have been to know what I had been up to. I am having an incredible time here and I am so fortunate to be able to take on this adventure. I hope everyone is doing well back home and know that I despite all the fun I am having I think of you all often and am looking forward to seeing everyone when I return home.

- John

Another interesting fact about the “Southport Mentor” is that it is the very same boat that Jessica Watson learned to sail on before she set out on her around the world sailing trip. She did it when she was only 16 years old and currently holds the record for the youngest person ever to do it.