Normally they will let you get within 2 to 3 meters before flying off, but when on the nest they just stay put and I was able to get right up next to this one for the photo. Very attractive birds and not sure I really captured how pretty they are in the pic.
The common pauraque, a bird in the nightjar family related to the whip-poor-will, likes open spaces and nests on the ground. During the day they don't much fly and are pretty much invisible due to their coloration, but since they are night fliers they do have special eyes. Which glow bright orange at night when hit with a headlamp, and I easily spotted this female on a nest beside the access road at the Firestone Center.
Normally they will let you get within 2 to 3 meters before flying off, but when on the nest they just stay put and I was able to get right up next to this one for the photo. Very attractive birds and not sure I really captured how pretty they are in the pic.
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At the Firestone Center there are a fair number of gladiator frogs (Hypsiboas rosenbergi) but we don't really see them all that often. However, right now they are breeding and it is easy to spot the nests. On my day hike of the property I found a couple nests and visited them last night to see what was up.
These frogs scoop out a roughly to almost perfectly circular nest in the mud near the shore of ponds and marshes. This holds water even during periods without too much rain, such as now during the dry season, an odd time for frogs to decide to breed. Here a male has called in a mate and they are in amplexus, which is the frog version of mating. The female will lay eggs with the male on top depositing sperm on them as they are laid. I took their picture and left them to go on about making more frogs. I spent a little time after dark up at the ponds on the top of the property, which was quite fun and froggy. Out in the forest at night, by oneself, there is always a chance of seeing something really nifty as well, and this one counts. I actually had finished my frog photos at the ponds and was walking down the trail back to the Program House when I saw this most beautiful boa constrictor (Boa constrictor).
The snake, which is generally arboreal here, was totally wrapped around a plant not but a foot off the ground. Never have seen one this low, and could even have been hunting mice on the ground. Lovely animals and great when I find one. I am reasonably confident that I will be able to get a species on this snake at some point, just not right now. Looks like a coral snake but there is also a false coral snake here and other similar snakes. Lots of snakes. So it is either a keenly venomous reptile or a harmless cutie. I did not handle it to try and figure out which was correct. Looks like a female to me, so likely a breeding population around here somewhere, and certainly a black phase or maybe getting close to molting as the coloration was very much obscured. And I suppose it would be nice to put up a close up of the important part of such a snake, the head.
Alright, this has been a real struggle to get anything up given the conditions here in Costa Rica, but finally got all the pieces together and can put up a couple posts tonight. And, without further ado, finally, another photo on the blog which has been very quiet during the winter break. These toucans can usually be found on the property, and are heard calling most days. But getting a real nice look at one can be tricky. I was just starting a hike of the property at the Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology (FCRE or Firestone Center for short) when I saw this beautiful bird. it was, surprisingly, alone as I generally see two or more of them together.
One night while out walking looking for frogs I saw this very cool egg mass. The young have hatched, and honestly I am not sure what species is involved here.
The slaty-tailed trogon is just one of the most beautiful birds. We were over at the neighboring Hacienda Baru to get permission to catch some of their mosquitoes (how hard was that!) and I got a chance to take a short walk to the beach. Along the trail was this trogon just sitting and hunting as they tend to do. But while taking a couple photos it made a quick attack flight and landed nearby with a large caterpillar in it's mouth. Even though I wasn't all that far away, there was no way to see what kind of caterpillar it was. But when I looked at the photos it is clearly one of the snake-headed caterpillars. I am not really sure of the ID even from the photo, but probably Hemeroplanes ornatus which is one of the sphinx moths. Very cool, so take a close look at the caterpillar and you will see two "eyes" and a very triangular snake-shaped "head". So totally cool that the bird wasn't fooled by this obvious defense strategy, probably plucking it off so fast it didn't have time to do the "look like a snake" thing. These caterpillars are even known to make a striking motion and really have the whole snake thing down. And as an end note. Most animals seem to prefer to eat prey head first. So, the bird gave the caterpillar a quick flip toss spinning it around so the head was at the beak. And down the hatch it went.
One of the student projects this year is to identify the various species of mosquitos at the FCRE. They are off to a good start by capturing quite a number of the little buggers in mosquito traps. But the real test will come when they start trying to figure out the species. They will be looking at something like this through a stereoscope to get the work done.
Today we went over to the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. They are amazing with rehab animals. They get in hurt animals or confiscated pet trade animals or well anything that isn't suitable for just tossing back in the forest. We got to see the veterinary clinic there and it is top notch, with capabilities to do everything from disease testing to literally putting in metal pins to set broken bones. Every animal they get goes through a very rigorous process to fix it up and get it back to rights and then release it back into the wild in an appropriate area and in an appropriate way. And this process is way too complicated to cover here, but they currently have some pretty neat animals so wanted to put up some photos. Monkeys are notoriously hard to release, as they are tribal and a new arrival may not be accepted. This spider monkey is probably at the sanctuary for the rest of its life. This female white-faced capuchin has a chance at a wild release, which would be fantastic. One amazing couple the sanctuary is this brocket deer and an agouti. There is a story behind that includes the poaching of the deer's mom and then the baby deer being confiscated by the authorities and taken to the sanctuary. The agouti was a young one as well and bonded on the deer. Now they are inseparable. When we walked by the agouti was sleeping on the back of the deer but they woke up. Totally cute couple in a very odd relationship. Another ball of cuteness they had was a collared peccary only about a month old. There is a really nice resort situated at Alturas, and got a chance to check out the view from the tourist area and pool. Would certainly not be a bad place to take some vacation time.
http://villasalturas.com/ Well time for a bunch of cutie photos, and I'll start with another photo of a variegated squirrel. This animal showed up this morning and we have no idea how it got here. But you just walk by it as it sits on the porch and it will jump on you and climb up to your shoulder and ride around. Seriously. And it is a slightly different color than the ones we have on the FCRE property so we can only guess where it came from. Very tame pet squirrel that someone did a midnight drop off here? I have no clue, but this is an attractive animal and we are happy to see him but we do not keep wild animal pets here. Maybe he moves on and gets back to being a wild animal or not. Time will tell.
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Keith Christenson Wildlife Biologist Archives
September 2021
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