One of the primary reasons we were interested in this cave was to sample the ammonia levels under what is one of the larger colonies of cave bats in Costa Rica.  To do this required Guy to build essentially from scratch a tripod-mounted sampler that had five chambers that opened and closed at a programmable interval.  Got that?  

So what happens is that each of the five tubes near the top is spring-loaded, and you push one down and load an ammonia absorber into it.  Then you do that for the other four.  Guy previously hooked this up to his laptop and programmed in for the thing to work so that each tube was open for a couple hours before closing again, giving five samples over the course of a day.  Also key was that at that point we had to go and change the absorbers and it would hopefully be low tide.  The tide charts were consulted and Guy programmed his contraption to be timed with the tides as well.

So off we went at low tide, which was of course quite late at night when all the good people of the world should have been asleep.  At the cave entrance Guy got the thing out and ready to go.

Next was to lower it to the bottom and get it inside before a wave could come crashing in and soak it.

And finally, Guy installed it in the cave and checked things over and all was good I in the world.

For all intents and purposes, this was as far into the cave as we could go.  The climb right behind Guy was un-climbable, but we could actually see the end of the cave from there once we got a stepladder into the cave later.  Wait...climb was un-climbable...you had a stepladder in the cave...and...didn't use the ladder to do the climb???

All true.  It wasn't unclimbable due to the structure of the cave or it being too high.  Depending on which direction you are reading my blog you either know why, or the next post will answer exactly that question.

While at Campanario I saw white-face capuchins and howler monkeys (which of course were also heard howling).  But this sleepy monkey was high in a tree and at the time I wasn't able to hang around and hope for a better look at it.  So while Don asserts with British certitude that it is a howler, it sure looks like it only has 4 fingers which would make it a spider monkey.  So, here is one to guess at.

Every time I post an image of a great blue heron, I say it will be my last.  And then I post another one.  In order to fix this I shall hereby state that this will not be my last great blue heron image, as for some reason I just keep coming up with reasons to post pictures of them.

This most patient bird was on the beach right in front of the Campanario Biological Station.  And it would stand there for long periods of time, while only once catching a fish.  It ate a couple little things it found near the rocks at one point, but it's fish to time ratio was pretty relaxed.

Now what does a person do when they are at the ocean and a larger than average wave comes in?  Toss up their hands and let it go by, right?  Now what does a great blue heron do when they are at the ocean and a larger than average wave comes in?  Here is the answer...

Also on the beach was a spotted sandpiper.  Not sure if it is resident or heading north.

And finally, to end on a colorful note, I ran into this shining honeycreeper down the shore a ways.  Quite stunning birds and must say I didn't do a great job capturing the colors, but what a striking bird to see.

Well, it's that time again.  My blog is widely known as a good place to see some creepy stuff.  These aren't super creepy I suppose, but I'll put them all up here for the lovers of cool animals that may or may not be the most friendly.

First up, let's just get this one out of the way.  As it was, quite literally, in my way on the trail I was walking.  When I asked about how common the fer de lance was in the area I was told that not all that long ago a female had apparently given birth nearby as they were seeing a lot of small ones.  And so I was hoping to see one, and sure enough there was a small one right on the edge of the path.  Pretty snakes, but best to see them and not step on them as they can be a bit aggressive.

Not too far from the snake I found another of those things that make wearing open-toed shoes a less than stellar idea.  This scorpion (Centruroides sp.) was tucked in up against a root, so not an amazing photo.  In general if you startle these guys they duck into a hole or under a rock so I just let him be and got the best photo I could.  I pretty much don't move or bother the things I photograph, even when I can't get the photo I would like.  I'm not working with the animal so no need to bother it other than with a photo.

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One of the most common things out there were spiders.  How do I know?  Well many species have eyes that reflect in my headlamp at night and in places there were many dozens of them looking at me.  Some nice big ones, too.  Not the eyes that were big, but the spiders.

This spider was one of several large ones I saw on tree trunks.  Many others were on the ground and there were some truly enormous web-making spiders (Nephila clavipes) as well.

One fairly fascinating animal I saw was a tail-less whip scorpion (Family: Amblypygidae).  These are pretty harmless, although they look wicked and I suppose if you grabbed one those spines on the pedipalps might give you a good poke.

One of the last things I saw wasn't creepy in the usual sense, more prehistoric-looking.  Some of the lizards can be quite interesting to look at up close.  I haven't had any time to identify this one yet, but it was very attractive and was found sleeping on a palm leaf.  Sorry to wake you up my friend, but a quick photo and you can go back to dreaming reptile dreams.

The first thing we did upon arrival at Campanario was to take a walk to the bat cave and rig a rope for access.  It's a sea cave so we really weren't sure how easy (or not) it would be to get in there.

At the entrance Guy rigged a rope that could be used either for rappelling or as a handline depending on how difficult it would be.  Sometimes rocks can be quite slippery, and nice to have the rappel option.  Don gave it a quick try and found that it worked okay as a handling as things weren't slick and there were a few foothold in there.

The other key factor here would be how much water comes in when a big wave hits.  It was mid-tide and so generally dry, but we quickly learned that it would be best to plan on getting wet.

From this little bit, we decided to mostly try and time our visits to the cave around low tide.  

We have just returned from Campanario Biological Station in southwestern Costa Rica.  One extremely nice place to stay and study things run by the most amazing Nancy Aitken.  I want to thank Nancy right up front for all the hospitality and help with our bat cave work and making the whole trip work out so well.  And as a side note, the food is so good there that as a caver one might start to worry about adding a few pounds and not fitting through everything they used to if you stay too long.

I can't write a whole description of the place, but you may visit their website to learn more about this field station

https://www.campanario.org/

We took a boat out of Sierpe, down through the mangroves along the river, and out into the Pacific ocean.  Bit of rough water right where the river meets the sea, but our boat captain circled until he saw a gap in the wave pattern and got us through with minimal bashing about.  Kudos to him, as he really knows how to read the water.

At Campanario it is a wet landing, as in there is no dock they just back the boat up to the black sand beach and you jump out.

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Mostly all this is stuff chucked on your shoulder or hand carried to dry ground.  For some reason Don seems to have thought this was a luxury tourist resort and, well, ended up trawling his wheeled luggage across the sand.

The Station itself I can not do justice to in a photo.  It maintains a small footprint with maximum usefulness, so pretty unassuming when seen from the beach.  But oh yeah, they've got it all worked out very nicely and working here was super easy.  And did I mention that the food was amazing?  

And it didn't take long to see some wildlife.  This red-tailed squirrel was bopping around in the trees beside the Station and cute as can be.  Things were now in place to spend a couple days figuring out the nearby bat cave and hiking some trails to see some wildlife.

My internet has been pretty iffy but that squirrel photo looks great in my files but terrible here to me.  I'll check and upload it again later.

It has been a real struggle to get the Costa Rica pics up.  But it will be impossible for the next four days or so as I will have zero cell/internet coverage at the site.  Please be patient as there will be many more Costa Rica pics coming up, but after this post there will likely be a delay for some days before the next post.

Sorry I can't blog live every day, but the places I go just don't support it.

Not too much to say here.  These were the only bats we saw in any of the other sea caves we visited today besides the one with the big bat roost.  They appear to be in the genus Carollia, but can't do a species on them as I did not handle them and measure stuff.

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Don McFarlane, who honestly owns and wears a kilt at times, organized this bit of madness to Costa Rica.  We are looking at a number of relatively small caves with relatively high levels of bat populations, bad air and bad chemistry.  For a renowned caver I must say this is one of his more hairbrained ideas.  Yet here I am and looking forward to every bit of it.

Today's mission was to a cave in southwestern Costa Rica, a sea cave, with a bat population of around 800 individuals of three species (all in the Pteronotus genus).  There just aren't all that many caves here, so the bats that need caves can really pile into even a small cave that fits their needs.

While we have visited this cave before, this time was mostly just to retrieve a data logger that was placed in the bat roost.  No big deal, just go in, get slopped in the guano muck, and get out with the tiny bit of electronics that has been recording atmospheric data for many months.

However...this time the tide was several feet lower than we have ever seen it, and we were able to walk down a beach that was previously pounding waves on a sheer cliff face.  To our surprise and good luck, there were more caves.

One was a tunnel that cuts through the rock somewhat parallel to the beach.  Beautiful, but not too exiting for bats or other cave stuff.

Another of the caves had the usual joint-controlled main passage going in straight from the shore, but there was a little bit of apparently phreatic passage going off on both the strike and the dip of the rock (the dip passage is behind Don and not visible)

After hiking the beach that wasn't there last time we visited, we finally went back and retrieved the data logger in the bat cave.  And, for one more bit of science Don mapped the carbon dioxide levels in the cave from the entrance to the bat roost.  As expected, CO2 was much higher at the roost.

Probably a bit about this photo is needed here as well.  This is Don, holding a CO2 sniffer, below the bat roost.  And while it looks like it is snowing, that's not exactly the case here.  All those white spots are either fungal gnats or Tineidae moths (no way I can really tell).  Fine, but they are attracted to light so a caving headlamp essentially is a great way to attract them into your eyes or up your nose.  Such fun.

Otherwise, there were numerous giant cockroaches on the floor and it was raining in the cave.  No, not water rain, but just think about standing under 800 small mammals and you get the idea of what was raining down.

And...looking up from where don was standing I took a quick snapshot.  The bats are just carpeting the top of the fissure.

I have featured Guy (pronounced Gee with a hard G) before, but he deserves another mention here.  Guy is a stellar caver with a penchant for designing, and building, specialized stuff for cave science.  His home-built rebreather that allowed exploration of the back end of St. Clair Cave in Jamaica is the stuff of legends.  

Here we see Guy with his latest creation, an ammonia sensor with timed pistons that open and close at programmable intervals to use in a bat cave with very high levels of ammonia.  Oh yes, studying bat roosts has its difficulties, and bad air can be one of them.  We will be using much safety gear when we get to the cave where this equipment is needed.

That said, it remains a bit of a mystery of current Belgian fashion, as this was not what I expected.