A hike like this covers a lot of elevation, about 1,000 feet from the Rio Cacao to the top of the Bamboo forest, and a lot of habitats. But much of it is rather thick and even when I see something there can be no chance for a quality photograph. Or I see a lizard or poison dart frog and know that chasing it around for a photograph will take a lot of time and likely end up with nothing as they disappear under a log before any decent photo can be taken. But I rather enjoy seeing all these things, and photograph what I can. Here is a set of photos from today's hike.
Just headed off for a couple hours to cover a few minor project details but generally looking for wildlife. Saw a ton of things and some I was able to photograph. I started on the Rio Cacao trail, headed up the North Loop trail, then up into the bamboo and past the Mudd Pond, and finally back down the Access Road. A hike like this covers a lot of elevation, about 1,000 feet from the Rio Cacao to the top of the Bamboo forest, and a lot of habitats. But much of it is rather thick and even when I see something there can be no chance for a quality photograph. Or I see a lizard or poison dart frog and know that chasing it around for a photograph will take a lot of time and likely end up with nothing as they disappear under a log before any decent photo can be taken. But I rather enjoy seeing all these things, and photograph what I can. Here is a set of photos from today's hike. And finally, some bats. Not handling bats makes it hard to get them to species. I am putting these up as Artibeus phaeotis as that is what they look like, but haven't really done the dirty work to make sure of this ID. I will change or confirm this ID after I come out of the field and have some time to look at the photo closely.
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Few like cockroaches and most would not like them in or around the house. At the Firestone Center we take a different approach and for the most part just let things be. So finding this giant peppered cockroach on the side of the building causes no alarm or need for action. Just photographed it and left it be.
Of note, these things are somewhat popular as pets, which doesn't surprise me as it is just over 4 inches long and really kinda cool. Some folks like dogs, some like tarantulas or giant insects. But certainly not the mainstream pet. While it is not my place to describe in great detail the science being done at the Firestone Center this summer, I can summarize things a bit and describe what we are doing in the field. And what we were doing in the field today was going for a long walk across the entire Reserve placing camera traps as we went. It is so nice to see animals and pretty cool to hear animals, but the fact remains that there are many more animals on the property than we see or hear. So to understand the whole wildlife picture we, literally, take pictures. Camera traps are just cameras that are triggered with a sensor when an animal walks by, taking either still photos or video of the animal. These images can then be looked at on a computer and most often the species of animal can be determined. Placing cameras in locations likely to have animals moving through is key, and here are Leta Ames and Sara Freimuth placing a camera trap along the Firestone Center's border with the Hacienda Baru's property (old growth forest). Lots of very cool animals come onto the FCRE from this large old forest, so having a camera trap here could score something nice. So, lots of camera traps are out there just waiting to record the wildlife. And of course, somewhat humorously, they will record us going by as well as we struggle up the hill in the hot sun, or pouring rain as the case may be. A second science project relates to a web-making spider here, and so two students are keen to find and start seriously looking at these spiders and their webs. While setting up the camera traps we were able to locate a couple webs. And oh dear, the first one was... So instead of some web along a dry road, the first study spider was over water and I will let you know that the pond is quite deep and another step forward she would have been waist deep. Well, the next one had to be easier, right... So much fun, but only so much time. We had to head down the hill and figure out a late lunch and get on to other work. But we were not in so much of a hurry that we didn't still look for spiders and set up camera traps. And some of the wild things we saw walking back down the hill... And finally, a very striking-looking tortoise beetle. But not one I have seen before here at the FCRE and in the time available have not been able to identify. Beautiful animal and I will update this post with a species if and when I can figure this gem out.
In the afternoon, I set up a mist net to do a night demonstration netting for the students and others who were interested in seeing how bat work is done and of course see some bats and learn about them. Setting up a simple little 9-meter net across water I figured would be perfect. For a demonstration project I need to catch some bats and a few different species of bats but not catch every bat in the forest. This is primarily educational and not scientific, so I have to have time to actually talk about the bats and their ecology and bat work and well in general do more teaching than dealing with bat science. I really do not want to be swamped with bats, nor catch nothing. And it was perfect. Sorry, super sorry and totally sorry that I do not have any photos of the bats. When doing demonstration/educational stuff I already handle the bats long enough without taking photos of them. They need to be free, flying and feeding more than I need a photo on such nights. I may find some bats for photos on this trip, but not on this night. But there were other things out there as well. Just 10 meters from my net was a very cool and very large grasshopper nymph. The adult is the largest grasshopper in the Americas. And not trying to be a scare-monger, but the forest can be dangerous and just 20 meters away from where I put up my bat net was a Fer-de-lance, pretty much considered the most deadly snake in the western hemisphere. I was working and didn't have my proper camera gear when this snake was discovered just three feet from Warren walking along the trail, so please allow me this photo from my phone. This is a highly venomous snake, and was very aggressive while we watched it, so could not get a great shot, but wanted to include it here as a very cool wildlife sighting.
I had hoped to get up most or all of the bat coins in one stretch of blogging, but didn't happen. I do want to get back to my regular photo blog structure at least for most of the summer as there are, and will be, a lot of great photos.
So to start things off I offer up... a leafhopper from the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma. Not my best photo from this great area of the US but it is the photo I was looking at when I figured out I had better get back to blogging. I love these little 1/4-inch red-eyed beauties. This cockroach nymph was seen in Fruit Bat Cave, Mulu, Malaysia (Island of Borneo). This cave is either in, or near the boundary for, Gunung Mulu National Park, and is a fairly recent discovery. Not super big by Borneo cave standards, but a nice cave with some interesting bits in it.
Of note, this cockroach seems to have no eyes. A couple of butterflies are named after design elements on their underwings that look like punctuation marks. The question mark, comma, and green comma, hoary comma and gray comma are the ones I know.
Here is a Green Comma, alternately called the Faunus Anglewing. I am selling a few fossil insects in amber on Ebay so had this photo handy. This one is quite an attractive little thing. Depending on what study you believe, it is either around 40 million years old or 25 million years old. Old either way.
This female dragonfly was hunting and perching in a hedgerow along a grassy field at the Lowville Forestry Demonstration area in New York. Males are red.
A caterpillar that is nearly invisible on grass.
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