MINAE Shore Bird Survey

Conducting the survey. Photo credit - Loraine Grant

Minae (The Ministry of Environment and Energy for Costa Rica) recently asked us to carry out a bird survey of the shore birds in the area on Sunday in order to add data from the Tortuguero ecosystem to their ever-increasing database on shore bird monitoring. We assembled four teams to go out to the different locations to carry out the surveys.

Following a brief on what was expected and how it was to be carried out, the teams set out to get started. The surveys were led by our resident bird experts, Alex and Leo. The first two teams set out early in the morning, with Leo’s team heading out along the shoreline from base camp to the river mouth and Alex’s team heading out to Parismina, a nearby town with canals and beach and a river mouth as well. The surveys were repeated again in the afternoon in the same stretches of shore, as some birds prefer the morning or afternoon, and this way we were able to cover all the birds.

A variety of shore birds seen. Photo credit - Loraine Grant

The day was definitely a success, and in the end all main bird groups were recorded, including sanderlings, sandpipers, whimbrels, egrets, tiger herons, blue herons, vultures and plovers. We were even lucky enough to watch a snowy egret eating a huge fish on the banks by the rivermouth! We also watched in anticipation as many of the shore birds came precariously close to the crocodiles which make those shores their home.

Although we were there to be recording all the bird species seen, we were all really excited when we came across some crocodile nests on the beach. Some nests had been dug and were ready for eggs to be laid. But one nest seemed to already have eggs laid in it as the sand was loose and tracks were leading to and from it. Certainly a good find but a little adrenaline-pumping since nesting crocodiles are not to be messed with or surprised!

After this distraction we got to work on the bird survey and continued with identifying and recording all the bird species and their behaviours. We recorded birds as either being in a group or individual. Groups of birds for this survey were to be classed as 20 or more of the same species together, any less than this was recorded as an individual. Behaviours recorded included eating, foraging, nesting, etc.

The final data was collated and sent back to Minae for their interpretation of the data. We all enjoyed this survey, as it was a change of atmosphere from our usual bird surveys, and we all are looking forward to seeing their final report.

-Mark and Karen, GVI interns

MINAE Shore Bird Survey

An Amazing First Experience on Sierpe Viejo

Powering through the thick aquatic grass

Despite having spent 5 months in Jalova, schedules had lined up in such a way that I hadn’t yet seen the much talked about canal called Sierpe Viejo. This last week, I was lucky enough to be able to do a canal bird survey on this rugged and adventurous canal.

Sunbittern, Purple Gallinule, Bare-Throated Tiger Heron, juvenile Boat-billed Heron

Aside from the multitude of interesting birds that are often found on this canal, the waterway itself creates quite a unique challenge to the people in the canoe that isn’t found on any of the other canals. Aquatic plants, such as Water Hyacinth, Lily, various grasses, and others I don’t know the name of, have bloomed in that specific area to the point where certain entire sections of the waterway are simply not visible. The water is hidden beneath a solid blanket of plants. The truth is that this creates an absolutely beautiful scene and sets the mood of the survey as one of adventure and remoteness. However, it is quite a workout getting through!!! And in fact, some survey teams simply aren’t able to get through and have to abandon the survey. Fortunately, not only would we get through these tricky parts, we ended up having by far my most fascinating survey in all my time here.

Baby Boat-billed Herons

The amazing sightings started before the actual survey started, as we were unloading our canoe from our motorboat. There was a sunbittern where we were unloading, standing on a fallen tree near the bank. This beautiful bird with astonishingly pretty patterns on it’s wings (when it flies) is not seen very often at all in these canals! The next 45 minutes were exciting too, with sightings of nesting boat-billed Herons, a Purple Gallinule, Tiger Herons, Little Blue Herons, Anhingas, and several more. We also saw Great Egrets in a mating dance, jumping into the air and flapping their wings at each other, kind of fighting but non-violently.

Our survey team reached the difficult part where we had to power through intense aquatic foliage, and slowly but surely made our way through. We were now inside the tranquil and overgrown Sierpe Viejo. For the next hour, we saw loads of amazing birds including a Green and Rufous Kingfisher, more Boat-billed Herons, a Great Currasow, and we heard White-throated Crakes and White-collared Manakins. But the crowning moment to this survey occurred about halfway into Sierpe Viejo when we realized we had found Boat-billed Heron nests.. These tiny birds were covered in fluff and in one nest they didn’t even have their eyes open yet! I have to admit they were extremely cute! Their big goofy-looking broad bills gave away what they were immediately. There was also an Anhinga nest with long-necked bald little creatures in it! This is terrific news as finding nests like this helps us understand to what degree the birds are nesting, and helps show how crucial these canals are for their survival, which in turn helps us work towards continued protection of the park. Our arms were glad to be done with the demanding canal but it was well worth it.

-Kevin, Expedition Field Staff

An Amazing First Experience on Sierpe Viejo

Chicas Surfing!

One of the perks of being a volunteer is that sometimes people like to give you things for free or at a discount, since you are volunteering your time in their community. Most days after school we head to the beach to cool off and relax before tackling our lesson  plans fro the week. Throughout the weeks we have become good friends with the volunteer lifeguards who also give surf lessons.

 After a few weeks of volunteering/beach bumming, our friends the lifeguards (Jhonny and Frank) said they would give us all free lessons and free Jet Ski rides. They lifeguard for free and we teach for free, and according to them volunteers must stick together and help each other out. Since then they have kept their word, and most of us have gotten one or more free lessons and even gotten to drive the Jet Ski.

Last week Casey and I got our first lessons. These guys are nice on the sand, but in the water they turn into drill sergeants. Both of us imagined looking like cool surfer chicks, spending most of our time floating and chatting, and only a small amount of time looking like fools on top of the board. But no... it was the opposite, Jhonny and Frank incessantly shouted commands (only in Spanish) to paddle, get up, and then get back out to sea. For 45 minutes there were no breaks, no talking, no sitting. Just a lot of cardio and saltwater.  Instead of looking like surfer chicks, we probably just looked like drowned rats. Still, between falls we both caught a few waves. The lifeguards are strict but good teachers. By the end we managed to stay on our boards long enough for a few good pictures, and we proudly wore our rash guards that read “If I can do it, you can do it.”

Miriam- Quepos Volunteer

Chicas Surfing!

Community Events in the Parismina Primary School Begin!

Kevin teaching the class

GVI has always had the goal of supplementing their conservation work with community-related events. This isn’t always easy logistically and for a while, our GVI base in Jalova wasn’t able to have an ongoing community outreach program. Fortunately we found ways this last month to budget the appropriate time to create a community program. What we decided was that we would teach environmental education in the primary school in the nearby town of Parismina, a 25-minute boat ride away, once a month. I think most of us would ideally like to go twice a month or more, but given the need for people on base and the need to conduct the right amount of survey work, this seemed like a good balance. Our plan for the teaching is to send a team of both staff and volunteers to educate the childen about relevant environmental concepts, focusing on ecosystems and other topics that are applicable to their lives here on the Caribbean side of the country. For example, we’ll cover ecosystems such as Jungle, Canals, Streams/Rivers, Beach/Ocean and Cloud Forest (which isn’t found right here but is still something most of them will see eventually), but we’ll skip things like Desert or Tundra as there is none of that down here! We plan on building on these concepts month to month, reinforcing previously covered topics and introducing new ones, and doing our best to correspond our own teaching to the environmental education they’ll start receiving in their normal classes later on in the year.

James making some new friends

This last Friday, we were able to finally have our first session. We sent seven people to the primary school, 3 staff and 4 volunteers, and taught grades 1 to 6. I taught the lessons for the day and the other staff and volunteers helped prepare materials, draw on the whiteboard as I spoke, hand out prizes for right answers, run the stations during our small-group activities, and overall keep things running. The lesson for the day was simply covering the 5 ecosystems I mentioned above, talking about what makes each one unique and what adaptations certain animals have that allow them to survive in that ecosystem. The next 5 sessions will cover each ecosystem in more detail, and then we can move onto topics such as human impacts and ways of conserving the environment, and it appears as though we might be able to get the kids out to our base for the day later on in the year for a field trip! Though this isn’t a finalized plan yet.

Our small-group activity

Posters we made with the kids!

The day went well and the kids were very excited. We had a lot of activities that involved them sharing their previous knowledge and getting them to think critically about which animals belong in each ecosystem and why, and it was easy to see how well this type of activity worked. Our small group activities went very well too and we created several large posters, each composed of 5 sheets, one for each ecosystem. The kids were given animal cutouts and had to put it in the right ecosystem. When they got it right they were able to color it in, put their name on it, draw on the big ecosystem paper if they wanted to, and write anything they remember about that ecosystem. We ended up with some nice looking posters!! We were all content with how the day went and I think everybody is excited to go back next time. It’s a good feeling to know that we’re now able to get out into the community and make our presence a bit more known, and hopefully bridge a stronger a connection with the people who live nearby.

-Kevin, Expedition Field Staff

Community Events in the Parismina Primary School Begin!

Saplings Tell the Story of Success

Measuring the transect area

As the song goes...From little things big things grow! It's all well and good knowing how many flowers are produced and how many fruits are eaten but it's what happens next that is crucial for the survival of the Virola species...Offspring. Progeny. Heirs to the forest throne. Seedlings. Saplings. Juveniles. Baby trees!

The next stage in our field research is to record how many seedlings are present around the trees. We take a 50m transect from the parent tree at a known compass bearing and record every seedling, sapling and juvenile tree that occurs along that transect up to 3m either side. Samples of the leaves are collected which will provide information on the genetic make-up of the seedling.

Rolling a leaf up for genetic sampling

This is fun work and generally involves Kate, Juan, Pablo and myself setting out early to track down a pre-selected tree. We quickly fall into our now well rehearsed roles. Pablo selects the bearing for the transect and heads off with one end of the 50m tape. We get our "equipment" together while we wait for him to return. The longer he takes the harder we know we're going to have to work as the terrain can be unforgiving to say the least! Then Juan and Pablo scout out the seedlings we're interested in. Apparently they're quite distinctive however I still struggle to identify them even when I know which one is the right one. My job is to record the information required - distance from parent tree and distance from transect midline, height of seedling, year of it's "birth" i.e. when it emerged from the seed, number of leaves and the species type. This is all conducted in Spanish which is easy enough as it's just numbers which both Kate and I have mastered! Kate's job is to take the leaf sample. She carefully cuts a section of leaf along the mid vein then tightly rolls this into a cigarette shape which is then handed to Pablo who carefully inserts it into an individual bag with silica beads. I provide a sticky label for the sample and we continue to the next seedling.

We usually take 3-4 transects for each tree and can find as few as 10 seedlings around a tree or as many as 35. The information will be mapped to provide a visual representation of where seedlings are located throughout the forest. In addition to this, seedlings will be selected for genetic testing to determine which trees are the parents. All the known male and female trees in the area have been sampled and their genetic fingerprint is known which means this can be matched to the seedlings.

One major draw-back to this element of the research is that it is very expensive. Although it is believed that the Virola trees are quite well suited to this type of genetic matching, the technique is not without limits and potential errors. However the results will provide a fascinating insight into the reproductive success of the Virola trees.

-Helen, GVI intern in Drake Bay

Saplings Tell the Story of Success

Valentines Day love bugs!

February 14th was Valentines day or El Dia de San Valentin here in Costa Rica. So we planned to make an array of Valentines day themed art projects. 

Emily, Allison and I were all very excited because the kids love doing art, especially painting “ Quiero pintar” is something we hear on a daily basis. We knew they would love paitning and decorating valentines days cards and love bugs.  We used lots of coloured paper and of course, lots of glitter. Geiner, as always arrived first and was very keen to make a card for his mum.  

Then more kids came and spread the word we were making valentines day cards and love bugs and before we knew the community centre, the kids, and ourselves were completely  covered in glitter.  A couple of the kids exchanged cards…. Ahh young love, how sweet. I gave my card to a 3^rd grader, Jafet, who was very excited and seemed touched to receive a valentine, however he left it on the boat so maybe he found another valentine?:(

The love bugs were fun to make as well, I think me and the other volunteers had more fun then the kids making them. Things got a bit competitive but Patrick, one of the field staff triumphed with his silver and gold love bug.

It was a great day and lots of fun!  

Courtney - Quepos Volunteer

Valentines Day love bugs!

An Unfamiliar Face On Our Jaguar Camera Trap!

Diego walks by our camera trap with his mouth open!

Camera trapping around the Tortuguero Jalova base has continued to be successful. On the 8^thof February at 9 AM one of the camera traps located at Mile 15 captured an image of an unidentified Jaguar. For an image to be picked up during the day is unusual as the majority of previous images have been caught late at night or in the early hours of the morning. The Jaguar is of fairly large size and has been confirmed as a male because the angle of the photo allowed a clear view of the male area!! This Jaguar is the tenth which has been discovered from our camera trapping project. The others include: Pepito, Ricardo, Molly, Lyra, Alex, Luca, Mario, Bia and Dave.

Diego walks by our camera again 2 days later

The naming of a newly discovered jaguar always causes great excitement in camp, and with the whiteboard open to suggestions, there were more than a few interesting ideas. Some of the names that sadly did not make the cut included: Floppy, Johnboy, Clifford, King Richard, Felix, and El Rock…..! After much debate among voters, and deciding that it would be good to have a ‘Spanish influence’ the names were narrowed down to Alejandro, Alvaro and Diego, with Diego coming out on top!

We hope that with some luck, we will be able to capture Diego on camera again soon! More recently there have been sightings of tracks close to the first turtle nest of the year. Jaguar guru Benji Barca expects that the jaguars are sensing the turtle’s movement, so more activity is predicted as the turtle season picks up.

-Jessica Plumb and Steven Doherty, GVI Volunteers

An Unfamiliar Face On Our Jaguar Camera Trap!

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

In a country that prides itself on its National Parks and environmental awareness and is know for its natural beauty and biodiversity, taking care of the environment is of huge importance in Costa Rica. Unfortunately this message hasn’t quite reached a lot of the people who live here. So the GVI volunteers thought it would be a great idea to introduce a recycling program into the School in El Cocal.

 We spent some time with the kids designing, painting and decorating the recycling bins. We will introduce the recycling boxes to the school next week, explaining to the kids how to use them and why.

Our volunteer Meghan also started collecting rubbish from around the island (to the confusion of many of the locals).  Hopefully with the new recycling bins and Meghan patrolling the streets of El Cocal we should see a cleaner and more environmentally friendly El Cocal. 

Community program Staff - Quepos

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

Early Leatherbacks Hit Our Beach!

Leatherback Half Moon

We’ve just seen our first Leatherback half moon tracks of the season. This is exciting news, as it (along with a Green Sea Turtle nest that we saw as well, and two Leatherback nests along the beach by the Jalova base) ushers in the start of this year’s Sea Turtle season. What is a half moon, you may ask? That’s a good question, and one that I only learned the answer to a month ago when I first arrived here. A half moon is one of two kinds of turtle tracks we expect to see on the beach during nesting season. When a turtle comes up out of the water to nest, it will either come all the way up the beach to dig its nest and then head back to the water; or it will come partway up the beach, and then for any of several reasons will return to the water without having laid its eggs. This second occurrence, which generally happens when the turtle feels threatened or unsafe to dig its nest, leaves a large crescent in the sand, marking where the turtle has emerged from the water, changed its mind about nesting, and turned to head back to the sea. This is what we call a half moon track.

Volunteer Grace stands next to the Leatherback track

Turtle tracks are extremely distinctive: the turtle drags its huge weight (Green Turtles weigh between 144-450 lbs, or 65-204 kg, while Leatherbacks can weigh between 550-2000 lbs; that’s a whopping 250-907 kg!) along by its flippers, creating a straight line at the center from the carapace as it is dragged through the sand, framed on either side by outward-splayed gouges in the sand from the turtle’s flippers. The Green Sea Turtle tracks are 2 to 3 feet in width, already quite wide; but the Leatherback tracks are huge. I could have stood in the center of the half moon track and held my arms out to either side (I have an arm span of 65 inches, or 165 cm) and only barely matched the width of the Leatherback from flipper to flipper.

Green Sea Turtle Tracks

I’d like to be able to take credit for spotting this particular halfmoon track, but embarrassingly I have to admit that I didn’t even see it until I was practically past it. All three of us out on our survey that morning were scouring the upper beach for jaguar tracks, and completely failed to notice the huge turtle tracks lower down on the beach. Only Leo, our survey leader, noticed them and called us back – we stood in awe of the huge track marks for a while (and also in awe of our apparent inability to note something quite that huge and distinctive on the beach) before moving on with a feeling of excitement at our (well, Leo’s) great find.

-Holly, GVI intern

Early Leatherbacks Hit Our Beach!

The smiling faces of El Cocal!

The kids from our Kinder in El Cocal really have a way of making us smile and spending time with them is so rewarding. Here are some of our most regular regulars....

Geiner

One of the happiest and most energetic kids that comes to our kinder. He also goes by the name of Ben 10 as he is normally clad in Ben 10 clothes, backpack, hat etc. Since joining our kinder, Geiner can now count to 5, write the vowels and is working on his shapes and colors.

 

Andi

Or a least that what we think her name is…. She is very cute but does not talk very much.  Every time we ask her name we get a mumbled annneediii or something along those lines.  And if you ask her more than twice she gives up and wont tell you, so we have settled on Andi.  She loves coloring and is eager to learn.

Angel

One of the happiest and most well behaved kids the come to visit us in the centre. He has a wild imagination and loves playing with Lego. He is one of those kids that is more likely to play with the box that the toy came in rather than the toy itself.  Every now and then he will only communicate through mime, we are not really sure why he does this but it’s pretty funny. 

Volunteer Field Staff- Quepos Community Program

The smiling faces of El Cocal!

Sunset Cruise- the hard life of Quepos volunteers

After a great week in the Community we decided to treat ourselves to a Sunset Cruise along coast of Manuel Antonio. All the volunteers along with  Nuri, the project manager, and Christina GVI Costa Rica staff went out for an afternoon of relaxing on the water.

 It was a boat like no other; it was built by the captain himself! The afternoon  included relaxing on deck, swimming in the open ocean, a bit of snorkeling. A few brave souls even jumped off the top of the boat into the ocean. The highlight of the day was definitely following a pod of dolphins...such an amazing sight!

After a beautiful sunset we turned up the music and ended the day with a  bit of salsa dancing on deck.

This was the perfect way to welcome the new volunteers  to the group and just have a fun Sunday before another week of work in the Community....

Quepos Community Program Volunteers Casey (USA) and Christina (New Zealand)

Sunset Cruise- the hard life of Quepos volunteers

Nature's Epic Events - Jalova Episode!

A solitary ant, a scout perhaps, peeks his head into an empty kitchen. A plethora of curious pheromones and smells intrigues him and he races in, determined to find the source. However, what he smells isn't the usual jackpot for an ant – kilo upon kilo of sugar, fruit, vegetables, coffee, peanut butter and jelly – but instead is a thriving population of invertebrates, namely cockroaches. Within seconds he has discovered that there are thousands of hard-shelled, squirmy, fast-moving meals, hidden in the nooks and crannies of this gigantic structure.

He is an Army Ant. He is just one of tens of thousands of individuals that makes up one of the most efficient, unpredictable, and destructive colonies of insects in the world. He immediately releases trails of chemicals alerting the other ants of the glorious bounty he has witnessed. Within minutes, events will unfold that will leave everyone on base standing on benches and crates, watching the floor move around them, yelling in fascination and excitement and surprise and fear, like Frodo on a smoldering boulder, watching lava encircle him on all sides, moments after destroying the sacred ring.

The colony moves into the kitchen with unbelievable speed and determination. Trails of ants break off of the main trail and spread out in all directions, carpeting the walls, raiding all cracks and crevasses, all holes, all corners and joints, under every container and box, leaving no space unexplored. Cockroaches are scurrying out from every imaginable space, fleeing with the urgency and panic of a gazelle in hot pursuit by a cheetah. The invasion has begun.

Within 20 minutes, thousands of ants occupy the kitchen, swiftly moving from the point of entry near the sink around the kitchen clockwise, methodically and systematically eradicating it of all life. None of the ants are static. Every one is seeking out cockroaches and helping to disembowel them. It appears that typically, as a cockroach sprints by, desperate to escape, a lucky ant is able to hook onto it's leg and hold on tight, causing it to limp and stumble, giving the other ants just enough time to grab on. Within 20 seconds, the cockroach is no longer twitching and spasming, invisible behind a blanket of ants. Within 5 minutes it has been completely dismembered, partially eaten by the invading ants, partially carried outside to the other ants of the colony. This is not an exaggeration. Hundreds of cockroach carcasses litter the walls and floor of the kitchen. Most are just a fuzzy mass, an unfortunate soul under a dense swarm of Army Ants. The occasional scorpion defends his ground amazingly well. People's cameras are going off in all directions, and the spontaneous expletive comes out loud as people are unexpectedly bitten on the foot.

Within an hour and a half, few cockroaches remain. The ants begin the second phase of the invasion, and it commences extremely quickly. They begin bringing in their eggs and depositing them under the food crates. Apparently this is the perfect place to start a new base. Some of the ants are so eager to deposit their eggs that they can't be bothered to walk all the way around a cupboard to get to their destination and instead just build a ladder of ants. It hangs more than 6 inches in the air, a mass of pure ants all clutched to each other, with others coming on to lengthen it, carefully getting closer to the bottom ledge where they can continue their mission on foot. The GVI staff quickly intervene with this egg deposition and scatter the food crates. The intervention works and the ants quickly abort the mission and carry all the eggs back out. Within half an hour, the vast majority of the ants are gone, and within 2 hours, not a single ant remains in the kitchen. They leave with the same phenomenal speed with which they came and relieve some stress from the camp duty team who are then able to resume with lunch, a process they were forced to temporarily abandon.

They came, they ate, they conquered. Epic.

-Kevin, Expedition Field Staff

Nature's Epic Events - Jalova Episode!