Monday, February 7, 2011

Week 4 Already?

So we hit fit February and it suddenly dawns on us, this must mean that it’s week 4 already! All of the volunteers went for a trip down the coast on their 3 day ‘Long weekend’ to Puerto Viejo. 18 tired faces returned to base on Sunday evening looking decidedly worse for wear, but the staff can’t work out whether that was due to their weekend antics or the boat ride from hell (involving everyone disembarking and wading through mud because the water in the canals was so low!).
Surveys continued once more on Monday morning with our usual collection of Biodiversity Assessment, Bird surveys and Track counts. A new record was set on the North Forest Trail when the team saw a flock of 12 Collared Aracaris flying overhead. Always an interesting sighting, even though we regularly get 4 on base. On the North Boundary Trail they discovered a slightly rarer mammal, however. A Tayra was spotted climbing down a tree and scampering off into the distance. As has been the case previously, no one managed to get a photo (yet), these creatures seem to be incredibly camera shy.
The weekend also saw the visit of 7 Project Coordinators and Country Directors from other GVI projects in the Americas. We showed them all the sights and sounds of the rainforest and everyone had a chance to hear about what goes on elsewhere in GVI, especially interesting were the community projects; a completely different angle to our endeavours.
Sadly, we have just less than 2 weeks of surveying left before we have to bid farewell to our 5 Weekers. They will no doubt be action packed and time will continue to fly by.

Collared Aracari – Pteroglossus torquatus
Tayra – Eira barbara


Share/Save/Bookmark

0 comments: