A Mixed Bag

Costa Rica's dry season is reaching its peak in the months of March and April - the hottest temperatures of the year, rivers have all dried up leaving nothing but a few few muddy pools. But perhaps surprisingly, there is still plenty of wildlife to be found and many of the trees that have resisted desiccation are producing fruit and growing new leaves. Because of the abundance of fruit, this is also a good time of year for the Scarlet Macaws to start learning how to survive outside of the aviary and so we have begun releasing Group 2. 4 of the 6 are now flying free in Islita and the other 2 do not have long to wait!

June - the first macaw of Group 2 to be released in Islita. He was selected for this honour due to his curious and cheeky but affable nature. Since being released June has learnt that there are many rocks and pebbles to be found in the real world and has made it his mission to try and chew them all.

John the Coati - a familiar sight by now wandering around our compost heaps and eating leftovers from the aviary.

A Gray Fox. This photo was taken fro inside Casa Lapas. Luckily these canines are largely frugivorous and do not pose a threat to the birds.

This is a baby Black Iguana (Ctenosaur). Very different in appearance from the adults who are large, grey and crusty.

Ginger. The Variegated Squirrel. A pair of baby squirrels were given to us by a local vet in order to release back into the wild. So far, rather than adapting to Islita, they spend their time running round the house, stealing food and terrorizing biologists and volunteers alike.

Collared Acari. These striking toucanettes are regular visitors to the release site and seem to get on fine with the Scarlets.

Mantled Howler Monkey. Islita's natural alarm clock - think you might get a lie-in on Sundays? Forget it.

Baby Howler Monkey. This very young monkey was too young to be eating leaves yet but tried to copy the adults all the same.

An Olive Ridley Turtle returning to the sea after laying eggs.

Some sort of gecko/lizard jobby. Pretty though eh?

Nurse shark caught whilst night fishing from the rocks. We returned it  to the sea but took this photo before it disappeared!

People! (Not many of those in this blog). San Juan Del Sur in Nicaragua is a popular spot for surfers, beach bums and biologists who have to cross the border to renew their visa every 3 months.

Thing's That Go "Bump" In The Night

Click here to see the latest wildlife that we have caught on a camera trap placed just outside Casa Lapas!

Twitching

It has been some months since our last confession. Things have been hotting up over here - both in terms of temperatures (reaching into the 40s) and work. We have been organising film crews, construction of a new project tourism centre and preparing for the imminent arrival of another 22 baby Scarlet Macaws to the release site here at Islita. Additionally, we have had 4 small earthquakes in the last 24 hours! However, amongst all the excitement, we still managed to snatch a couple of hours here and there to go and photograph the local wildlife. This post is dedicated to some of the more feathery Islita occupants. There are 894 bird species in Costa Rica, here are 9 of them...

Any bird-post here would be incomplete without at least one macaw shot. This photo combines 5 exposures of a Scarlet launching itself from a branch.

Blue-Gray Tanager eating some sort of spikey fruit (hey, I'm not a botanist)

Great Kiskadees are very inquisitive. Our house happens to share a territory with this individual who helps himself to our hammock, sink and even knocks on the windows!

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - a winter resident in Costa Rica's Pacific lowlands. This is the first we have seen here.

Collared Aracari eating wild guava fruits using a specially elongated bill.

Sanderling? Maybe? Or some sort of wader...

White-throated Magpie-Jay... or "Blue Jay" for short. Very vocal birds that can produce a bewildering variety of strange noises.

A Whimbrel jumps to avoid the waves. These birds are easily identifiable by a down-curving bill and are common along the coastline.

Brown Pelican soaring across the Pacific in the rising sun.

Manzanillo

We have spent the last week working with Great Green Macaws on the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica in a place called Manzanillo. Manzanillo is very different to Islita - enormous primary rainforest trees tower overhead blanketed in moss and epiphytes. High annual rainfall means that nothing ever dries and as a result, colourful dart frogs leap underfoot and brightly coloured vipers lurk on shadowy branches waiting for them to approach within striking distance. 

The Green macaws themselves are very impressive - there are only 319 left in the wild in Costa Rica, 15 of which have been released by the project here. Much bigger than the Scarlet, they soar through the forest -  iridescent feathers flashing in the sun. 

An eyelash palm-pit viper. These are extremely common on the Caribbean slopes - we saw 4 in our week here. Rarely longer than a metre they sit waiting for days at a time waiting for frogs or lizards to pass by.

A pair of White-Crowned Amazonian parrots looking across to the mountains in Panama.

A tiny Anole clings onto a twig. The male Anole displays its dewlap (a colouful flap of skin on its neck) to impress females.

A Great Green Macaw blends into the jungle with more subtle colours than Islita's Scarlets.

A subspecies of the Blue-Jeans dart frog - these brilliant red amphibians carpet the jungle floor.

A Mantled Howler Monkey climbs to a lofty sleeping position overlooking the Caribbean.

All macaws are very social and interact with each other constantly throughout the day.

A green and black dart frog enjoying a rare patch of sunlight on the jungle floor.

The bullet ant - only an inch long and generally accepted to have the most painful sting in the animal kingdom.

The Scarlets

It is the start of the dry season here at Punta Islita - temperatures rise to between 30 and 40 on an average afternoon rendering most animals and biologists inactive during the middle of the day. 

But, this seasonal change also brings with it powerful Pacific winds bending the trees almost every morning. This means just one thing for the macaws: TIME TO FLY!!!

We have two groups of macaws at the moment - group 1 have been released and living wild for over a year now, and group 2 live in a flight aviary and should be ready for release in early February 2013.

Group 1 spend their mornings &  evenings flying in formation and break-neck speeds across the valley - performing mid-air acrobatics; playing and fighting as they go. Not to be outdone - Group 2 have started practicing formation flying (admittedly only for the 16 metre length of the aviary) but it is an important step towards their future release.

Seth stretches out his crimson feathers in a sharp upwards bank.

June bombs across the aviary as the last rays of sun disappear behind the hills.

Group 1 heading out towards the valley - making the most of some rare cloud cover.

Ted swoops down low - making sure the biologists have not forgot his 16:00 sun flower seed feeding.

Seth peers through the boughs of the mighty Guanacaste tree in which the birds spend much of their time.

Ted and Harry swoop upwards - glowing in the setting sun.

The Neighbours

Meet Harry, one of the 7 macaws to have been released so far in Islita. Harry is the probably the most human-friendly member of the group and will often fly down to see what you are doing.

A jumping spider found outside the house. Only about 5mm across.	Laughing Falcon, so called because of its song which sounds a bit like...	A squirrel of the Variegated variety. Fairly common round these 'ere parts.

The Great Green Macaw. This one is in the Breeding centre. There are only 300 left in the wild in Costa.	Juvenile Spiny Iguana (adults turn brown and boring) just outside the house.

This is a harmless Whip Scorpion (although they look BAD). About 15 cm across. This one lives in the kitchen.	Coati (sort of like a racoon). We get almost daily visits from this fella, who tries to steal all our food.	Brown Vine Snake. Interesting fact - when threatened they will turn to face you and open their jaws wide to reveal a bright purple mouth that confuses predators.

Casa Lapas

Casa Lapas (House of the Macaws) and home for the next few months. The casa is small but functional and most of our time is spent on the porch area - eating, drinking, sleeping and keeping an eye on those pesky macaws who are often not far away. 

Click on the photos for a bigger view!