Finally falling into a smooth pace

 12 & 13 Octubre 2020

        Monday was another trial in working out all of the kinks. We returned early to CF06 to reshoot the line and finally maintenance the station. The line was shot properly the first go around, so we did lose much time attempting to fire, retrieve, and refire a line, which is always a huge relief. A little bit of time was lost attempting to bounce the weight bag over the tree limb. In a way, it almost turned into a game, which we all ultimately lost. But it wasn't a big deal, it just meant that I would have to climb through a few extra branches to get to my final destination. The smooth start we were off to didn't quite last. On the ground, there were some issues getting the audiomoth to configure properly. The laptop was recognizing that the device was connected. Of course, being in the tree, all I could do was shout out instructions to the ground team. It was one of those moments where I was thankful for the team I had because they waited patiently for me to visualize the screen and walk them through the whole process because the configuration file would not open. Regardless, we had the whole station up and running, finally!

Having a laptop in this environment is surreal. Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt

        Feeling relieved, we hiked off to the next tree feeling a bit more accomplished. It seemed as though things were finally going to plan. Moises climbed up to the station at CF01, while Nicholas and I were on the ground, taking a few minutes to look for some critters to photograph. We had a good time bonding while looking fervently for a Gartered Trogan that would not seem to stop moving. It was at this tree, that I realized the chord we were using for the audiomoth was not working as intended. I had 3 different micro-USB chords and I spent nearly 45 minutes trying to get the laptop to recognize the audiomoth to no avail. From this point forward, I decided the best move forward was to bring the audiomoths back to camp and configure them. Total bummer. It was frustrating to know that after 3 days, we still hadn't completed a station. At the very least, we had changed out the camera batteries and SD cards, as well as recorded all of the habitat data, so the next visit would be short. 

Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt

        That's just the way of fieldwork.

        Tuesday was the first smooth (relatively speaking) day in the field. Our team successfully checked the stations we visited, and there would not be any need to return to any of these sites. The first tree of the day (ironically named Segundo), went off without a hitch. On our hike over, we saw several beautiful birds. At the tree, while Moises was climbing, Nicolas and I had a wonderful conversation about the importance of the work we were doing. We had been talking about all of the life that occurs in these trees, with epiphytes often holding water that animals come and visit either for a drink or to hunt for prey. Beyond just my study species, we're recording several different animals in these trees and it really does show how important trees are to maintaining biodiversity. It really is just incredible to see and experience.

Nest along the hike

        On our way up to the next tree, Nicolas spotted a Botrops asper right by where I was about to take my next steps. Apparently, I have a penchant for almost stepping on these snakes. Nicolas and Moises held an impromptu photoshoot with the beautiful snake, while I went to start setting things up at the tree (since it was only 5 meters away). As I looked up at the tree to check in on the station - I noticed something was off - the line wasn't quite where it normally sat. Further inspection revealed that the line wasn't just off, the branch my station had been placed in was off. A storm or something had likely caused it to break and now there was no station at all. 

        Immediately, I assumed the worst. I half-heartedly searched for the station, but I was convinced we wouldn't find it with how this session was going. Thankfully, Moises was there to keep me thinking positively and actually found the station on the ground, in near perfect condition. Apparently, the camera had been on the ground since March, but the audiomoth was still in working condition (not the camera though, it had been upside down and collected water in the battery tray). I removed the bracket from the downed branch and re-set the station back on the same tree. Despite having lost some data due to environmental conditions, I still felt accomplished in completing two trees and knowing we wouldn't have to hike back to them at the end.

That's not where the camera is supposed to be!!! Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt

        Since there was still daylight and we still had energy, the three of us decided to keep pushing onwards and to hike the bags closer to the next camera. In the long run, we would have had to make the hike the next day, one way or another, but I think we all regretted our choice a little as we hit a long section of muddy, downhill trail. I had forgotten how much of a battle each step was to get through this muddy trail. And although my legs hated me for it that evening, they were thankful the next day. 

        That night, I had an experience that I wish I could forget. While I was sitting at the table, transferring data, I felt a sharp pain in my upper arm. I quickly swiped my hand over the area and looked to the ground to see what the source was only to see a winged bullet ant on the ground. First, I thought it had only bitten me because the pain wasn't that bad, but then this fiery pain began to increase in intensity. To me, it started as a burning sensation but transformed into a sharp pain, like getting a tattoo you don't want. All I could think about were times when friends have said they want to get bit, just for the experience. And for those wondering what it's like, all I can say is painful. Very, very painful. It is not an experience you want to have. Needless to say, I did not sleep that night.

13 Octubre 2020 - Nicolas

        Todo el es fuerzo de las caminatas ha rapido la pena. Mi cuerpo se adapta cada día más al es fuerzo. Los paisajes cada día son distintos, vemos muchos tipos de animales y hoy en particular vimos un víbora bastante grande cerca a uno de los árboles que íbamos a escalar. Este proyecto me ho enseñado que cada rama de cada árbol en el bosque es importante.

Botrops asper. Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt

13 Octubre 2020 - Ryan

        Today Shawn, Dany, and I went down to manage the station outside of Camarones. The tree sits on a steep hill on the edge of a stream, so we almost had to slide down to get to the climbing end of the rope. Once the rope was in place, I climbed up and quickly sent the station down to Shawn and Dany to download. In the meanwhile, I worked to clear some of the branches and leaves from in front of the station to decrease the amount of waving leaf pictures we got. After completing our work at the station, we dropped down into the stream to take some water depth measurements for the Camarones potable water project. 

        With those measurements in hand, we took turns being brought up to the start of Punta Vista on Dany's motorcycle, where we began the climb to the second station of the day. The hike took longer than expected, but we eventually made it and dodged bullet ants to set up the climbing rope. In the tree, I recorded a few short videos for social media, downloaded the data, and returned to the ground, where Shawn had realized some moisture had gotten into the camera. Thankfully, we had a replacement camera, but it is always unfortunate to lose equipment to the elements. With that, we finished up our first two-tree day of fieldwork for the trip!! 

Off to a slippery start

 10 & 11 Octubre 2020

        Late Friday night, Nicolas arrived at the reserve from Colombia (note: members of the team all had to test negative for COVID-19 before they could enter the country). Saturday morning, I had the chance to finally meet him and plunge us all right into the fieldwork. We did get started a little be late because it took us a little time to sort out all of the gear for two different teams, but it was still morning when we hit the trail. Nicolas, Moises, and I started with some of the trees in the reserve while Shawn and Ryan set off for the trees near the finca.

And we're off on the trail!

        We found the first tree of the day, WF04 (aka Hot Tuna), with relative ease. Everything appeared to be in working order and it seemed like it would be a simple process. However, after I climbed up, I realized I couldn't reach the point I needed to lanyard too. We'd let Shawn and Ryan take the side-kick (an extension pole with a hook), so I tried using Nicolas's snake hook. It was just barely too short, curse my short arms! I tried for probably 30 or 40 minutes to get myself to the proper spot when Moises asked if he could give it a shot. Determined, he climbed up and got over to the station which success. I'd say I was jealous, but I'm not. It is such a relief to have people with good aim on my team (Becca with her ability to fire the big shot without multiple failures, and Moises with his ability to throw the lanyard). Teamwork makes the dream work, you know.

A truly excellent team

        That tree done, I figured we could at least start hiking up to the next tree to leave our stuff close by. Of course, Galivan is not an easy hike. I would say, it is much nicer than the Three Forests Trail, but it is not hiked very often, and it shows (basically, there's a lot of points where it is difficult to discern the trail and there is a lot of over-growth to navigate around - all of this up while going uphill). We took a very relaxed pace up, and because of this, we did get to see some beautiful birds on the hike. Near the top of the trail, I realized that I may not have grabbed plastic bags to keep the backpacks dry overnight. When we finally reached the intersection with the next trails, I checked the backpacks. Suspicions confirmed. Danggit! I was not about to hike the bags all the way back to the house just to bring them back the next day, so I told Moises and Nicolas to wait with the stuff and I'd be back in an hour or two. As quick as I could while not wiping out on the steep trail, I took off for the house. Thankfully the bags were easy to find. And the timing was on my side. I made it back up to my field team just before dark so we could stash our weather-proofed backpacks and get back to the house before it was too late.

Toucan spotted from the trail. Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt

        On the way down, I did feel some frustration at only completing one tree when Becca and I had been easily completing two trees a day at the end of our season. But I reminded myself that it was just the beginning of the season. That feeling diminished even further when we met up with Shawn and Ryan. It turns out that if the audiomoths lose their charge, the configuration (when to record and for how long) is lost. On top of that, none of the laptops we had with us had the software needed to configure the audiomoths. So, at some point, we would have to return to the first tree to configure the audiomoth, and tomorrow, we would need to go into town to download the software.

A tour of the canopy using a GoPro

        Sunday morning, while enjoying our coffee, we were delighted to see some Ecuadorian Capuchins climbing near the bamboo house. Several of them were consuming the seeds of an Inga tree, which was incredible to see. Several species of Inga trees are utilized to help restore soil fertility and this sighting could indicate that capuchins aid in forest regeneration. How cool! After the capuchins left, Shawn made his way to Camarones with the laptops in tow. It was early afternoon by the time he arrived back at the house, and he explained that to download the software, he had to collect all of the binaries and make the executables himself because all of the firewalls kept blocking him. At that moment, I was simultaneously so relieved he'd gone down to do this task and impressed because I would have never known to do such a thing. If it were me, I would have kept hiking until I found somewhere where the firewall wasn't blocking me and who knows how long that would have taken?

        With the audiomoth stuff sorted, we set back up the trail. The trail beyond where we left the backpacks was as brutal as I remembered it. There are definitely points where you have to get on all fours and essentially crawl up because of how steep and blown out the trail is. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the tree, the climbing line was just not there. The station was still in place, so I knew it was the correct tree, but there was no sight of the bright yellow line. We suspect that because the tree is right on a property line, someone saw the line, cut it, and took it. All I could think of was how, on Friday, we had made a climbing plan and we thought it was possible to get all of the stations done in just 5 days. That was if all went according to plan. But, of course, in the wild nothing ever does. And, you know, it probably would have been pretty boring if everything went as expected so we kept our heads up. After all, it would just be that much sweeter when everything did go to plan. 

        To top off an already difficult day, as I was trying to think of a new plan, we all heard a gunshot not terribly far from our location. My heart began racing at the proximity of the sound. Nicolas and Moises asked me what we should do. I told them just to keep talking, maybe a bit louder, too. It was likely the gunshot was from poachers, but, out here, I know they are terrified of getting caught and won't approach us. But, it was still another grim reminder that we are on the frontlines of conservation. 

        At least on the hike back to the house, I spotted a tayra scurrying off which gave me something to smile about.

10 Octubre 2020 - Nicolas

        Llegué ayer a las 11:00 pm y nunca hubiese sospechado que iba a haber tanto trabajo. Hay que hacer caminatas largas con muchas subidas y bajadas pronunciadas y bastante peso a cuestas. Además, cuando llegas al lugar al que estabas caminando, hay más trabajo que hacer. Aun así, todo el es fuerzo vale la pena porque el paisaje es hermoso y las fotos de los animales tienen mucho significado.

Dart frog spotted on the trail. Photo credit: Nicolas Bentacourt

10 & 11 Octubre 2020 - Ryan

        Shawn and I began the week of downloading stations on Marquez's property. We knew going into that day that we'd be moving the first camera to a new tree because the original tree was being triggered by all of the grasses in the pasture below the camera. On the way to the tree, we kept our eyes open for a potential tree and spotted one almost immediately on the edge of Marquez's farm. With a new tree selected, we quickly moved on to the original tree to remove the station. After a slight detour, we eventually found the tree and pulled the rope to remove the station. With the station down, Shawn took off to the new tree while I continued up the hill to download data from a ground-based camera trap. We met up again at the new tree where we had to wait out a short rain. 

        Just as we were about to jump back into work, Marquez showed up to chat and distract us. We'd only been speculating 20 minutes before if we'd run into Marquez or not, I bet he felt our presence there. After some laughs, we eventually got back to work and installed the station. However, just before descending, Shawn realized that the audiomoth wasn't recording on schedule. After some thought, he realized that we had lost the previously programmed recording schedule when the batteries died. So with that unfortunate realization, we called the second tree off and headed back to the bamboo house to share the news with the rest of the team. To end our first day of fieldwork, and forget about the audiomoth issue, we had whiskey before retiring for the night. 

        To start the day, Shawn headed down to Dany's house to download the software for the audiomoths. Despite some hiccups with the internet and accessing the files, he returned successfully. After reconfiguring the audiomoth for Marquez's property, we headed back out for the day. Since everything was in place from the day before, the installation was quick and easy. We then took off to download the other station located on the finca. In route to the second station, we stopped to retrieve a couple of kestrel drops (microclimate data loggers) that had been left in different sites on the finca. 

        It was during this time that we realized we were covered head to toe with tiny ticks! We tried to remove as many as possible but knew it would be impossible. So we hurried to our next tree and worked quickly to change out the batteries and download the data. Once back at the house, we began to realize just how many ticks and bites we had suffered during this day. Little did we know how bad we would be itching over the next few days and nights!      

And we're back!

  9 Octubre 2020

        On October 6th at around 2 am, Shawn and I finally arrived back in Ecuador to head back out into the field and check on the cameras and audiomoths that have been sitting unattended for practically 9 months. With how the year had been going, I was not convinced the trip was going to actually happen until we were driving away from the Quito airport. I could feel the excitement that we would finally be able to proceed with data collection and that my masters was moving forward again. All this after feeling like I was on pause for months was such an incredible relief.

        We spent two days in Quito preparing supplies for the field. In these few days, it was remarkable to see the difference in COVID-19 precautions. Where I am based in the U.S., not everyone takes the masks seriously. Businesses will require them on the premises and provide hand sanitizer, but in Quito, you were required to wipe your feet, be sprayed with disinfectant, use hand sanitizer, and have your temperature checked before entering most indoor locations. Anyways, on the 8th, we were finally on the road back to Jama-Coaque. We took a different route than usual, so it was neat to see different sights of Ecuador that were mostly new to me. For the most part, though, the drive was uneventful. At one point or another, all of us were trying to get some shut-eye. The only true stop made along the way was to grab groceries in Pedernales. The great thing about stocking up on food for three weeks is the shop owners typically are so thrilled by the massive purchase that they'll start throwing in extras. Which was definitely the case for us. Each time I looked over, I could swear the woman was giving Ryan extra fruits to go with the purchase. Seeing acts of generosity like this never fail to make my day.

        One of the most amazing things about the bamboo house at the reserve is the constant improvement that is made. This time when we arrived, the road had just been resurfaced in light of the intense downpour that nearly blew out portions of the road. The government had been in the town of Camarones to re-do the road and Dany, the field operations manager for Jama-Coaque, ran into them. He asked if they could fix the road leading up to the reserve, but the contract only covered the road through town. He offered thirty dollars and a chicken, and they accepted the deal, meaning we had a smooth drive up the parking area by the reserve. Simply amazing! When we walked up to the bamboo house, we were amazed by the new floors that had only recently been placed. This time, the floors were smooth and there's not the concern of tripping over a nail. To top it off, Dany left us some flowers in a vase.

       But, we came with improvements ourselves. The reserve purchased some large solar panels so we wouldn't have to rely on a gas-powered generator. In the coming days, we will be installing them, along with working to fix the hydro-electric dam to ensure our power is 100% renewable.

        Alongside that, we had two packs of fairy lights to wrap around the banisters of the common area and the kitchen. With all the settings the lights have, we called them 'party lights', but in coming times, they could serve as a deterrent to people stopping by the river to illegally shrimp since the lights are solar-powered and visible from the trail to the river (making it appear as though someone is always around). 

        Friday, the 9th, was set aside for practicing, planning, and installing the solar panels. Another incredible aspect of this trip is the number of people we have to aid in checking CAIPs this time. In addition to Shawn, Ryan, and myself, Moises and Nicholas are joining for this maintenance period. Moises is a student from Quito who is interested in ecotourism and aspires to be a nature guide. He may also complete his undergraduate thesis work at JCR! Nicholas is a friend of Shawn's from Colombia and is considering getting his graduate degree in the U.S. That all said, we'll have enough people that we can divide and conquer on these trees, which I am beyond excited about.

        Anyways, for practice, Moises, Shawn, and I visited a tree that has a canopy camera but is not part of the project. Shawn showed Moises the ropes (ba dum tsss), while I worked out the logistics of collecting all of the habitat measures I decided were relevant based on my research. Moises, being a rock climber, took to tree climbing like a fish to water. I also felt confident about collecting the habitat variables, so Shawn went to help install the solar panels, while Moises and I went to practice on one more non-project tree.

View from the bamboo house

        To say the next tree did not go according to plan would be accurate.

        This tree, Shawn and Ryan warned us, was in a thicket of bamboo, so I was prepared for a rough climb, having to clear thorny bamboo out of the way. As an aside, I know some of you may be thinking - Jackie, bamboo isn't thorny! Trust me, it can be - just search for guadua bamboo thorns. Guada bamboo is the strongest species of bamboo and the only species native to South America, and it has some CRAZY thorns. Back to my point, we found one end of the climbing line just fine, but, for the life of us, we couldn't find the other end. We spent nearly an hour searching for it when Moises found where the other end had been tied, and snapped. That was a shame, but I figured we could still salvage the hike out by practicing tying the anchor on. However, as we were starting to set the anchor, Moises heard a noise from above. He looked up to see what it was and a monkey pooped on his eye! I'm not sure if it was on purpose or an accident, but we took it as a sign to move. We flushed his eye out with some water and then booked it back to the house. Thankfully Moises was totally okay, his eye was fine the next day, but I don't think either of us will ever forget that day.

This trip, I decided to change things up a bit with the blog and asked that my field partners write about their experiences. So, here is one from Moises.

9 Octubte 2019, Moises

        El día anterior, estuve muy contento de haber llegando, tuve grandes expectativas y emociones conjuntas por estar en un lugar tan tranquilo y poder respirar aire fresco, pero nunca me hubiese imaginado lo que viene a continuarión...

        Fuimos al primer árbol, muy cerca de la casa y tuve que cargor una maleta muy pesada, pero no la sentí, por la razón de que estuvo cerca, escalamos el árbol y fue super grandioso. Horas después regresumos a casa para el almuerzo para nuevamente salir a otro árbol, pero esta vez, solo Jackie y yo, fue corta pero muy empinada, al llegar allí buscamos la pequeña y uuuuhh! Después de mucho tiempo lo logramos, pero rota!! 

        Gue un poco triste porque en verdad quería escalar ese árbol, así que decidimos solo practicar a poner el anclaje y lo que pasó fue de película. Mientras armábamos el anclaje empezamos a escuchar ruidos en el canopy de los árboles y yo escuché como caían cosas así que decidí regresar a ver y una bola de caca cayó justo en MI OJO!!! Fue una experiencia muy dolorosa y asquerosa. Pero manture la calma y Jackie me ayudó a limpiarlo y quedó muy rojo y toda mi ropa con olor a caca de mono. Desde es día supe que este trabajo no iba a ser fácil.