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.
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment