Speed-Running the Rest

 17 - 23 Octubre 2020

        This last entry is going to be a bit different. From this point onward we only visited one tree a day - and all of these trees were 'revisits'. For most, we were replacing the audiomoths that were not configured. All of our remaining outings were limited to just a partial day, and I feel it is easier to sum them up in a singular post.

        Saturday was a needed day off. I took most of the day to catch up on laundry and metadata entry. For part of the day, I relaxed in the hammock and watched birds fly by. It was great to give my muscles a break from the long days of work the whole week before. Ryan had been interested in cooking with jackfruit so he used the climbing gear and a tall ladder to get up and retrieve one to cook with. It was quite a sight watching him stretch as far as he could and positioning a bag just right to cut the fruit into.

Ryan's set up to get a jackfruit

        On Sunday, while it was a 'day off', we all ended up climbing anyways, because we wanted to. From the house, there was an incredibly tall tree in view and Shawn had figured out where the tree was. We hiked over, set a line, and we all had the chance to climb. This tree was much taller than any of the others. Although we didn't get an exact measure, we estimated it was somewhere around 40 m tall (or ~120 feet). During the climb, you could see the bamboo house, which was super cool. And while Nicolas was climbing up, he happened to see some Ecuadorian Capuchins climbing nearby. Late that evening, Ryan and Nicolas left the reserve, leaving just Mosies, Shawn, and me.

The crazy roots of this matapalo

        Monday we headed off to CF01 to replace the audiomoth. We took the time to set up the 360 Camera to get a view of me as I ascended and descended the canopy. This process went very smoothly and before we knew it, we were hiking back.

        Tuesday, Mosies and I hiked up to CF06 for the third time (in the meanwhile, Shawn was working on creating a dam for the hydroelectric pump). As I was double-checking the camera angle, it suddenly stopped working. It turned it on and off several times and replaced the batters. No dice. DANG IT! With a heavy sigh, I told Mosies the situation. We hadn't prepared for the camera to malfunction, so there was no spare on hand. Mosies offered to grab it from the house. I climbed down and gave him my phone in case he couldn't find the tree again. In the meanwhile, I wandered to bird-watch and look for interesting bugs. Until I heard 'Don't Stop me Now'... I looked up to see Moises running up the trail. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight. No wonder he made such quick time! I thanked him profusely and quickly climbed back up to switch out the camera. Just like that, we were finally done with that tree. We both cheered not having to hike up to this tree for a while.

Mushrooms growing on a downed chonta tree

        On Wednesday, Shawn, Mosies, and I returned to WF03. Shawn brought his drone with him so that we could film the ascent and follow the climber. It was another smooth day. On the hike back, Mosies climbed a short tree to trade out the SD card and batteries of the security camera. The rest of the day the three of us worked on improving the dam.

        Thursday we did not stop by any of the CAIP trees. Instead, we returned to the tree we climbed on Sunday. We took the station manager (Dany) with us to give him experience climbing, given the view from the tree. He had been a bit apprehensive, but he loved the view and enjoyed the experience. It was especially exciting to see Moises train Dany since he would be taking over the fieldwork after January. We then placed another camera in this tree for media purposes and I am beyond excited to see what animals visit this tree.

        Friday was our final day of fieldwork. The three of us returned to the far property to replace the stolen camera. Of course, since it had been stolen, we decided to find another tree for placement. And we did. After some investigation, we located a tree on the hillside that would be an absolute pain to get to and near impossible to climb without gear. The three of us made our way up the crumbly hillside and, with only a little struggle, set a new station. With that, we could celebrate the fact that we'd maintenanced all of the stations - and in good time too. Sure, we had run into several bumps, but now I know what can go wrong next time. Hopefully, with this knowledge, our next field season will go off without a hitch!

Another matapalo in the process of 'strangling' this other palm