About a week has passed since I've arrived back in Ecuador. In that time, I've picked up many new skills. At first, I was hesitant to post about the work that's been done over the past week since it isn't very exciting, but it's a part of the research that every researcher does: the field prep.
Working outside means the weather is a huge factor with any equipment you use. In the tropics, moisture is one of the biggest factors for concern. For the project, we'll be placing both motion-sensitive cameras and audio recorders in the camera for months at a time, so it's critical that the gear is able to withstand extreme weather conditions.
The cameras come in weatherproof cases, the acoustic devices, not so much.
Over the past week, Becca (my field technician) and I have learned how to desolder, solder, use a Dremel tool and heat gun, and perfect drilling skills. To be honest, power tools have always made me incredibly nervous, so kudos to Shawn McCracken for teaching in a way that I didn't feel terrified of the tools in hand.
On top of that, we build the mounts that will hold the camera and recorder up in the tree.
Seeing it all laid out has been very rewarding and has helped build up the anticipation of what's to come.
Next time I update, I'll have tales of canopy adventures to share, so stay tuned!
It's day four of tree climbing (as of the day this is being written). Day one was utterly terrifying. Being me - a try-hard who likes to dive headfirst into work - I decided to skip practice climbs and begin installing cameras...despite having only climbed once before. And we had a late start because we inventoried all of our gear before heading out into the field.
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| All the gear |
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| Gotta get that angle |
Due to the late start, the sun was beginning to go down as I climb. Shawn was up in the canopy to guide me through the climbing process, and we did get our first camera installed (bonus, we even heard Kinkajous yipping on the tree as we left). But I would be lying if I said that descending a tree into what appeared to be the darkness of the abyss didn't put me on edge.
Miles hiked: 2.81
Day two was a huge improvement as far as nerves go. We found a lovely Mata Palo to place the mount on. It was my first day using my lanyard (another set of ropes attached to my harness that allows for side-to-side movement in the canopy - sometimes off the mainline) and although I was nervous, everything went well. Given how well things went, my nerves were put at ease. Plus, since we climbed during the day, I was able to enjoy the view.
On the hike up, we were scoping out a king vulture nest. Becca did spot one near the suspected site of the nest. This nest may be the only known active king vulture nest in Ecuador, so we are keeping an eye on it.
Miles hiked: 3.45
Day three...you could say it was a day. In total, we hiked nearly 7 miles up a 300 m elevational gradient. For the most part, Becca and I were each carrying bags that weighed about 60 lbs. The location of our tree was along a ridgeline. Regardless of the exhaustion we felt, the view from the point was stunning. No one has hiked the area in a while, so there was some overgrowth along the trail. To me, it looked unreal. Climbing feels less terrifying each time. And at the top, I removed myself from the climbing line once I was attached via my lanyard so Becca could join me in the tree.
As she climbed up to join, a swallow-tailed kite flew eye level not far from me. Any nerves that I had were replaced by awe. Seeing wildlife from this perspective is utterly amazing.
Once Becca was up in the canopy, Shawn made a comment about feeling lonely on the ground. I couldn't resist joking around so I yelled down to him; "you ever hear the one about the two biologists in the tree?"
His response, "no, I haven't".
"That's cause it's above your reach." I think I'm hilarious.
Miles hiked: 6.92
Today, day four, was another day. We found a beautiful tree for the camera - well connected to the surrounding canopy, structurally sound, we were excited about it. I went to grab the Big Shot (a giant slingshot), and it broke as I fired it off. Becca made the trek back to the bamboo house to grab a replacement head for the Big Shot.
When she returned, we replaced the head, went to fire and that replacement broke, too.
Talk about a Friday the 13th.
Eventually, we replaced the head again back at the bamboo house (with a ridiculous amount of effort, seriously it took all three of us). Fingers crossed this one works.
Miles hiked: 2.88
Total mileage: 16
Canopy Acoustic and Imaging Project (CAIP) stations installed: 3
All of the days are now days, more or less. I am still loving what I am doing, but the long hours of hiking are physically exhausting.
On day five, we returned to Friday the 13th (as the tree the Big Shot broke at was dubbed). That climb was something else. The climbing line went through some pretty spindly branches, but all seemed fine when we loaded weight on it. Not the case.
As I climbed higher into the canopy, several branches snapped, the slack created pulled through the tree, and I dropped many feet. I am totally fine. The gear is meant to safeguard when drops happen (which they do), but I was shaken, and installing the camera in this tree was a slower than usual process.
On the bright side, I learned to trust my gear and when I reached the branch for installation, I noticed the telltale smell of monkeys (some howlers urinated on the trail in front of us the day before, so I learned the smell quickly). I have high hopes that we'll get some awesome pictures in that tree.
Miles hiked: 4.24
Day 6 was Becca's first solo climb and she did great despite the fact that her line was through several small branches - meaning she had to lanyard several times to get to her final destination. Alongside that, Shawn and I took turns 'taking out our aggression' on some bamboo that was interfering with our camera location. After that, we grabbed our 60 lb bags and made our way up to the Three Forests Trail (we also decided to start keeping track of our peanut butter and jelly sandwich intake). The Three Forests Trail runs along the conservation corridor connecting Jama-Coaque Reserve and Bosque Seco Lalo Loor. As we approached the 'trail', we were greeted with a thick layer of Selaginella covering what we suspected to be the trail. It was clear that no one had been down this way in quite some time, so remaking the trail as we go is going to be a task.
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| Trail covered by Selaginella ferns |
On the hike home, we disturbed a bullet ant nest. If you don't know anything about bullet ants, all you need to know is they are noted to have the most painful sting of any insect in the world. It supposedly feels like getting shot. After navigating around the horrifying sight of inch-long ants swarming aggressively, Becca and I were very on edge about our every move. All was fine, but that instant did fuel a few nightmares.
Miles hiked: 6.47
PB&J count: 28
Day seven started with a nice, straightforward climb. I feel more confident in my abilities as a climber now. A great bonus - the climbing tree of the day was located on a ridgeline so our view was stunning.
The hike after was anything but straightforward.
A lack of a trail continues to be the trend moving forward (or rather, sideways trying to move forward). Every turn seemed to be the wrong turn and we got more lost with every step. Thankfully we had a track on GaiaGPS made years ago that showed where the trail should be and where we could potentially find the trail again.
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| Finding flagging was so exciting |
This wasn't always the best option considering the fact that we created a small landslide to get back on the trail.
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| If you look closely, you can see the landslide |
We tried to hike our packs all the way to the next tree, but it was getting dark fast. Instead, we made it to a point we now call Satan's Peak (there are plans pending to leave a small sign so everyone knows) and had to call it a day. After all, if we were easily getting lost in daylight, it would only become more difficult with nightfall.
Miles hiked: 6.83
PB&J count: 33
Random Quote: "Shade-grown, hand-picked, organic, sun-kissed, yada yada yada yada bullshit coffee."
Day eight took us further into the Three Forests Trail (which we have renamed that freaking trail). For the first time, the tree we climbed was right in the middle of the trail, it was like destiny. Subsequently, we named this tree 'Destiny'. As Becca was beginning to climb 'Destiny', a farmer rode by on his horse and appeared quite amused at the sight of Becca struggling vertically through lower branches, and Shawn and I standing among our gear strewn across the trail. We were thoroughly confused and entertained by Becca's exclamations at the birds around her. We didn't know if she was in awe or pain.
The night ended with a haircut. Despite the exhaustion, Becca decided that she was done with long hair. It was time for a utility cut. I took the scissors out of our repair kit and chopped off ~6 inches of her hair. Surprisingly, it wasn't a bad cut.
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| Jungle haircut! |
Miles hiked: 6.8
Total mileage: 40
PB&J count: 39
Random Quote: "There's always stuff, just like there's always things."
CAIPs Installed: 7
Day nine; perhaps the most difficult day we've had thus far.
We journeyed along the Tree Forests Trail once again.
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| Trying to hype ourselves up to hike that trail again |
Please check out this post Shawn made about the situation.
Shortly after passing them (they ended up leaving for the day after we passed by), we had to start bushwhacking our way. Becca and I were still carrying those huge packs as we navigated through and around patches of heavy bamboo. Bamboo, aka glorified grass, can have spines on their stalks and have spines on their shoots, and getting through it is a pain. At one point, Shawn declared that we had to get through more bamboo and I buried my face into the pack on my front, quietly screamed, then kept going.
We did not make it to our climbing tree until 3 pm. Honestly, we all began accepting that there may not be a camera going up that day.
I was determined though. For once, I managed a CAIP installation rather quickly even though I had an issue with my lanyard getting tangled in my ankle ascender.
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| The view from our new location |
The hike back started with getting lost near immediately. We were far down the Three Forests Trail and tried a new way to get back instead of the difficult path we hacked earlier. But it seemed every half hour we were lost again. Becca and I were also running out of light. My headlamp had turned on in my pack and drained, my phone was out of juice, so I was relying on a small flashlight. Becca's headlamp was low, too. Both of us wondered if we'd make it back to the house with any light and mentally compared to the benefits of simply curling up on the forest floor and waiting for daylight.
We both made it back with light. And at one point when we made it back on the trail, we witnessed a pair of Crested Owls mating! The second we made it onto the patio, we all began singing 'We Are the Champions'. In the end, the day had been 13 hours long. Although thoroughly worn out, all of us were proud of what we did.
Miles hiked: 7.93
PB&J count: 47
Day ten was our last day with Shawn in the field until after the holidays. We hiked the entirety of the Three Forests Trail. Getting into Bosque Seco Lalo Loor (BSLL) was like heaven. The trails were so clearly marked - every 25 m there was flagging indicating how far along the trail we were.
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| All of the signage in BSLL is a welcome sight |
Fortunately, we also had a ride arranged to pick us up at the gates that evening.
Unfortunately, we were running low on time when we arrived in the reserve. All we ended up accomplishing was locating a few potential trees for CAIP installation. As we speed hiked out of BSLL, we encountered a Little Tinamou. We caught the bird off guard because the second it noticed us, the tinamou sort of tripped down the hillside.
Miles hiked: 6.66
PB&J count: 53
Day eleven - the first day of just Becca and me in the field. We now have a ride arranged to and from BSLL to save hiking time. When we arrived, the guard from the reserve was curious about our work and tagged along to see what we were doing. I love talking about my project, but I am still learning and felt more pressured having unfamiliar eyes on what I was doing. He was very kind though - he had worked in Coca with Woolly monkeys so he had a lot of questions about this project and my specific research questions.
While we did get a line in a tree and I did safely climb, a camera was not installed. Despite how many times I rerouted my lanyard, I could not navigate to where I wanted in the tree. The line was just too far.
With time running out, we cut our losses and decided to move to a more straightforward tree.
Miles hiked: 6.44
PB&J count: 55
Day twelve, on the hike to the tree, we encountered a Paca having a meal. We saw it as a sign that things would go our way today.
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| Wild Paca traipsing around |
Fate had other plans. We moved on to a new tree, fired the line, and on the third attempt, the bag got caught up down a cliffside. No matter how much we tried to tug the bag free, we couldn't get the bag to move. I made the choice to cut the line. Not the greatest idea. Apparently, the shot had taken a lot of fishing line with it and in the next shot we fired, the weight bag took off and took the end of the line with it.
Two weight bags were gone. All the fishing line off the reel was gone.
All we could do at that point is to look for the missing weight bags. We searched along a steep slope and into a gully without much hope of finding one. I was considering calling it a day at the one-hour mark until Becca yelled out that she'd found one. A few tears of relief were shed.
Miles hiked: 6.77
PB&J count: 57
Day thirteen, we return to BSLL with an extra reel and extra fishing line. Both of us are determined that we will get a CAIP installed. And we did! After the second shot, we had a reliable line. I even found the missing weight bag from yesterday on my way to find the one we'd just fired.
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| The two retrieved weight bags |
We even had the time to go to the next tree and set another line. I was beyond thrilled with our perseverance.
Miles hiked: 7.53
PB&J count: 59
Day fourteen, finally our day! Our plan was to leave for the holidays on the 24th, so even if we didn't get two done today, we would be leaving for break. BUT, Becca and I both wanted to get the two cameras installed. Neither of us verbally said it aloud to keep from jinxing ourselves. We just kept a positive and goofy attitude about the day (soundtrack = Queen), and it all went according to plan (for once)! I was up in the tree by 10:30 am and back on the ground before noon. There was plenty of time to get another done, and we were hopeful.
The last tree of BSLL was challenging to find. In the midst of the dry season of the dry forests, the trees looked worse for wear. Most were in senescence (no leaves on the branches) and had termites in some capacity. After a lot of searching, we found a tree fit for climbing and Becca climbed our second tree of the day.
Day fourteen marked the first time getting two CAIPs installed in one day, which is something we had hoped to get accomplish several times before. I was speechless and immensely proud of what we had accomplished.
Now we can enjoy our holidays on the beach in peace.
Miles hiked: 5.45
PB&J count: 61
Total mileage: 80.78
CAIPs Installed: 11
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| View from below the tree |
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| Since it was a rainy day, we decided to brew tea! |
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| We started below the palms and climbed up to the tree line |
If anything, we both are determined to finish these trees in as few days as possible.
The branch Becca climbed in was stable enough that we had a dance break in the canopy.
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| Nothing but smiles while in a tree! |
Now it was time to find the mystery point. Following the property-line was the suggestion. Most of the time, that is easier said than done. That was certainly our situation. As we approached the property line, we glanced to our left and could see the trail descending into the depths of overgrowth.
I think we both screamed a little internally before beginning to hack our way down. It wasn't too long before the fence and trail vanished. Yet there were still 200 meters to travel.
However, we could see a game trail to a creek.
New plan: follow the creek bed. Before long, we were pleasantly surprised! We walked up to a perfect tree for climbing. A lot of birds were active in the area and the climb was very nice.
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| Up in the canopy! |
To get back, we decided to find a new path. Along the creek, another walking path existed. This trail was much more pleasant. It was a relief to end the day knowing our next visit would not be as painstaking.
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| If you look closely, you can see Becca in the tree |
The tree was subsequently named ‘Why can’t it just be flat?’ to reflect our feelings about the hike out (and all hikes here).
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| Do you see how far down that is?? |
Installation went as planned and though we were running a little behind our scheduled pick up time, I was insanely proud of what we accomplished.
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| Smiles as we bid this hike adieu |
As far as physical exhaustion, this day was on par with our 13-hour day. We both slept very hard that night.
Of course, we did not think to grab a key to get into the Finca. So, we awkwardly climbed over the gate.
The first tree had great connectivity and was short enough we could lanyard up. This saved the time and trouble of setting a climbing line.
The downside of being in agriculture - ticks. Ticks everywhere. At one point I looked down at my pants to see hundreds of tiny ticks crawling around. Even though Ecuador is not known to have many tick-borne diseases, it was still a horrifying sight.
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| Not even mangoes are sacred to ticks |
Now to ensure everything is working.
After completing CAIP installation, we took a day off to do laundry and give our bodies a much-needed break. But after our day off it was time to begin maintenance. The lightning round.
For maintenance, the goal is to check the CAIPs. Are the cameras taking pictures of animals or mostly leaves? If there are pictures of leaves moving, we would removing those from the frame to preserve battery life and make the process of sorting pictures simpler. Are the AudioMoths recording when they should? If not, we would need to replace them.
Aside from investigating those two questions, we are replacing batteries and SD cards during this time. After maintenance, the CAIPs will be left for ~ 4 months (the estimated battery life) to collect data. It is crucial that everything is working properly.
Since the CAIPs are already installed, the Big Shot was retired (thank goodness!). The climbing lines are already set, so maintenance will be a quicker process than installation.
Day twenty-two, back to Del Rio. Although I have a checklist and I've run through the maintenance process on the ground, the process will be much trickier in the trees. There are many small parts that can easily be lost if dropped. To figure out all the mistakes that can be made, I did both climbs on our first day of maintenance.
Unscrewing the AudioMoth cases in the canopy is beyond nerve-wracking. The recorders themselves are glued into the cases and the batteries are Velcro-ed in, but the screws and microSD cards are easy pieces to lose. There's a fairly large margin for error. I exercised extreme caution and it worked out well.
Even though the equipment in the Del Rio tree had only been running for two weeks, there were already pictures of kinkajous to look at!
Side accomplishment: I made a pun so terrible, Becca jokingly 'quit' the project. We take walking sticks with us when we hike and she had grabbed the stick I typically used, so I asked, "Oh, not a fan of your walking stick anymore?"
She glanced down for a second, not realizing she'd grabbed the wrong one. "No, I like mine quite a lot, but I don't think it likes me back."
"Oh, so I guess you could say it's a sticky situation?" She went dead silent, trying not to laugh, and walked away for a few moments.
The tree off of the cordillera almost went perfectly. As I was removing the microSD card, it stuck to my thumb as I pulled away...and then proceeded to fall to the ground. Thankfully, Becca was quickly able to recover the lost item. Phew.
Following maintenance, we hiked our stuff down to the very first tree we climbed. It's weird to be returning to the start of it all. But I was too exhausted in the moment to reminisce much.
Getting back to the bamboo house, we were in store for a huge surprise. Groceries! Normally groceries are delivered every Monday. Because of the holidays, we've had to go to town when we can (or have someone else get what they can) and it's been difficult to estimate how much food we'll need and how long items will store. On this day, we returned to a surplus of food after we had been running low on supplies.
Both of us were exceptionally excited.
Miles hiked: 3.58
PB&J's eaten: 91
Day twenty-three, today I began climbing up the very first tree we installed. During installation, the sun had been setting so I didn't properly see the setup. Now climbing in the morning, I instantly felt excitement to look at the pictures. The camera is facing a cavity that has collected water. And the wildlife is definitely taking advantage of it.
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| Collared araçaris taking a bath |
Before I could get a good look at the photos, I was distracted by the sound of leaves rustling. Several mantled howlers were moving around in trees eye level with me, maybe 20 meters away. My reaction was torn between awe and nerves. The last thing I wanted was for the howlers to throw dung my way. Rather than take any pictures, I hurried through the rest of the maintenance as they kept their eyes on me and moved in closer. Eventually, their path diverged away from the tree, but I am still in awe at how close they were to me.
Becca went through the process of checking the next tree and the process went smoothly. Unfortunately, the tree required a bit of trimming. Most of the pictures were images of leaves moving, but that is why we did a maintenance period right after installation. Otherwise, the rest of the day went smoothly.
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| Perfect spot to take a short break from a long hike |
Miles hiked: 5.21
PB&J's eaten: 93
Day twenty-four, it finally happened. Rain...well rain during the day. While I was up in a tree, drops of water trickled down. Momentarily, I thought I could push through it without issue. The drizzle suddenly transformed into a downpour. Becca was quick to send up her parka and I threw it over myself to create a dry work environment.
As I delicately went through the procedure of checking the equipment, I noticed something different among many photos of wind. A sloth! I nearly fell out of the tree due to excitement. I've wanted to see a sloth in the wild for many years, and now I knew there had been a two-toed sloth climbing on the branch I was sitting against!
The rain let up before long so there we did not have to worry about dealing with a slick rope. Instead, another challenge faced us - our hike.
Hiking after a downpour with heavy equipment was a challenge. At this point, we were in cloud forest, so the trail was already slightly muddy. The rain from just an hour before made the situation worse.
Many spots would take your feet in so deep that you could lose your boot trying to free yourself. Others were a trick of balance- especially since we were traveling downhill. Can you hold yourself upright with a counterweight on your back? For me, the answer was no. I ended up sliding or skating down the trail more than I walked down it. Without question, my pants were entirely covered in mud by the end of the day.
Just as our frustration became palpable, something caught my eye. A giant worm? No, something else!
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| If you look closely, you can see its tongue sticking out! |
A limbless lizard! The critter may look like a snake, but due to internal anatomy, it is actually a lizard! They spend most of their time underground, except for when heavy rains flood them out. They are a pretty rare find, and both of us were positively thrilled to find one. Any annoyance we had at the hike was gone in an instant.
From that point, the rest of the day proceeded as planned. We visited Friday the 13th and Becca took care of maintenance without issue.
Miles hiked: 6.8
Total mileage: 132.5
PB&J's eaten: 95
CAIPs checked: 6
Day twenty-five, once again we find ourselves hiking the Tres Bosques. Neither of us was particularly jazzed to be back, due to the hours spent previously lost and frustrated. But it had to be done.
The hike continued smoothly as we approached Destiny. When we got there, however, something was off. Looking up at the mount, we noticed strapping hanging oddly. With binoculars, Becca discovered something that filled me with a sense of horror: the camera was gone. Immediately, I was positive we would not find it. This area of the trail received foot traffic so I figured someone probably saw the camera and grabbed it, but I still put in the effort to look for it. Digging through some bamboo, I did spot it! Waves of relief crashed over me.
Even though the camera had seen better days, it was still working perfectly. The only part that was damaged was the mount. I figured I could make it work given the materials we had in our 'repair kit'. I climbed up with the materials I needed and the determination to make it work. Once up in the tree, it became apparent what had happened. A heavy storm took out a branch above the station and took the camera out. The AudioMoth did not escape unscathed. The case was barely clinging to the strapping, covered in scratches, and missing the vent. Because the vent was missing, a few critters had made a home inside the case. Surprisingly, the recorder was still in working order!
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| Attempt to secure the camera with extra string |
Miles hiked: 6.69
PB&J's eaten: 97
Day twenty-six, we started an hour earlier than usual because we had a lot to accomplish. A ride was arranged to grab us from Lalo Loor at 5 pm and before that, we needed to replace the gear at one tree and maintenance another.
Knowing why we needed to get up at such an early hour did not make it any easier. Both of us wandered around the kitchen like zombies making breakfast. What brought life to the morning was Becca loudly whispering, "Jackie, get over here right now, there's a tamandua!" Clear as day, one was climbing around in front of the house. I was awestruck! I have wanted to see one of these majestic animals for years! Now I could easily watch one foraging in the canopy. (Side note: tamanduas are anteaters in the same order as sloths) That sighting inspired us to push through the tough day we had ahead of us.
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| Blurry picture of a tamandua |
We made it back to Destiny without any hiccups. While Becca was replacing the gear in the tree, the same man from the time we placed the gear was back. He had a lot of questions about what we were doing and I explained the project to him (as best as I could, my Spanish leaves much to be desired).
The path to the next tree was not as smooth. Portions of the trail were still thick with bamboo. In some cases, the bamboo was so thick that it took 30 minutes of hacking to be passable. By the time we arrived at the tree, we were exhausted. But we still pushed and finished the tree.
Looking down at the clock, we noted there were only an hour and a half until our scheduled ride. We still had more than a kilometer to hike our gear, and another two to meet our ride. My mind was immediately going to the worst-case scenario. This was not a ride that would wait long for us. This was a ride that would leave if we were too late. I was mentally preparing myself to have to hike through Camarones to get back to the reserve. Once we had stashed our bags, we ran down the trails at Lalo Loor. Thankfully we made it before our ride left and we were only 20 minutes late. The two of us sat in the bed of the truck and laughed hysterically.
Miles hiked: 8.4
PB&J's eaten: 99
Day twenty-seven, the final day of the field season. The goal: to maintenance three trees in one day.
It seemed an ambitious goal, but that is who Becca and I are. The day was a bit of a mad dash. I planned to climb the first tree and let Becca climb the last two. And the day went uneventfully. There were no worries about hitting walls of bamboo, and all the gear was working as it should. On top of that, we finished with a half-hour to spare!
We left Lalo Loor with our heads held high! The two of us completed the first field season on such a high note!
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| Becca declared this her favorite picture of the day, so I had to include it |
The rest of the cameras we were unable to make it to will be checked by Shawn and Ryan over the next few days. Although Becca and I could not complete the process entirely ourselves, I am still immensely proud of what we accomplished.
Miles hiked: 6.72
Total mileage: 154.3
Height climbed: ~606 m or 1988 ft
PB & J's eaten: 101
CAIPs checked: 12
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.
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| 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 dÃa 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 sentÃ, 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 allà buscamos la pequeña y uuuuhh! Después de mucho tiempo lo logramos, pero rota!!
Gue un poco triste porque en verdad querÃa escalar ese árbol, asà que decidimos solo practicar a poner el anclaje y lo que pasó fue de pelÃcula. Mientras armábamos el anclaje empezamos a escuchar ruidos en el canopy de los árboles y yo escuché como caÃan cosas asà que decidà 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 dÃa supe que este trabajo no iba a ser fácil.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 asÃ, todo el es fuerzo vale la pena porque el paisaje es hermoso y las fotos de los animales tienen mucho significado.
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| 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!
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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 photo shoot 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.
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| 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 dÃa más al es fuerzo. Los paisajes cada dÃa son distintos, vemos muchos tipos de animales y hoy en particular vimos un vÃbora bastante grande cerca a uno de los árboles que Ãbamos a escalar. Este proyecto me ho enseñado que cada rama de cada árbol en el bosque es importante.
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| 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!!
14 & 15 Octubre
Today we planned to head back onto the three forests trail after hitting the last cloud forest tree on the Jama-Coaque 'circuit'. As we approached the cloud forest tree (Friday the 13th), we could hear howlers. With a quick search, we could see them hanging out in the tree! For a moment I had a brief thought, 'are they going to try and challenge me for space in this beautiful tree? Should we wait?' but just as we were setting our gear down, the howlers were already moving into the next tree.
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| Starting the climb up. Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt |
While I was in the tree, changing the batteries and SD cards, the howlers were still close by - watching me. It was surreal to be eye-level with these primates. I felt like they were judging my strange climbing techniques and lacking a tail to help me climb. Nevertheless, they did not disturb me. Rather, they were audience to my slow work as I pulled the rope up and down, and was a bit distracted by their presence as well as some of the reserve staff walking by and laughing in amusement at my location.
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| Howler watching my work |
The next tree was a long hike out. In essence, we were 'leap-frogging' the trees with Shawn and Ryan. They stopped by the first tree on the trail, while we switched to the next one out to split the workload. We all met up at the point we named 'Satan's Peak', and for the first time, we had walkie-talkies to communicate back and forth. I gotta say, communicating over a walkie-talkie on a trail makes me feel so professional, like a member of the NPS. And it gave an opportunity to make jokes during check-in, and rib each other about which team was 'better'.
The next tree ('Destiny') went smoothly - surprisingly. Moises was up and back down in enough time for Nicolas to get another practice climb in. The first two times I visited this tree with Becca, we had crossed paths with a local and his horse, so I'd almost expected another encounter, but none this time.
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| Nicolas up in the tree |
With the tree done, we began our hike back to meet with Shawn and Ryan. However, just as we were about to turn on a different trail, we saw some howlers and capuchins moving around in the same patch of bamboo. It was fascinating to see the two of them occupy the same space, unbothered by the other species. We took a few moments to watch them all in awe before continuing our hike.
Once we finally caught up with Shawn and Ryan, we were lead on a new trail back following some property lines. Supposedly, this path would be shorter and easier. I'm not convived if it was based on how late we arrived back at the bamboo house. But, regardless, we made it back.
Thursday was the day I had been dreading the most. It was the return to Hell's Hill. Once Moises and I were through the gates and at the base, I took a moment to prepare myself, and then we began to ascend. The hike up was as brutal as I remember - endless switching up and back a massive, grassy hill with ticks lurking in every blade. To make matters worse, I heard the other team call from the opposite ridgeline to say that the camera station from AG03 had been stolen. Dang.
At the first tree of the day, I was starting to think I was cursed for the day. When we arrived at the tree, the yellow line was snapped where I had tied it off. Just as I was starting to dread the thought of having to hike back up again with the Big Shot, we found the end! With a bit of creativity (a few sticks, and an extendible hook) we retrieved the yellow string and Moises made it up to the top of the tree. Unfortunatley, when Moises reached the top, it turned out the camera hadn't been turned on. I was momentarily heartbroken, but there was nothing I could do about it so we just replaced the batteries and moved on.
The next tree also had some howlers hanging out when we arrived. Unlike the day before, they fled when we approached the area. When I climbed up, I discovered that this camera also was off. Again, that sense of defeat was tangible (turns out when maintenance was done last time it poured on the team while they were at these trees and there was some miscommunication - which is completely understandable), but, again, nothing I could do. Like the popular motto, we 'kept calm, and carried on'. On the return, we took the time to appreciate the view. All the mud up in the cloud forest provided a great opportunity to look for tracks. I could see what looked like Red Brocket Deer, opossum, racoon, and cat tracks. Unfortunatley, we also noted some footprints that weren't our own.
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| Along the trail |
The most frustrating factor of the day was the clear increase in illegal activity on these protected properies. The clay pit by the last tree appeared to be dug out, likely by poachers to trap animals, and the other tree Ryan, Shawn, and Nicolas went to had clear chainsaw marks on it so their station had to be moved. Later that night, once we were back at the bamboo house, we could hear gunshots in the distance. It served as a reminder of the financial strain Covid-19 is having on these smaller communities and the importance of providing improved socioeconomic opportunities is for conservation (like Third Millenium Alliance is doing and working to expand). More than that, it served to further fuel my passion for working to raise awareness of these situations that people are so often unaware of. Everyone knows of the Amazon, but very few people know of the issues in Western Ecuador. Hopefully with the work Third Millenium Alliance does, this will change and we can continue to protect these forests through local empowerment and stuardship.
15 Octubre 2020 - Moises
Desde el 10 de octubre hasta el 14 lo hice increÃblemente bien. Éramos Nico, Jackie y yo hablamos, trabajamos, reÃmos y vimos muchos paisajes increÃbles, en algunos hasta pudimos observar el océano.
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| View of the ocean from a tree. Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt |
Fue un trabajo muy duro, subir tantas cuestas empinadas y tantas caÃdas en el lodo. Pero este Jueves si que fue el ¡DÃa más duro! Nuevamente, Jackie y yo nos dirigimos a otra propiedad.
Al empezar a subir lo hicimos muy despacio, porque es muy empinado, pero eso cambió hasta que me di cuenta de que mi brazo estaba lleno de 300 garrapatas asà que decidà decirle a Jackie que subirÃa en lÃnea recta y la esperarÃa arriba, entonces empecé a trepar con todas mis fuerzas y muy, muy rápido hasta que sentà que estaba lejos de esas garrapatas.
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| Hiking through the tick infested grass |
Cuando llegé a la cima, la caminata fue muy tranquila y cuando llegué al último árbol me senté mientras Jackie hacÃa el trabajar. Fue un momento tan especial porque no hubo ruido de ningún tipo, me sentà tan tranquilo después de haber agotado todas mis energÃas al subir esa cuesta tan empinada y llena de garrapatas. Al bajar también lo hicimos muy rápido, pero con varias caÃdas. Lo llamo el ¡DÃa más DifÃcil! porque fue el único dÃa que me terminé toda mi agua.
16 Octubre 2020
Finally, we reached our last long day. We were hiking out to Lalo Loor to check our dry forest cameras. Mosies and I would take the far tree while Shawn, Ryan, and Nicolas would tackle the lower two trees. While this seemed like a perfect plan, things rarely ever go to plan. For one, we took the long trail up, and by the time I realized this, it was too late. This trail added quite a bit of travel time, though it was cool to take in new sights that I hadn't seen before.
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| View of the ocean in the distance |
For two, when we finally made our way up to the tree and got the climbing line in place it started to pour. I got nervous about climbing back down in the downpour and not wanting the rope to get soaked (a wet rope can be dangerous to descend on), we pulled it back in. Then we waited.
And waited...
Finally, after about an hour, it became more of a trickle which I felt comfortable enough to climb in. Just as we were getting the rope out and ready, Nicolas approached us. He asked if we had a fishing reel handy because the line in DF02 had gotten horribly tangled and they wanted to make a new line. Unfortunately, we did not. It never feels good to send someone away with just an apologetic smile, but sometimes that is all you have to offer. We finished DF01 with no further issue, though it was a bummer it was such a rainy day because I had all but promised Mosies that the view from this tree was incredible. On a clear day, you can perfectly see the ocean. It's breathtaking. But, the visibility today was severely reduced.
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| The station almost looks ominous in the clouds |
After wrapping up, we hiked down to meet the other team. They had just finished as we approached. The three of them had some issues untangling the line, but with a lot of determination, they feed it. Once in the tree, Shawn redirected the line so that we wouldn't endure the same frustrations next time. However, there was still one more tree to finish and Ryan needed to submit a grant by 5 pm (it was already almost 3). We sent him off to the Bosque Seco Lalo Loor field station so he could utilize the wi-fi that was available. He took of jogging with a heavy bag on his back and a clear goal in mind. Shawn joined him soon after to aid in this endeavor (spoiler alert, the reserve made it to the next stage of the grant, here's hoping they are awarded the money!).
The rest of us quickly hiked to the final tree. I had forgotten how short the last tree was, because climbing it was a cinch. I got up quickly, sent the gear down, and admired the hawk that was watching me with a skeptical gaze. Occasionally it screeched at me, but mostly it kept its gaze laser-focused to ensure I wasn't up to any 'funny business'. Mosies kept joking that I needed to watch out because it was probably going to swoop down and grab me.
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| The hawk in question. Photo credit: Nicolas Betancourt |
Once I was back on the ground, this sense of satisfaction washed over me. In just a week, we had completed the majority of the trees! That's incredible! Especially since Ryan and Nicolas would be leaving soon. It gave me assurance that we would finish the rest of the trees before we left (something I'd been concerned about when we started). On the way back, we grabbed a few drinks from a local tienda to celebrate our achievements. Beyond that, I had messaged Becca via satellite phone earlier in the day gauging her interest in returning to help in January, and she said yes! So much to celebrate tonight!
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Another matapalo in the process of 'strangling' this other palm |
6 Enero 2021
It is another one of those 'I can't believe I'm actually back here' kind of days. Getting travel approved again was incredibly down to the wire - to the point where I was purchasing tickets less than two weeks out from travel type of close. With how close we were cutting it, I was getting worried about getting Covid-19 tests in time (my team and I were required to test negative prior to entering the country). We had all been isolating prior and knew we had not been exposed, but with the high demand for the holiday time, I had worried I would not have the paperwork to support that in time. But, regardless, we got everything together and made it down in time. On this trip, I had Becca joining me again, and a former labmate, Matt, who had never traveled to South America before and was able to accommodate the short notice.
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| Late arrival in Quito. Photo credit: Matt C. Parker |
The three of us arrived in Quito at around 3 am at a hostel for a quick few hours of sleep. Then we began our journey to Jama-Coaque with Moises at 9 am. Suffice to say, we were all exhausted on the drive over. But before our second departure, we caught up with Ryan to pass along some things he had ordered from the U.S. (and let me say, seeing the faces of airport clerks when you explain that you have a Roomba charger in your bag is priceless).
The long drive to the reserve was much more exciting with a first-time visitor in the car. Matt was taking in all the new sights and asking lots of questions along the drive (which really helped the 6-hour drive pass quickly). It also made me appreciate the view with a different lens. That is, when I wasn't feeling carsickAside from that, the drive was uneventful. We safely arrived at the reserve late that evening and began packing up backpacks to ensure both teams had all of the supplies we needed. I had this goal in mind that we would not have to revisit any of the trees if it could be prevented. This time we were on a much more limited schedule. We would only be in the reserve for about eleven days, so we really needed to be efficient in our timing. Luckily, Mosies and Sixto (the park ranger) had already checked the four farther trees just a month before, so we would not have to worry about those trees. Fingers crossed things go to plan this time!
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| Crossing the equator! Photo credit: Matthew C. Parker |
7 Enero 2021
First day back in the field - going in, I felt confident in our abilities since we had learned what could go wrong last field season and were prepared. Matt and I headed to some of the agriculture trees so I could teach him the ropes on easier trees. Meanwhile, Becca and Moises were heading off to some of the cloud forest trees (with both of them being birders, I knew they would get along great).
Returning to AG04 and AG05 was exciting for me because I hadn't visited these trees since January of 2020. Ryan and Shawn had done so back in October so this would be only my second time visiting these trees.
On the way to the first tree, I said some words that I would be eating the very next day. Matt asked me if there was a trail to the trees today. I turned to him, pointed at my head, and responded, 'it's all in here.' Anyways, we easily arrived at the tree and noticed a yellow string on the tree. Before, I had just lanyard-ed up the tree (use ropes attached to my harness to get up). We had left the rope bag just hidden off the trail because we hadn't needed it. I stuck with this method to get up with a lanyard and the maintenance job went smoothly. As I was making my way down, Matt and I spotted a tayra right below the tree. We were probably all staring at each other for a solid minute - Matt and I in amazement, the tayra in bewilderment before it took off running. Chance close encounters with wildlife are so exciting!
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| Getting ready to lanyard up. Photo credit: Matthew C. Parker |
With that tree wrapped up, we set off to the next. Along the way, we kept pausing to try and locate the source of rustling and birdcalls, but with little success. It feels like the moment you stop to try and hone in on a sound, the source has noticed you and remains as still as possible (doing a much better job at being elusive than us researchers).
Before long we arrived on Marquez's property to check on the station. Everything was still in working order and I got the gear changed out quickly. Since the climb was straightforward, I walked Matt through the process, had him do some practice climbs just a few meters up and back to the ground before having him climb all the way to the top.
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| A wild Matt, in a tree! |
Watching someone take in the view from the canopy is exciting and rewarding. Matt made it up with no difficulty and gleefully yelled out once at the top. He spent several minutes up there, taking in the view and a few pictures before climbing back down. With that, we packed up the gear and made our way back to the bamboo house.
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| View from the canopy |
Having a day with no hiccups was incredibly satisfying. Mosies and Becca also had a successful day. And just like that, we finished our first full day with 4 trees already done. I was elated and optimistic for the rest of our field season.
7 Enero 2021 - Becca
When Moises and I started hiking, I quickly remembered what it felt like hiking up steep climbs in humidity with a heavy pack (not easy). Happily, I also remembered it wasn’t impossible.
Both Moises and I are birders and we picked out the bird songs and calls we knew as we hiked. At one point, we heard a call we just couldn’t identify. It was so tantalizing how it sounded so close and we scanned the treetops again and again. Finally, I spotted it partially hidden in the canopy of the tree right in front of us. A Slate-colored grosbeak – and a song we wouldn’t forget soon after trying to pinpoint it for so long.
As we got closer to the ridge, we heard a chainsaw from the valleys below. And when we reached the first tree which is just inside the reserve’s border, we found a new trail cut up from the side of the ridge that TMA doesn’t own. It reminded me of this fact that’s been said before but deserves to be said again: Jama-Coaque stands on the very frontlines of conservation.
The first tree, CF06 or “Terminator”, served as a reminder crash course of how to climb for me since I hadn’t in a year. I didn’t mess up any of the crucial steps, but I did have to climb twice since I forgot to bring down a leaf sample with me the first time. Luckily, this was a shorter tree (~10 m), and it wasn’t hard to pop back up.
Bemoaning our low snack supply, we returned the way we came to get to CF01, “Whomping Willow.” I climbed this awesome, tall tree to retrieve the gear and did not forget anything this time! We needed to measure the tree’s diameter above its impressive buttress roots which meant the measuring tape would have to be more than 10 feet off the ground on the downhill side. Moises hatched a plan; once I’d descended the climbing line to the appropriate height, he tied the excess rope below me to the tree’s roots so that I was suspended right next to the trunk. I held one end of the tape as he scrambled around the tree to bring me the other end. Success! Who knew measuring trees could be so tricky?
Just as I arrived back on the ground, we heard a rustling in the tree and Moises spotted a kinkajou. Seemingly, this tree is quite popular with the kinkajou because Jackie and I saw one here last year. On our way back to the bamboo house, we saw a Choco sirystes, an uncommon and local flycatcher, which was an excellent finish to a productive day.
8 & 9 Enero 2021
Day one for Matt and I had been a nice, slow start. I certainly can't say the same for day 2. We were shifting into the cloud forest trees and I was nervous that morning because it had been pouring buckets all night. Climbing uphill with heavy bags is already a challenge, but a muddy trail that your boots start sinking into with each step increases the difficulty (especially when you are clumsy, like me).
On our way out to our first tree of the day, not more than 5 minutes away from the bamboo house, we encountered an agouti on the trail. Agoutis are large rodents and they tend to eat hide fruits and seeds away, several of which are forgotten helping new plants grow in the process! I took this as a positive sign for the day.
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| Why did the Agouti cross the trail? Probably to avoid the excitable biologists! Photo credit: Matt Parker |
And on that vein, the first climb went very smoothly. Matt got in another practice climb after I dealt with the gear. We even figured out a decent way to measure the tree diameter with the measuring tape! One of the issues we had last time is so many of our climbing trees have large buttress roots and for an accurate measure, you need to get ABOVE the roots. We'd tried using long sticks to support the tape, but, as you can imagine, that was not an effective system.
Instead, while I was still on the climbing line, Matt helped pull me around to collect the measure. I felt like a balloon, but it worked!
Afterwards, it was time to return to CF03 - to embark into 'stereotypical' cloud forest. Almost constant fog heavy in the air, and ferns covering so much of the understory. The two of us were making excellent time, so I continuously tried pointing out a glasswing butterfly that kept fluttering away, stopping and trying to sneak up on them so Matt could get a proper view. They are such stunning butterflies and they fully live up to the name.
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| You can see right through their wings! Photo credit: Matt Parker |
Matt was a good sport about it. There was still more than plenty of daylight left too, so we got all of the batteries and SD cards switched out of CF03 and hiked off feeling accomplished. We even ended the day with another mammal sighting. An adorable armadillo was toddling along the trail as we hiked back home.
We linked up with Moises and Becca - they'd finished two trees. Collectively, we were on day 2 and we'd already finished 7 trees! It felt like we were on such a roll.
Moises was unable to join us in the field, so it was just the three amigos for the rest of the trip. The day before, Moises and Becca had 'cached' their rope bag by WF03 so away we went, down the Del Rio trail. The trek down that trail is always so lovely because you wind back and forth across a river, walking by waterfalls ever so often. We even found a well-hidden nest along the way - and we had to stop and speculate as to whose eggs they could be along the way before leaving them be.
Matt and I enjoyed watching dart frogs hop around as Becca finagled her way to the awkward location of the canopy station. It was pleasant to just listen to the sounds of rushing water (although it made communicating with Becca challenging). But before long, we were back on the trail. Since we would pass by the bamboo house on the way to the next canopy station, we ate lunch back at 'home' and then we hiked back up into the cloud forest.
Our next tree on the docket was Friday the Thirteenth. Despite the bad luck we had the very first time, its been my favorite tree to visit ever since. There's almost always howler monkeys hanging out in that tree or the one right next to it. None when we first arrived - oh well. It would at least make the job quieter.
Since this tree had a lot of large limbs, I told Matt that once I gave him the go ahead, he could climb up after me and I'd talk him through the 'maintenance' progress. As I was making myself comfortable, a troop of howlers climbed in to the tree right next to ours. They looked curious at the new canopy dweller, but weren't bothered. Which became even more obvious as Matt joined me.
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| Hanging in a tree together |
Just as I was pointing out the howlers too him, a pair started copulating right before our eyes. We both felt like we were intruding on the moment, but it did make us laugh. Makes you wonder how nature documentary filmers feel when they catch those moments on camera.
8 Enero 2021 - Becca
We started later Friday morning because Moises’s had a virtual class. I used the time to bird around the bamboo house and garden (one of my favorite places to bird given the proximity to tea and bird guides). Once we were ready, Dany and Sixto gave us rides down the road on their motos. It was funny having my heavy pack on my back and riding on a motorcycle, but anytime we get a ride most of the way instead of hiking feels like a luxury.
The tree with the CAIP station, AG02 or “Verizon”, is on a steep bluff down to a creek, so it was difficult getting from the anchor to the climbing line. However, after working with Jackie last year, I had come to expect this. Moises climbed up easily and sent down the equipment. That’s when I realized we were missing some labels for the cameras. We carried on without them and soon Moises was back on the ground. Dany was waiting for us and took us back up the hill.
Moises and I decided to take the bags to WF03 (Hot Tuna), stash them overnight, then simply hike out in the morning and do the climb. By then, we’d have gotten the labels from Jackie and could properly complete the job. After stashing the bags, we found a dead monkey in one of the pools nearby. We couldn’t say how it got there for sure, but it was a cool (and creepy) find!
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| The craziest find of the trip! Photo credit: Matt Parker |
Without our heavy backpacks weighing us down, we happily birded the whole way back, spying Canada warblers, a Gray-headed kite, and White-bearded manakins. We also found an eyelash viper, Bothriechis schlegelii, making it a lucky day for finding critters.
9 Enero 2021 - Becca
Soon after we started hiking, I spotted something brown and feathered flit across the trail. Happily, it perched in the open and I got a view of a White-whiskered puffbird, the first one for this trip. Once we reached WF03 (Hot Tuna) I started getting ready to climb.
When climbing there are a few general rules that will make the experience easier and avoid exhausting you unnecessarily. First, clear communication with your ground team is very important. Second, it’s a good idea to limit the number of times you need to ferry things up and down, especially in the taller trees, because pulling up about 20 m of serious rope multiple times can be tiring and time-consuming. And finally, you got to be flexible; if a certain climbing approach is not working, it’s time to switch up the plan. I broke all these guidelines while I climbed Hot Tuna, or at least took the long way ‘round.
Once I used my lanyards to get to the station, I found that the audiomoth and kestrel were within my reach, but the camera was barely beyond my fingertips. I also decided that I needed a multi-tool from the ground to cut the kestrel free of its zip tie. I yelled that down to Jackie and Matt and sent the audiomoth down for starters. Meanwhile, I strained and reached for the camera and somehow got it unscrewed. Jackie called up the bag was ready and I pulled it up to discover the new audiomoth, but no multi-tool. The river sounds had sabotaged my puny communication attempts. I sent the camera down, requesting the multi-tool again, and wishing I had some paper and a pencil. As I lowered the little backpack to the ground, I somehow succeeded in getting a knot tied in the climbing line below me. Great. That will need to be fixed soon.
The next time I hoisted the bag from the ground I hit the jackpot with the multi-tool and got the kestrel unattached, ferried down for a battery change and data download. I also took the time to sort out my rope problems trying to carefully keep the different parts separate and avoid more knots.
It was time I got the refreshed camera back onto its holder. The trunk was so large that I couldn’t touch my hands on the other side when I hugged it and I could just barely hold the camera in place above my head, straining every muscle in my body. I tried to screw the camera back on – again – and again for about 15 minutes. I was pushing up with every muscle I had, but I could not get the angle right. This climbing approach wasn’t working.
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| The position Becca was in for a while |
I finally gave up on trying to get the camera on from where I was and pulled up the rope one last time to retrieve the kestrel. With the audiomoth and kestrel taken care of, I did what I should’ve done much earlier and moved my lanyards so that I was coming towards the station from the other side of the trunk. Leaning around the trunk – miracles of miracles – I could easily reach the camera’s spot and quickly got it set up (finally!). In most trees, you’re able to reach the entire station from one spot, but this tree was different, and I should have moved around the trunk in the beginning to reach the different equipment.
To get to our second tree we hiked through a stretch of trail with some bamboo overgrowth, so I went first with the machete. It felt good to be going downhill and swinging a machete again, and Jackie laughed that this felt so familiar.
Once Jackie was in the top of CF04, “Friday the 13th”, she called down that she was simply going to push her rope runner (what holds you on the mainline and helps you descend) a little higher for Matt to climb up. This made a lot of sense since it avoided hoisting the entirety of the rope below the climber several times. Despite the logic, leaving a rope runner on the line made me nervous. What if it got out of Jackie’s reach? And I remember another key lesson when you’re climbing trees – it always looks and feels completely different in the tree versus on the ground and the ground crew must trust the climber. I trust Jackie with my life (and have done so literally several times) and I knew she knew what she was doing.
Before sending Matt up, we measured CF04’s DBH. After a couple attempts to do it from the ground we were thwarted by the dubious amount of vegetation and vines. We decided to do what Moises and I had done before, and when Matt had climbed to about even with the buttresses, I pulled him closer to the trunk and he clung to the vines. I handed off the DBH tape reel and quickly stumbled over buttresses and through vines to where Matt reached around the other side. Finally, we had a measurement.
They had no issues in the tree and soon Matt was descending again. Of course, I needn’t have worried about Jackie’s rope runner and she was on the ground soon too. We cheerfully packed up and hiked to where we would leave the bags overnight, then continued home.
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| Group photo after a successful day! |
9 Enero 2021 - Matt
Tired...I am tired. The good kind of tired that is earned after a hard day's work. The first tree we hiked to was located next to a small, meandering river that has chiseled-out pools along the trail. At the Del Rio tree, a deceased monkey was decomposing in the river. The skeleton sitting in the tea-colored water looked like it was preserved in amber. When we get back from the tree, we walked up to the bamboo house just as the sun made an appearance, it was a nice welcome! After a quick tuna sandwich (and a switch to drier clothes), we climbed the long, meandering trail to the last tree of the day.
This tree will be etched in my memory for a while. Not only did I get to put the audiomoth back on the station, I did so with an audience of howler monkeys in an adjacent tree. They seemed unimpressed with our ropes in harnesses. They seemed further unimpressed with my first attempt at lanyarding, oh well. We hiked out in the twilight unburdened with the heavy packs of rope we hid off the trail. Upon return, we had a hot meal waiting for us and it put the final touches on a fantastic day.
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| Ecuadorian dinner courtesy of Moises! Photo credit: Matt Parker |
10 - 12 Enero 2021
Our morning was off to a smooth start. We hiked one of my favorite trees in Jama-Coaque; the Ronquillo Trail. It nicely meanders up to the cloud forest and gets you right to the beginnings of the Three Forests Trail. Along the way, we did a little cleaning of the Three Forests Trail, but it has been such a relief to have a well-made trail to follow. It speeds the process along significantly. And the first tree was a breeze to maintenance. Becca and Matt tag-teamed switching out batteries and SD cards, meaning it took very little time after sending the bag down before I was hoisting it back into the canopy. The three of us then went on our merry way to the next tree.
When we arrived down at WF02, we hit a few snags. Mostly, a vine had grown over half of our guide-line making pulling the climbing line over much more challenging. This vine had an impressive grip, with little tendrils hugging our guide-line tight. I felt a little bad ripping it off, but I knew if it could find another leverage point easily.
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| You can just see the tendrils spiraling around the yellow guideline |
The other slight delay was just the location of the camera - this one is always a bit of a challenge to get to and Becca had some issues getting into a comfortable position. The Kestrel (our weather recording device) was not working properly, so once again, we would be returning to this tree the next day. It made me consider renaming this tree from 'Destiny' to something else.
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| Matt watching Becca climb - he was yawning after a long day, but it's more fun to think he was amazed. |
On the hike back, I was hit with another stark reminder of the glaring importance of TMA's mission. As I looked up from watching my footing in the mud of the trail, a grim sight greeted me. A patch of forest had been cleared - likely for planting bananas or coffee after burning the remaining brush. On the other side of the trail is protected land, intact forest. And, I understand why landowners feel the pressure to use their land to make a profit, especially during an economic crisis. It's a means to an end. But the stark differences between these protected and unprotected lands made it that much clearer to me that involving people in the process of conservation, providing them with the economic means to use their land in a manner that helps them and wildlife is critically important. Which is a huge part of what TMA does with their agroforestry project.
The three of us made the trek back to the bamboo house with a lot more weighing on our minds and hearts.
That night, we got a decent amount of rainfall - meaning on the hike out the next morning, we took our time appreciating the tracks left in the mud. We saw raccoon tracks, small ungulate tracks, and what looked like a feline print.
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| Raccoon prints! |
Another exciting find as we were deep in the cloud forest - in a spot I usually get lost in, was an adorable brown wood turtle. They are active during the day, and herbivorous, but not too much more is known about them because these turtles are challenging to find. We got lucky enough to get a good sighting of one.
Fixing up 'Destiny' was a quick and easy job. All we had to do was replace the Kestrel and we were back on the trail. I couldn't be happier with the company I had in the field. Today was a push day. We didn't have a ride lined up to pick us up, so we set out knowing we would have to hike all the way to Bosque Seco Lalo Loor and back with a ticking time clock of sunset. Well, at least for getting back into Jama Coaque property lines, because hiking the Three Forests Trail at night would be less than ideal. But Becca and Matt were great sports, making jokes throughout the day and even puns (how the tables have turned, huh, Becca?).
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| My fearless team |
Our last tree of the day took a little while to find because I knew it was hidden in the brush, but I didn't have a specific point for the entrance point. However, we did locate it before too much time passed and had a smooth climb.
The three of us were on our way for the long hike ahead of us. We made it all the way to Bosque Seco Lalo Loor shortly after 4 p.m. and dropped our bags. We didn't feel comfortable pushing all the way down to the closest tree, so we just stashed them near the property line.
Feeling a lot lighter, we hit the trail again. And, not for the first time, as we were hiking, I almost stepped on ANOTHER Equuis. I don't know why, but my feet have a talent for finding these venomous snakes. In my defense, this time it was hidden under a leaf. Every time, these close encounters get my heart racing, but it also just goes to show as long as you let venomous snakes be, they are just going to mind their own business.
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| Leaf moved to reveal a hidden Equuis! |
Miraculously, we made it back to Jama-Coaque right at sunset. Of course, we still had to hike back to the bamboo house, but we could slow our pace. Which we did. The three of us enjoyed casually searching for mammals, birds, and frogs along the way. There were several instances where we stopped after hearing a loud rustling in the leaves, but we never got a very clear look at anything.
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| I was overjoyed to reach JCR before sunset! Photo credit: Matt Parker |
Finally, we were on our '3 tree' day. We would hit all Bosque Seco Lalo Loor trees in one day. I made the mistake of taking us up the wrong trail, which somehow felt longer and steeper than the usual hike up, but we made it to our destination and got a good look of a Yellow-spotted Puffing snake on the way. Close-up wildlife sightings made the extra strain worth it.
Matt and I hiked back to our drop spot and encountered a small herd of peccaries. They took off into the cover of vegetation, but we paused for a few minutes to watch them disappear.
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| Peccary in the vegetation. Photo credit: Matt Parker |
The first tree was DF01, one of the tallest trees of the project. As I was already getting sweaty and out of breath from the climb, some local tourists stopped to ask what we were doing. My Spanish is still pretty basic, but I learned the words specifically relating to this research project to talk about it and yelled out some clarifying phrases with what Becca had explained. The couple stayed for a few minutes to watch me ascend into the canopy, which put in the pressure. It was probably the fastest I had ever climbed.
On the hike down to the next tree, we came across a pair of Gartered trogons. They stuck around long enough for us to really appreciate their appearance before taking flight.
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| Photo credit: Matt Parker |
The rest of the day went so smoothly. Becca climbed DF02 and finished the job very quickly. On the walk down to DF03 we even meandered a bit, enjoying the pocket views of the ocean since we were ahead on time.
With the day wrapped up, we only had one more tree to visit and another four days left! Wow! I thought it was going to be a push, but getting to start with two 'teams' gave us great headway.
12 Enero 2021 - Becca
I had been looking forward to our day in Bosque Seco Lalo Loor as an easier day with well-manicured trails and trees close to the trails. Those things were correct, but I had forgotten how steep it could be. We accidentally took a different trail up that was sunnier and seemingly, magically, hillier. The 11.5-hour workday from yesterday and the heat were catching up to me, so once we reached the first tree Jackie (easily) convinced me to take a break while they went to collect the bags. And after drinking water and quietly contemplating some antwrens that worked their way through the taigas, I felt better again.
As Jackie climbed DF01, “Endurance”, a couple hikers with binoculars came by on the trail. The timing was just perfect to see Jackie take off towards the canopy and they were very impressed. We chatted (socially distantly) in a mix of English and Spanish about our project with a few helpful phrases thrown in from Jackie-in-the-trees. It’s wonderful to meet locals who are knowledgeable and care about their ecosystem.
Matt and I needed to get the DBH of this tree as well, but it was out of the question to pull the climber over to the trunk as we’d done before. I balanced on some slippery buttresses as Matt fought through the vegetation to bring me the other end of the tape, then used our extendable hook to push the tape to get an even measure. Honestly, none of the trees I measured during undergrad were as difficult as these Neotropical giants have proved to be.
As we hiked down towards our second tree, we got excellent views of a pair of Gartered trogons, which perched above the trail and studied us for a minute. This was a lifer for me (the first time I’ve seen this species in my life) and that makes any day a good day.
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| Admiring the view of Gartered trogons |
I climbed our second tree, DF02 or “Fingers Crossed”. Everything went smoothly except I couldn’t reach any leaves for a sample because the station is on the main trunk, far from any leaf-bearing branches. Despite standing in the largest part of the tree, I could still feel it sway in the wind. Our third tree wrapped up quickly and I was happy to be back at the bamboo house before sundown.
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| We enjoyed the view of the ocean on the way back |
These next few entries are going to be pretty short. These last few days were much less field-based. We took the 13th to relax, do laundry, and start reading to get back to our 'normal' lives. I spent some time writing and entering data, while Matt and Becca took some time to read, work on job applications, and bird, while Moises was in class.
We did have some visitors! Some howlers decided to stop some trees in front of the bamboo house and lounge around for an hour or so. It made the slow day feel that much more special - even if their occasional howling did disrupt some of our focus.
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| Photo credit: Matt Parker |
The 14th was our final project day (Moises took care of the four far trees in December). We hiked to WF01 and Matt was up for the challenge of maintenancing the tree himself. It was a proud moment for me, watching Matt walk us through everything that needed to be done, and taking care of the gear himself. Especially since he had to push away a section of bamboo that had gotten stuck on the main branch he was climbing to.
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| Matt way up in the tree |
But he got it safely moved away and finished the rest of the task easily, even with Becca and I making dumb jokes on the ground level.
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We had a climbing day on the 15th, which didn't go quite as planned. In October, we set a camera in a tree close to the reserve - not for the project, but because it was a beautiful, emergent tree that likely got lots of animal activity. We planned to change out the SD card and batteries, but the line got so tangled that it snapped when we tried to pull it down.
This was a great opportunity to teach Moises how to use the big shot and set a line. After a few tries, he got it! But...our aim had been off. When I finally got up, I was not where I wanted to be, so we spent more time fixing up the line position and didn't get around to the camera, but Moises was going to take care of it later.
We all got the chance to enjoy the fantastic view from the tree - when you're near the top, you get an amazing view of the bamboo house.
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| The view from the tree |
The 16th was our last full day in the reserve. It was another 'work' day. We cleaned and packed away all of the climbing gear and our own supplies. I worked on my application essay (which was a bit frustrating because the 'A', 'S', 'D', and 'F' keys didn't work on the field laptop I was using), while Matt worked on applications. Becca went on a hike for a while and came across a three-toed sloth!
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| Photo credit: Becca Davis |
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| Our last sunset in the reserve. Photo credit: Matt Parker |
Getting up this morning was bittersweet. I am ready to return home to see my family, but this is also the first time in a while that I'm leaving Ecuador without knowing when I'll return.
In a few hours, we'll arrive in Quito. Tomorrow, I will take Matt and Becca around the city - visit the To'ak headquarters, explore the artisanal market, and enjoy a park until the late hours of our flight roll around. I still have a long journey to defend my thesis this summer, but it feels weird not knowing what's next.
All I know is, I plan to return to this magical place again if the opportunity is presented.
14 Enero 2021 - Matt
I woke up this morning to sunshine. Sunny days seem special here. Personally, I'm thrilled to see the sun because it means my freshly laundered socks will dry.
We only did one tree today and it felt like a walk in the park compared to the others. I was able to climb this tree on my own and replace all of the gear myself. There's an incredibly satisfying feeling of accomplishment when you've reattached all the gear, turned the camera on, and are allowed to suspend high above the ground.
Climbing is becoming easier and more instinctual now. We only have a few trees left and I know that the number of opportunities to be suspended in the canopy is running out. That's okay though. I feel very accomplished at how much I've learned. Now... I think I'm going to jump in a waterfall.
Update: Jumping in the river felt amazing. However, there were two very large fishing spiders hanging out on the rocks by the falls and their presence made my dip brief.
17 Enero 2021 - Matt
My bags are packed and the few remaining hours at Jama-Coaque are slipping by. I have enjoyed my time here immensely. The fieldwork never really felt like work since we were constantly hiking in the jungle and climbing trees. To someone like me, that's more like a vacation. It has been a privilege to have a small role in this project and I look forward to what becomes of the data we collected.
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| A rainbow on our last morning. Photo credit: Matt Parker |
It's only been two weeks but so much has happened that it feels like much longer. While we were climbing trees, there was an insurrection on the US capitol and the POTUS was impeached for a second time. As a history fan, it was quite something to read about. I can only imagine that if I was home, the insanity in the news would preoccupy my mind all the time. However, I have been more concerned with learning to safely climb trees, photograph birds, and use limited ingredients and the lack of refrigeration to make good food.
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| Blue-necked Tanager! Photo credit: Matt Parker |
I am excited to get back, kiss my fiance, and love on all of my pets, but I know I'll miss waking up to the birds and howler monkeys each morning. I am not ready for the sounds of a city or to be stuck in traffic in the states, but that is in my future and hopefully returning to Jama-Coaque is too.
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