July 20th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

It would be impossible to truly decide, but The Night Tour in Drake Bay may have been the most memorable experience of the expedition. I have certainly seen plenty of nocturnal critters, but the combination of the biodiversity of the Osa Peninsula and the knowledge of Tracie and Gian made it a revelatory experience.

In a nutshell, Tracie covered the invertebrates (largely spiders, but there were some fascinating insects as well) while Gian covered the vertebrates (many frogs, but also a snake and two kinds of sloth). They were very knowledgable about the local wildlife and explained plenty of other eccentricities of the natural world, like wasps controlling the minds of spiders biochemically. There was also plenty of danger, including the constant possibility that we would encounter the deadly fer-de-lance viper or get bitten by a wandering spider.

There were many highlights. Amongst the insects, the leaf-mimic katydid and enormous walking stick were standouts. The most interesting spiders were the trap door spider and burrowing tarantula. Here Tracie’s skill and knowledge was very valuable as it is almost impossible to find a trap door spider unless you already know where its door is. We also saw the smoky jungle frog (which I kept trying to call the misty mountain frog) and the red-eyed tree frog, which is probably the most photographed frog of all time, but deserves the honor.

It was a little bit sad when we had to give back the headlamps.



July 20th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

Drake Bay, named after Sir Francis Drake, who visited there long ago, is on the Pacific coast just past the mouth of the Sierpe River. On arrival, our small taxi boat turned to face the sea about 50 meters off the beach and the captain cut the engines. A short distance down the beach, another taxi boat was doing the same and two men disembarked in neck-deep water, one carrying a small backpack above his head. We were concerned. We had luggage.

After a few perplexed moments, however, the captain slowly backed towards the beach while a couple people held the boat against the waves in knee-deep water and we were able to disembark without incident. Although there is a road, Bahía Drake is inaccessible by land during the rainy season (thoughtfully referred to as the “green season”). Thankfully, the local technique for getting on and off boats works quite well.

Drake Bay is a wonderful place, remote and full of interesting life. For the next few days we would use it as our base as we explored Isla del Caño and Corcovado park as well as the forests of Drake Bay itself. Our base camp, the lovely Jinetes de Osa, was terrific. Also, we discovered that if you stop by the bar area for a beer in the afternoon they make nachos for you.



July 20th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

Our travels next led us up to the Osa Peninsula, home to Corcovado National Park, and our departure point for Isla del Caño. After a night in Puerto Jimenez, the team split up for separate mini-expeditions. While Yann, Marie and Laura went for a three-day hike into Corcovado from the south, Jenn and I headed up to Sierpe to take a boat down the Sierpe River to Bahia Drake. In Sierpe, we found some critters, including an elephant beetle.

The trip down the Sierpe River took us through the Terraba mangroves, which are the largest in Latin America. These (and the ones we had kayaked earlier in Zancudo) were truly amazing. In addition to covering huge areas of land, the mangroves are perhaps fifteen meters tall or more.



July 20th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

Playa Zancudo is the other big surfing town near Pavones (not that it is a big town, of course). We went there to try our hand at surfing. It’s also a great place to barely avoid drowning. After our surfing expedition we went to a nearby pier near the mouth of a river (the Zancudo River, perhaps?) to look for crocodiles. It was low tide and we got to see a number of them in the water and one on an exposed mud bank. In the water were some checkered puffer fish, or at least something very similar, as well as schools of fish with what I think are semi-see-through heads. On our way back, we stopped to take photos of squirrel monkeys crossing the road.

We also visited Yann and Marie’s land, which is located nearby. Only a small part of the land is accessible by path, while most of it is made up of a jungle valley and hillsides. The most amazing thing I saw was a giant buprestid beetle (Euchroma gigantea), although I also saw a truly amazing multicolor grasshopper. Future plans for the area include creating trails in the jungle area and building a camping platform protected by chickens.



July 18th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

Due to a rather unlikely turn of events, a photo of mine is in The Economist this week. They happened to do a very interesting article about the mating habits of a particular spider, and I happened to have some photos of that exact spider mating. Not something I would have predicted, and perhaps the last time I have a photo featured in The Economist, but I thought it was neat.



July 18th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

The Tiskita Jungle Lodge is a hotel on 800 acres of jungle (with an orchard with over 100 kinds of tropical fruit). We went with Yann and Marie one morning on a tour with Clyde, the son of the owners, and it was wonderful.

The trail began near the lodge, and one of the first things we saw was a small boa on a branch right beside the trail. We continued down a small valley with a stream, stopping by a particularly moist spot to see if we could find a poison arrow frog. It’s actually quite amazing to think that think that one should avoid touching leaves in a certain area because a tiny frog might have been on one. We in fact did see a poison arrow frog after some searching, I believe it was Oophaga granulifera.

Another interesting sight was an agouti that was sitting rather listlessly in the stream, apparently injured or sick. An agouti is a rather large rodent that looks a bit like a long-legged guinea pig. We also spotted a pug-nosed anole (Norops capito), which is apparently a lucky find. As you can see from the photos below, there were also plenty of strange and wonderful insects.

Exiting the jungle, we passed through the orchard to eat some starfruit, cacao, pickle fruit, and a variety of other unusual fruit. We also stocked up on lemons, including one that was the size of a grapefruit. Our last stop was one of the cabins where a white bat (I think Ectophylla alba) was roosting under the eaves.

While it would have been fantastic just to walk around there by ourselves, having Clyde as a knowledgeable and passionate guide made a huge difference. In general, Costa Rica was amazing because so many people there have studied biology and ecology. Some, of course are foreign scientists who have come there to do research, but many are locals who studied these subjects in university in Costa Rica. Clyde had the added bonus of knowing first-hand the history of the land we were on, having grown up there. I would guess there are few places in the world where so many people are so knowledgeable about their country’s natural history.

As we headed to the car, we were also blessed with a final gift: a large group of squirrel monkeys crossing between trees in the parking area!



July 14th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

Here are a whole mess of photos taken in the Pavones area during our Costa Rica expedition. Highlights from the first set include leafhoppers that look like storm troopers and a really amazing leaf-footed bug.

In the second set, there are some interesting flies and, in what is a recurring theme, a wide variety of strange and delightful leafhoppers and planthoppers.



July 13th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

On our first night with team members Yann and Marie at their house near Pavones we had many guests. There were some surfer friends, and lots of insects attracted to the porch light. There were also plenty of geckos around to eat the insects. One, as you can see below, was a pirate gecko with only one eye. We also made a jaunt through the night down muddy dirt roads where the calls of frogs and insects in the dark changed every few meters creating a continuous, but ever-changing chorus of science fiction sounds.

Aside from the pirate gecko, my favorite critter was the young praying mantis that lived on the trunk of a tree in their front yard. It actually stayed on the same section of tree trunk the whole time we were there, mostly hiding with its marvelous camouflage, but also scampering around the trunk with lightning speed if approached too closely.



July 13th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

This first post about our Costa Rica expedition features mostly photos taken from the window of the small plane we took from San Jose to Golfito. As you can see, Costa Rica is very green and has many muddy rivers. The first shots are above San Jose, and the last ones show the Golfito area. Golfito is the biggest town in the southern Pacific coast area. It served as the port for the area when it was a major banana producing region. Nowadays it’s pretty quiet, although a pseudo-duty free zone brings some folks from around the country to buy appliances and such. There is also a photo of a cowboy and a boy on a bicycle crossing a bridge since I didn’t have a better place to put it.



July 11th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

I only photographed a few, but they were nice. The great egret was near the trailhead of the Sandy Cruz Trail. When we were on Saba last time in October, several locals mentioned the stray great egret that had come by in a summer storm and was hanging out. Perhaps this is the same one. A lack of ponds and mangroves makes Saba a less than ideal habitat for this bird. We also saw the Antillean crested hummingbird and I saw a small flock of scaly-naped pigeons in Windwardside. These pigeons are also seen on St. Martin, but rarely, because they were hunted close to extinction on the island.