11 May
On the evening of the 9th, we made a very exciting discovery – a caecilian!!!!! We were all extremely excited (Sarah and I had never seen one) except for Henry because he told me he’s seen about twenty and he doesn’t particularly like them because they remind him of snakes, and he isn’t really much of a snake-lover. Nevertheless, Carl had Henry hold the caecilian while he took pictures of it. They seem harmless, but apparently if they bite you they will never let go (kind of like the Tea Party and their whole fascination with Obama’s birth certificate…). Ahem. Anyways. After that exciting detour, we split off and Henry and I went to look for adorable little glass frogs. We started out thinking there weren’t going to be any frogs because it was such a bright evening (the stars were out and there weren’t many clouds). The three heloderma we’ve found in thicket of trees and epiphytes on the side stream off the main river weren’t calling so I was a little disheartened. First I made a recording of ballux for 15 minutes because the night before Carl and I had heard it make a different call than he had heard before. I’m trying to capture that sound for the call description. Finally though, a ways down the creek we recaptured heloderma R2, which is one we’ve been hearing nearly every night but have been unable to capture. I was really excited about it. Later on we were able to recapture another one we’d been searching for for a long time – L3, the one we found near the eggs (that Carl now thinks are Nymphargus grandisonae). I also made a recording of that one. Around the same time Henry and I heard a grandisonae singing, but weren’t able to find it. Hopefully we’ll find it soon, because those ones are ridiculously cute with their red spots. Sarah and I got back to the reserve around 2:30 a.m., and Carl and Henry stayed out until 6:00 a.m. finding heloderma and a bunch of grandisonae.
Yesterday Sarah and I were really happy because it was an exquisitely beautiful day for the cloud forest – the sun was out until 4:00! Usually the sun leaves around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. Also saw my favorite hummingbird, the Booted Racket-tail, and it was so hot we were wearing shorts and almost considered eating lunch outside! We had some delicious pizza for lunch, which was really nice. I bet we are some of the most well-fed people on our internships, which I really appreciate. Especially the desserts. After lunch, Sarah and I went down to the pond to check on the tadpoles. Deaths were indiscriminate based on UVB filter or no filter – we wondered if it was because of the heat. There were 17 dead of 160 total. The walk back up the mountain was brutal because it was so hot, but luckily we were able to use the cook’s shower, which has great water pressure and hot water. It’s pretty much a million times better than the gross, finicky shower in our usual bathroom. Of course there was a repulsive spider I noticed halfway through my shower. That was the third spider I had seen in the span of twenty minutes – one of which was a giant furry tarantula with purple legs and an orange back. Freaky as hell, but grotesquely fascinating all the same. Afterwards I watched the last episode of Dexter season 3 and read a little bit (a book called Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver) before dinner. Speaking of desserts, I was super excited about getting chocolate and took a huge bite….but then almost spit it out because it had nasty mint frosting!!! Ahhh!! I just scraped it off though. Ugh. The only things that should ever have mint in them are gum and mouth wash.
That night (last night) was also beautiful because the stars were out again and the half moon was glowing with a yellow-orangeness to it. It was so clear we didn’t even use our headlamps and we could actually see the entire countryside and forest around us – only a few of the lower valleys had mist settled lightly inside them. It was a crap night for frogs though – Henry and I didn’t even find any and only made one ballux recording so we just kind of talked for most of the transect. Sarah and I made our way back and arrived at the reserve around 2:00 a.m., which is a lot earlier than usual. However, at around 7:00 a.m. this morning, I was really kicking myself for not staying out with Carl and Henry to look for grandisonae – Carl made this huge discovery! He and Henry watched two male grandisonae fight for three and a half hours! No one thought that this species even fought like many other glass frog species do (including heloderma and lynchi) so they were moved to a completely different genus. Now Carl has a recording of them fighting, which is so awesome! I had been sleeping and then heard Carl and Jane talking excitedly in the kitchen, which is right next to the researcher cabins. I overheard them talking about glass frogs and fighting, and since there was no way I was getting back to sleep with how loud they were, I decided to get up and see what was going on. He has all this great footage and a bunch of fantastic pictures. It’s all really exciting stuff! I was totally regretting not staying out ‘til the wee hours of the morning, but whatever. I at least need to see a grandisonae before I leave because I don’t think I’ve seen that one yet. Glass frogs are just so cute!
This afternoon after lunch, Sarah and I went down to the tadpole pond again and we had a very high mortality rate today – 37 dead. The strange thing is, most of the deaths (27), were from the bins with the UV-B filter. Interesting stuff. Tonight we go back up to topsite again – hopefully we’ll actually find stuff. Fighting heloderma would be awesome! It’s known that this species fights, but I’m not sure it’s ever been filmed.
5 full days left here…and 12 ‘til I go HOME!
12 May
Well last night was another bust as far as heloderma go. Got only one recording and didn’t manage to capture any. Henry did find a ballux and I was determined to capture it even though it was halfway up a tree. Luckily it was near the trail so I was able to climb up that a little bit and then climb up the little cliff to the tree, but I ended up getting tiny little spines in my hand on the way up, so that was exciting. And then I had to use my walking stick to drag the limb it was on closer to me. It was definitely worth it though because I finally caught it! Ballux is a lot smaller than heloderma, and its eyes are bigger compared to its body and blacker. I took a lot of pictures of him, and I felt bad blinding him, but hello it’s a glass frog! Not going to see one of those again for a long time. The rest of the time down the river Henry and I just talked a lot because there were literally no frogs at all. We talked about our high schools, and how he doesn’t like usual sports and instead likes parkour and something else I can’t remember. I asked him if he wanted to stay in Ecuador and he said he really wants to travel to the States. I’ve been told by multiple people here though, including Henry, that coming from here to the U.S. is ridiculously difficult – Henry said a friend of his had to wait nearly four years for a Visa before she was able to go! Plus my Galápagos host mom said it’s very expensive as well. He said he wants to visit Wisconsin (hahaha) and Texas (probably because Jane is from Texas). Well, I think he really likes country music and he said he wants to learn how to dance like they do there (what, line dancing???). I have a huge bias against Texas for some reason – I’ve always hated their football teams, especially the Cowboys (gross) and of course it’s just full of conservatives like Bush. Although Jane obviously is pretty liberal. Anyways, I imagined Henry with a cowboy hat and doing whatever dancing they do in Texas and it was a pretty hilarious image. It’s weird – you never really meet people from South America in the States. Mostly Mexico, Puerto Rico, or maybe the Dominican Republic. I guess it also really depends on which state you are in. Yeah, Henry said he doesn’t really like Quito, and he doesn’t really like el Oriente because there are so many bugs, and he also doesn’t really like the coast because he says that beaches can get easily boring, but he also isn’t really a fan of the people in the Sierra because they are “cerrada,” which of course means reserved or closed. So I’m not really sure what he likes, besides frogs and dancing. Pretty hilarious.
We have the afternoon off today, which is lucky because lunch was less that desirable – figs for dessert. I’ve never liked them much to begin with, but when we learned about fig wasps, I really didn’t want to eat them. It’s such a step down from chocolate cake too. Oh well – had some blue Oreos I had stashed away (they are blue for the movie Rio that came out awhile ago). We are going out again tonight and then I think the next two nights we have off because Henry won’t be here (university entrance exams). It’ll be really nice to have a rest…maybe I can watch Dexter mwahahaha.
13 May
We ended up not going out last night. I’m not sure why, but we got our night off then instead of tonight. We still have one tomorrow night though, which is nice. So I watched a bunch of episodes from season 4 of Dexter and then finished the book I was reading – Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. Ended up eating all the rest of my snacks, sadly. There wasn’t much left anyways, but now I won’t have any more until Tuesday! And sometimes they are nice to have here because at times the dinners and desserts aren’t that good and so I’m still hungry later on. But oh well.
Jane got back from Quito this morning with lots of cereal. Yay cereal! Today I’m not really sure what else is going on – I’m getting internet in a little bit from Jane, and then anything after lunch is up in the air. It’s been raining since late last night, so I hope the heloderma are out tonight.
14 May
Turns out we didn’t go out last night either – and amazingly, neither did Carl! He was too exhausted from staying out until 6:00 a.m. for the past five or so days. Instead, we all rested and watched movies. I watched Across the Universe, which I’ve seen before, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which was actually really good. Pretty ingenious and quite funny.
During the day at least we were quite busy. After lunch, Sarah and I went through all of the Dendrosophus carnifex metamorphs that we have in the lab, and measured the ones (with calipers) that had completely absorbed their tails. Afterwards, we packaged up the new frogs and took them down to the pond on Peccary Trail to set them free. We had to go down there anyways to check on the UV tadpole experiment. No deaths for once! The next couple days will be much of the same. Tonight we have off again because Carl and Tim are heading over to Third Creek, also affectionately known as “Too Damn Far Creek.” Don’t think I could make it! On Sunday and Monday its back to work during the evenings, and then Tuesday we LEAVE! It’s been fun and a great learning experience here at the reserve, but I only have 9 days left in Ecuador and I’m really excited to go home! Hopefully my presentation and paper will go well. I’m kind of glad I’m staying two extra days so I can just relax in Ecuador. That reminds me – got a call from my host mom yesterday saying that she’s getting a new student on the 18th! Weird! I just have to move to a different room for a few days, but still…kind of strange. I also have to ask her if it’s okay that I stay two extra days or if I will need to pay her. Hopefully I won’t, but you never know about this lady.
15 May
Busy day yesterday – I entered in all of my data from my field notebook from my glass frog transect and from the tadpole work on to my computer. I set up my computer and stuff on the hummingbird patio because it was such a beautiful, sunny day yesterday. I took a bunch of pictures of the hummingbirds not only because they are cute, but also because one of my grandmas absolutely loves hummingbirds. She’ll be excited to see something other than a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. So I did a lot of data entry before lunch. Dessert was fantastic – tiramisu! I’d actually never had it before coming to this reserve, and it is absolutely delicious. After lunch, Sarah and I looked over the metamorphs again and then headed down to the pond to check on the tadpoles. It had been almost a week, so we had to change the water in all of the tanks and determine the Gosner stages of five tadpoles from each tank. We had to stage them to monitor their development along the course of the experiment. There were only two deaths that day. To refill the tanks we had to take empty Tesalia jugs over to a nearby river and trudge all the way back to the pond with them. Honestly, we were glad to have an arm work out for once instead of just a leg workout. That took about two hours, including the hike there and back, so it wasn’t too bad.
It was just a girl’s night at dinner since Carl and Tim went out to Third Creek. Vickie made the dessert for dinner; something called tiffin. It was delicious. First she melted baking chocolate with, I believe, two tablespoons of corn syrup, and butter (have to get the measurement from her). Then you mix crumbled up cookies and raisins (and nuts if you like) into the melted chocolate and let it set. You’re also supposed to drizzle chocolate over the top, but there wasn’t enough. It was definitely still chocolate-y without it though.
After dinner we had the night off so I watched the BBC version of Jane Eyre and then watched The Last Station, a movie about Leo Tolstoy. Haven’t actually read Jane Eyre yet, but I have the book and I’ve been meaning to. Also need to read Anna Karenina. I know he also wrote War and Peace, but I think that’s one huuuuge book and not really good for exciting summer reading.
Texted with my mom a little last night and this morning – today is one of my cousin’s wedding. I wish I could be there – he originally was going to wait until after I came back, but apparently something came up with work and he and his fiancé had to push up the date for the wedding. Kinda sucks.
16 May
Yesterday afternoon was our last day of checking on the tadpoles in the pond, which is pretty crazy. We were both really excited though because going all the way back up the mountain can be pretty brutal so that was the last of that. There were no deaths yesterday, but we had to move a lot of the tanks because the pond is beginning to dry up. It had been really dry for the past two days and already the leaves on the path were beginning to crunch. Seems like the dry season is already fighting for dominance. We also released some more fully metamorphed D. carnifex to the pond. There were quite a lot to release yesterday (after measuring them), including one that didn’t have much of a left leg. I hope he survives but it’s most likely that he won’t. I wonder why he had the deformity – there’s no way it could be contamination because you’d think more of the tadpoles would have been affected…but you never know. I really hope that’s not the case. It could just have been a random mutation. We also checked UV-B and UV – A+B radiation twice a day like we’ve been doing since the experiment started.
Henry didn’t show up last night like he was supposed to; he called in sick. Plus, it was an extremely bright full moon last night, so Carl told us we didn’t need to come out with him – when it’s so bright, there are literally no frogs out. Instead, I started working on my project. Carl gave me the Raven Lite 1.0 program, the bioacoustics program developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. So that was pretty cool to play around with. I renamed all the recording files (Species Name_Individual Number_Recording number_Call number) and listened to bunch of them and looked at their frequencies. Carl still needs to help me figure out the analysis part, but I think it will be very interesting. When you can look at the frequencies so closely, you realize that frog calls are way more complicated than you would think. After playing around with that for a while, I filled out the evaluation form and thought about my paper. And then after awhile I decided to watch V for Vendetta, which was an excellent movie. I think I may have to read the graphic novel – I know that the Watchmen movie is not nearly as meaningful as the graphic novel, which I have read (and really, really enjoyed). What I got from the movie is that people just don’t stand up for what they believe in, they don’t stand up against the government if they are doing wrong. They showed families watching horrible news stories on TV, just like we do in the States, or all around the world. The difference was that people decided to take a stand, instead of just sitting on their sofas and shaking their heads in disbelief. Which is exactly what I do. And millions of other people do. So yeah…getting off your sofa is an important step. Haha. Anyways, even though the movie was kind of gory in a too-much-fake-blood kind of way, it was really good. Of course, a movie with Stephen Fry and Natalie Port man is always good!
17 May
Well, today is our last day here! We’ve already finished up the last bit of work - taking UV data and measuring frogs. We returned the puddle frogs to their home this morning (in our flip flops and moccasins) and took in the beautiful mountain views. It is brightly sunny and blue skies abound – the only clouds around are far away around other mountains or are like giant cotton balls floating through the sky. It’s gorgeous, but very hot out.
Yesterday was pretty fun. Sarah had been wanting to make her famous cheesecake for a while and we finally had access to cream cheese, so we both took over the kitchen for about three hours making strawberry cheesecake. We had to double the amount of sugar in the crust because the sugar here isn’t as sweet as sugar in the states. It’s more real though at least, haha. We also made a nice strawberry sauce that you put in the middle and swirl on top of the cheesecake. The remainder you put in a nice dish if people want more. The stoves here are gas so we were unsure how long to actually cook it for…the bottom of the crust ended up getting kind of burnt but it really didn’t taste very burnt! So we had that as dessert with dinner last night. Everyone really enjoyed it. It was very delicious if I do say so myself.
Even though last night was the night before a full moon, and the moon was shining fiercely, we all decided to go out in search for C. grandisonae. We went up to topsite as usual but went further down the river I’m usually on, past the waterfall. Luckily we ended up finding one! We were all feeling like we had wasted our time, but it was all worth it to find that one frog. They are the only glass frogs here with red spots. Totally cute. The walk back down the road to the reserve was amazing. The moon was so bright that none of use used our headlamps. We could see for miles and miles around us, even mountains we had never been able to see before because they were always obscured by clouds. We saw as far as Santo Domingo even. It was absolutely beautiful – the moon gave everything a silvery grayish hue and illuminated the mist nestled in the valleys of far away mountains. Even the trees looked silvery. All in all, it was the perfect way to spend our last night in the cloud forest.
PICTURES!!:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150189995152657.303670.704687656&l=1591d93978
