9/1/09 Las Cruces Biological fieldstation, Costa Rica
photos from the station and botanical garden
Awesome mantid!
Common rain frog
Aguiti
A great example of the dangers of too many organisms in not enough habitat space. This was cleaner than usual.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
8/26/2009 Las Cruces Biological Station
Just hopped down here from San Jose, took my first walk through the rainforest so far. Not much fauna seen, thought there was a couple of cool spiders. Lots of plants, though, including my first view of a strangler fern, which I of course climbed up inside. The actual buildings part of Las Cruces is in the middle of the Wilson Botanical Gardens, a really sweet place. While walking the gardens before the rainforest walk I saw my first central American mammal, what I'm almost certain was an agouti. Not particularly afraid of humans, these guys, though maybe it was just these particular individuals. Had my first lecture this evening, this may be difficult for me. Outside of guest lecturers, I'm not used to being lectured at for over an hour as class. While he did ask for questions at the end, it was certainly not the discussion format I'm used to. Even in the hated lecture courses at Sewanee there's a lot more interaction during class between students/teachers, hell even in my 50 person chem and bio intros that was the case. Still, it has been the hands on parts of this program I've been looking forward to, which we start out with tomorrow morning. Writing now from the Wilson house where we're staying at the field station, a rather nice set of accommodation in my opinion. This should be a fun couple of weeks here, I'm looking forward to it.
Just hopped down here from San Jose, took my first walk through the rainforest so far. Not much fauna seen, thought there was a couple of cool spiders. Lots of plants, though, including my first view of a strangler fern, which I of course climbed up inside. The actual buildings part of Las Cruces is in the middle of the Wilson Botanical Gardens, a really sweet place. While walking the gardens before the rainforest walk I saw my first central American mammal, what I'm almost certain was an agouti. Not particularly afraid of humans, these guys, though maybe it was just these particular individuals. Had my first lecture this evening, this may be difficult for me. Outside of guest lecturers, I'm not used to being lectured at for over an hour as class. While he did ask for questions at the end, it was certainly not the discussion format I'm used to. Even in the hated lecture courses at Sewanee there's a lot more interaction during class between students/teachers, hell even in my 50 person chem and bio intros that was the case. Still, it has been the hands on parts of this program I've been looking forward to, which we start out with tomorrow morning. Writing now from the Wilson house where we're staying at the field station, a rather nice set of accommodation in my opinion. This should be a fun couple of weeks here, I'm looking forward to it.
Monday, August 24, 2009
8/24/2009 Charlotte, NC on way to Costa Rica
Yeah, kind of let the end of Saint Cat's slip, needless to say it was awesome and lemur behavior and social organization is awesome, though there is currently a raccoon that I will go to my grave hating for letting itself get trapped (24 hours constant tracking, need I say more?). Currently in Charlotte, NC airport preparing to fly to San Jose, Costa Rica for a semester of tropical biological awesomeness, will try to post with fair regularity. This will be my first time seeing a rain forest; I was in the tropics before but the country was Haiti, not the place to go for forests of any sort. I will be visiting five research stations while down there, in order according to the itinerary Las Cruces, Cuerici, La Selva, Monteverde, and Paloverde. While I'm currently beyond exhausted due to early morning connecting flights, I'm incredibly excited and ready to fly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
