October 12, 2012 Keep Your Eyes OPEN… “Hey Where is Waldo?”

Keep Your Eyes OPEN… “Hey Where is Waldo?”

Yeah, keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel Yeah, we're goin' to the Roadhouse We're gonna have a real Good time Thanks Doors for this great tune

The day was full by lunch time! I spent the day with Dr. Diego Dierick who is a Post Doctoral Student, who works with Dr. Oberbauer from Florida International University in Miami.

All day Diego said “Keep Your Eyes Open!”
This is not only to see all of the great things around but also to see the danger…potential danger.

We started out in the morning by him telling me to “Look Up.” ….so I did, to see a cluster of hawks, mostly Broad Wing and a few others. Apparently it is hawk migration time. They fly around a little and then they start to fly super high. They gain altitude and then take off, in this case to Argentina!

Hawk Migration mostly Broad Winged Hawks Photo taken by Elizabeth Eubanks

From that point the day continued we saw Leaf Cutter Ants, they might be one of my favorite creatures! As ants do, they work together for a common goal. They make a clean path, cut leaves, carry it to their “den” where the leaves will grow a fungus that sustains them.

Leaf Cutter Ant Mound Photo taken by Elizabeth Eubanks

Leaf Cutter Ants make a clean path Photo taken by Elizabeth Eubanks

We saw agoutis, spider monkey, skink like lizards, heard howler monkeys, saw at least 15 various birds that I have never seen before, a black and white vulture, tarpon, poison dart frogs, plus a frog we didn’t know, a Bufo marinis toad, Basilisk Lizard, bullet ants and my mind gets blurred at thought of what I have not mentioned and what I missed when I wasn’t paying full attention. I usually try to really write down all of those from the Animalia Kingdom that I have not seen before, but that would have taken too much time. Its really quite a system overload. …in a good way! Most things were very camouflaged you really had to keep your eyes open and moving.

The peccary were crunching so loud on these seeds that it sound like large plastic eggs were being cracked, when we looked up in the palms we noticed that the spider monkeys were actually dropping the seeds for them.

As a toddler tadpole, the Strawberry Poison Dart frog gets carted up to a bromeliad plant that has a little pool of water. It is fed unfertilized Strawberry Poison Dart from eggs for nutrition.

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog photo taken by Elizabeth Eubanks

I spent a lot of time learning from Diego about his project. The coolest thing about his project is that he uses dendrometers to measure the tree girth growth, just like we have in our Mangrove Park. Dr. Oberbauer and Dr. Paulo Olivas helped myself and a team of students put them on our trees.

Dr. Diego Dierick in front of his plots. Photo taken by Elizabeth Eubanks

Dendrometers are used to measure tree girth/growth. photo taken by Elizabeth Eubanks

Last but not least we went to “tower # 3” which is 40m’s high. Diego collected data which he does weekly while I snapped photos and basked in the sun like a lizard. It was so beautiful at the top. Diego collects data once a week. Lucky!

Getting ready to climb Tower # 3 Le Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. You must wear the safety gear if your gonna climb. Photo taken by Diego Dierick

I am on the top of the world....well the top of Tower #3 looking down on the rain forest.

My last stop just after lunch was chasing a “Jesus Christ Lizard” that I happened to see running high and proud as they do. And that was my day…/morning!

Jesus Christ Lizard Common basilisk (Basiliscus basiliscus)

Bird of the Day Green Honey Creeper Miclero verde

Green Honey Creeper

Collard Peccary, La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica photo taken by Elizabeth Eubanks