The Happy Herper

Nilo is wild about ALL lizards, so he was naturally delighted by this jewel!

The Changling!

It's been a few days since we've posted any news because we are working on development of the image gallery pages for the official LCO website (as well as there being some serious grant writing underway!). Whilst I was watching some birds from the balcony of the house - that has to be one of THE best nature viewing spots on the whole Peninsula - Something in the bushes caught my eye. A dead leaf? A snake? Wait... it's a strangle looking lizard. Reinaldo came up from the lower garden and managed to lure the creature down from it's perch on the end of a long stick, and it turned out to be a truly gorgeous chameleon! After more than a decade of field work in the region, Reinaldo has never seen or heard of one of these creatures, and we suspect that they must be rather rare.

Butterfly - Eunica pomona pomona

A new record for Los Charcos, Eunica pomona pomona (NYMPHALINAE). Of all the plants we have on offer, this gorgeous black and electric blue winged butterfly came visiting a cardboard box!

Glorious morning!

A friend writes after reading the Los Charcos blog, "Too many snakes! I doubt I will ever step out of the balcony if I were there". And with a view like this, why would you want to? I took this photo of the mist filled valley at the foot of Cerro Rincon at 5am this morning.

Venomous or non-venomous?

Ok, here's a good opportunity to compare venomous and non-venomous snakes. The image on the lefthand side depicts a juvenille Terciopelo (Bothrops asper), this is a deadly venomous viper and, as you can see, the head scales are uniformly small and the head itself is distinctly arrow-shaped. The image on the righthand side is of a False Terciopelo (Xenodon rabdocephalus) a non-venomous snake, and as you can see, the scales infront and just behind the eyes are larger than the other scales on this snake's head. The head is rounder (although, many non-venomous snakes inflate their cheeks to look more viper-like). My advice to you is, respect all snakes. Never harrass them to perform. It's better to assume that a snake is venomous. And remember, even non-venomous snakes can bite, and many of these bites cause allergic reaction or infection.

False Terciopelo - Xenodon rabdocephalus

This afternoon, whilst clearing up the workshop, Reinaldo found this False Terciopelo (Xenodon rabdocephalus) under black plastic bag and clearly having had a good meal recently. It would be easy to be fooled by this non-venomous mimic, and when it inflates its cheeks it looks distinctly viperish. But in the False Terciopelo, the head scales are variable in size (both large and small). A true, deadly venomous, Terciopelo has consistently small scales on its head (all the same size). Infact that's how to distinguish between venemous and non-venomous snakes. But the rule is, don't get close enough to any snake to inspect the size of its head scales! Reinaldo nearly stepped on an adult Terciopelo (ca. 2 meters!) on a forest trail this morning, at around 9am. So they seem to be out and about now, with the onset of the rainy season.

Cyclanthus bipartitus

This series of images follows the progress of the opening of the inflorescence of Cyclanthus bipartitus (CYCLANTHACEAE). A clear demonstration of the advantages that a field botanist has when they live side-by-side with their study subjects. Image times, (from left to right): 6pm (7th May 2008), 9:30pm (7th May 2008), 7am (8th May 2008), 10am (8th May 2008). You'll be hard pushed to find images of this plant, nevermind fresh and in flower. These gorgeous ones were taken by Reinaldo. Of course! Cyclanthus bipartitus is one of my favorites in our native plants garden. Infact, the genera Asplundia, Carludovica, and Cyclanthus are all represented in the garden at this time and make very attractive regional ornamental species.

Little Hermit - Phaethornis longuemareus

This is not a great photo that I have taken this afternoon, but I was so pleased to even get this hummingbird, or Colibre, in the picture. (I plan to keep trying for a better shot, though!) It's Phaethornis longuemareus, the Little Hermit, or Ermitaño enano. It's feeding from Calathea lutea, which is proving a popular plant with both hummingbirds and butterflies. A mere 9cm, this miniature bird weighs in at just 2.6g. It's distribution is from Costa Rica to western Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia.

Larvae of Rhino Beetle - Cornezuelo

Nilo (then aged 3 years) holding the larvae of a rhino beetle.

Rhino Beetle - Cornezuelo

Nobody got much sleep last night with this fella dive bombing the metal roof laminas every 5 minutes. Somebody told me that the Rhino beetle (DYNASTIDAE), or Cornezuelo, spends as much as 18 years in the larval stage. We found a larvae of this species a couple of years back. It was impressive (and would have made quite a feast!) I will try to dig out the photos of it and post one here. Sadly, people like to rip the horns off and have it dipped in gold and made into a necklace charm... charming!

Butterfly - Eurybia lycisca

Using Reinaldo's (!) copy of the book Butterflies and Moths of Costa Rica, (I. Chacon & J. Montero, Inbio, 2007) I was easily able to identify this butterfly (LYCAENIDAE - Eurybia lycisca) that I photographed here in the garden yesterday, on Calathea lutea.

Look again!

When Reinaldo went back to photograph the Terciopelo that I had nearly stepped on, he realized that it's male partner was just a few feet off (above center of image - would you have spotted this?). We hadn't seen it the first time. Our neighbors say that October and November is mating season and that's why these snakes come onto the forest trails . Maybe there is truth in this. They also say that you must kill Mussurana, or Zopilota (Clelia clelia) snakes as these mate with Terciopelo and make more Terciopelos, which is clearly not true! Perhaps this local falacy came about when someone witnessed a Mussarana - a blue-black, non-venomous snake, of up to ca. 3 meters - eating a Terciopelo, which the species is famed for doing. For a great photo and account of this surprising behaviour, check out Jack Ewing's page at: http://www.travelblogs.com/articles/a-terciopelos-nightmare/

Femme fatal

This morning, a juvenille Fer-de-Lance viper, or Terciopelo, (Bothrops asper) struck at me on one of the forest trails. Luckily, it being only 12" long, and me being about a meter away, it missed! Last November, we were cleaning up the trails and I narrowly missed standing on this deadly beauty, which was coiled right on the edge of the trail. A pretty impressive photo taken by Reinaldo and a sobering reminder of why it is forbidden to enter the LCO forest trails in sandals or sneakers!

Amazing Growth

This picture gives a good idea of how much re-growth has taken place in the gardens during the past 2 years. Basically, everything you see here except for the Palms!

Mangrove Cuckoo - Cuclillo de Manglar

Yesterday, I spotted a Mangrove Cuckoo, or, Cuclillo de Manglar (Coccyzus minor) in the garden. It was the first time that I had seen this bird, although ornithologist Mary Noyes (of the UK) included it on her list of some 60 species, which she saw or heard during her 3 day visit to Los Charcos in mid February 2008. She was here with her husband (NHM entomologist) John. Unfortunately I was in hospital during their visit. We are working to make available on our official website a series of on-site species lists, hoping to start with the list of LCO birds.

Native Plants Garden

There has been alot of activity in the garden this week. The grass has been cut in the planting gardens (the majority still being left to its own devices) and more plants are now going in. Things are starting to take shape, such as this small section in the aroid garden near the entrance.

Pasture and Palms.

When we bought the Los Charcos property, there was nothing here but cattle pasture and African Palm (as the photo shows). For the past 3 years, we have allowed nature to take its course, and have left the majority of the gardens in a state of natural succession, as part of the on-site restoration program. By now it has gone really wild, making it highly attractive to the local fauna, and many of the orginal plant species have made a come back after years of being hacked back to the ground.

Butterflies and Moths.

We are proud to say that we have some very talented friends! Among them, are Costa Rican lepidopterists, Isidro Chacon and José Montero. This image shows the cover of their recently published book, Butterflies and Moths of Costa Rica (INBio, 2007). This is a monumental work, packed with gorgeous full color images of caterpillar larvae and adult butterflies and moths, as well as beautiful taxonomic diagrams, and detailed information (bi-lingual texts). Anyone interested in Costa Rican natural history should own a copy. This was my birthday gift to Reinaldo and for his purposes, involving the documentation of plant-insect interactions, it will be an indespensible tool. Certainly, this is going to help me to identify what I'm seeing, both in the forest and in the garden. Did you know that Costa Rica boasts some 12,000 - 14,000 species of Lepidopterans?

The Red Tractor

With the car firmly stuck in the middle of the Rio Rincon, Reinaldo had to go for help. Luckily he managed to convince one of the local farmhands to come out with a tractor before the light faded. In this image you can see that the river is not that deep, but there are several unexpected trenches. There was even a moment when we thought that the tractor was not going to make it out of the river either. Every day an adventure!

Whoops!

After a scorching day in Puerto Jimenez, we were returning with the car laden - the car is in such bad shape now, that we can only drive it to and from La Palma on a back road and have to take a cab between La Palma and Puerto Jimenez - and we managed to get stuck in an unforeseen trench whilst crossing the Rio Rincon.

Feliz Cumpleaños Reinaldo!

This is a photo of Nilo Francisco (aged 2 ½ years) and toad friend (!) and it was taken on the 6th of May 2005, exactly 3 years ago today... Feliz Cumpleaños Reinaldo!

Sunrise over the Talamancas

Whenever I have doubts about what we are doing here, I only need look out from the balcony and suddenly, it all seems worth it! The sunrises directly infront of the house. This photo was taken in April 2005, early in the morning, with the light reflecting off of the Gulfo Dulce and with a rare glimpse of mount Kamut, or "El Indio", in the background; the jagged peak to the top right hand side, that looks like the profile of an indian's face.

The House

This is the house that we live in at present. It is pretty much the same as it was when first built (when this image was taken) but now has a wrap around balcony. It's humble, but it's where we call home!

Moving up in the world

By February 2006 work was underway to construct our present home, which is situated on a hillside, with a spectacular 180˚ view, from the Golfo Dulce to Cerro Rincon and the Corcovado National Park. While the house was in the early stages of being built - before the rains - nights were passed like this.

How it all began.

Rummaging through some images from early 2005, I found this, our first "home" at Los Charcos de Osa. From time to time, one hears or reads about crazy couples who drag their young family into the savage back and beyond, all in the name of biodiversity conservation, then living for months under plastic, and cooking (et cetera!) al fresco. Well, that's just what we - Reinaldo Aguilar, Catherine V. Bainbridge and Nilo Francisco - did. When we first started managing the land here, we slept on this simple platform under a mosquito net. There was no power and no water... and that's how it all began!