Rain

This week was a soggy one. Tortuguero, Costa Rica, with an excess of 6000mm (19.7feet) a year, is one of the rainiest places on the planet and the rainiest in Costa Rica. The pattern seems to be that we get a late night storm, followed by and early dawn one. The next one usually comes after we have been dropped off from the boat into the middle of nowhere with no shelter to open the nets leaving us entirely soaked for the rest of the day. Banding during these days can be tough as we must close the nets when rain starts. With 15-20 nets and some of them with birds to be untangled, this can be a tricky maneuver. Luckily, tropical birds seem to be less affected by the rain than the northern species and certainly the risk of hypothermia is drastically reduced. Still we aim to have the nets emptied and closed when a storm comes in only to reopen them one hour to get rained on all over again. The incredibly high rainfall contributes to the amazing amount of diversity that can be found in Tortuguero such as this male Emerald Basilisk (Basiliscus plumifrons).



This along with Costa Rica's 2 other basilisk species are collectively know as the Jesus Christ Lizards because of their ability to walk on water when frightened. Another reptile found in Tortuguero is the Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus).



Caimen like to hide in the shore vegetation waiting for some passing, unsuspecting prey...



Possible this beautiful migrant Yellow-Crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) will fall victim to the waiting Caiman


Or this locally common Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa).





Or maybe this Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga).



Despite the rainy days that we encountered we still managed to catch a lot of cool birds. The highlight was catching 3 new birds including one lifer, the beautiful BAY WREN, a new migrant for me in Costa Rica a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, and the hard biting painful to handle BUFF-THROATED SALTATOR who let me know what he felt about his new band applied gently to his right leg. These were all captured at the Airport site, a 45 minute walk or 10 minute boat ride to the north after a morning of heavy rainfall.

Bay Wren (Thryothorus nigricapillus) captured in highly disturbed secondary forest near Tortuguero, Costa Rica

Northern Waterthrush (Seiurus noveboracensis), a Neotropical migrant which breeds in northern U.S. and Canada captured on its wintering grounds near Tortuguero.

Buff-throated Saltator (Saltator maximus), a relative of the Northern Cardinal near Tortuguero, Costa Rica.

Common Tody Flycatcher (Todirostrum cinereum) a commonly captured bird in Tortuguero. This is one of the smallest flycatchers I have ever seen, similar in size to a kinglet.

I just wanted to quickly revisit last week's post in which I talked of determining the sex of Prothonotary Warblers based on the amount of white in the under tail feathers as per Peter Pyle's Identification Guide to North American Birds used by banders. I didn't have a good photo of the male, but I got lucky this week and caught one. Notice how the male shows extensive white in all tail feathers whereas the female lacks white in some of the tail feathers.







These are some of the things that banders use to determine age and sex of birds in the hand. Some characteristics are obvious and easy to see such as white feathers in the tail whereas others are more subtle and take much more practice and experience such as recognizing molt limits or determining age based on feather wear. I learn a bit more with each bird I handle and have learned much from the various other banders I have worked with.

Finally, there have been several reports of a boa being seen at night by the night security man Don Victor. I told him "Victor, si U.D. ve a una culebra mas gruesa que el brazo, me tiene que despertar". If you see a snake thicker than your arm you must wake me. Sure enough I got a knock on my door at 11PM this past Tuesday night. Hiding in the vegetation by the lake shore was a Red-tailed Boa (Boa Constrictor), a long sought out snake by me that I had never been able to see in Peru. Here is a horrible photo of the snake at night. Next week we are off to the primary forest sites. Hopefully we continue to capture interesting species.