A Good Weekend

Jessie and her helpers had located a few active nests of species whose nest, eggs and clutch size had never before been reported to the ornithology world, so she was understandably eager to get this data. Perhaps the reason these eggs and nests have never been described is because they are usually 5 meters up in a tree at the tips of the branches. It is impossible to climb the tree and scramble out to the nest, as clearly the scrambler would rapidly succumb to gravity. To get this data we had been looking to beg, borrow or steal a ladder, but no one has one tall enough. While in Manta, the big city to the north, I priced a couple, and what we needed came in at $130, not including delivery, which would be very difficult. Things were looking dismal and nesting season was steadily marching forward when Jessie decided it was time to make our own ladders. On Thursday we hired a man and his burro to go to the humid forest and cut six 5 meter lengths of bamboo. I bought a bag of nails and a lot of rope, and on Friday the guys went to town. At first they didn’t want to make the ladders, perhaps they thought we were going to send them up the mountain to get the bamboo, but once all the materials were assembled, they went to work and knew what to do. As with our shower and its tower, with only a machete, hacksaw and a hammer as their tools they built a set of ladders for the project that looked great.

Immediately after making the ladders we tested the 5 meter one out. Carlito was chosen to go up the ladder to a flycatcher nest, because at age 21 he weighs 100 pounds soaking wet, if that.

He was such a good sport, everyone was joking and in a good mood because it looked like success had finally smiled our way. He admitted he was nervous but did a great job, opening the nest from the side, taking pictures of the interior and counted the chicks. Jessie was disappointed there were no eggs, but still, she got some good information. Then we headed to a different family of birds, taxonomically speaking, and visited a wren nest that there is, likewise, a paucity of information. This one was only three meters off the ground, so it was an easy reach for Carlito. He opened the nest and hit paydirt. Eggs!

He carefully removed one and it was measured and photographed for documentation. Jessie was very happy, and so were the guys, to be part of the team to first describe these species nesting habits.

One happy biologist.
We asked for any volunteers who would like to work some Saturday morning overtime, and be paid double time, in order to check out other nests of species with unknown nesting habits. It is very important to get this data, and with chicks hatching all around us, we couldn’t wait two days until Monday and possibly lose the opportunity to get egg descriptions. Two guys volunteered, Miguel and Wilson, and we met up at 7am to get more data. These two guys are on the ball (especially Wilson), they knew what nests to go to, and we had another very successful morning. Jessie collected information on two other species of birds that have previously not been described, including clutch size, egg size, nesting material and other good info along with some photograph documentation.

Here are a couple of pictures of eggs never before described! The day was only beginning and already we were all on a high!
We knocked off at 9am so everyone could relax and enjoy Valentine’s Day. Jessie and I got ready for our weekly luncheon in Lopez at the Whale Café. Kevin and Diane host a lunch for their friends each Saturday and we generally go to get out of the house and socialize a little. There were a couple of new people there, Carl and his wife Carina. Carl works half the year in upstate NY at Cornell Ornithology Lab and the other half of the year he is in South America conducting research on birds. Sounds familiar…Anyway, they were great to meet chat with.
After lunch Jessie and I hit the road. We had been invited to the birthday party of our friend, Jill, who has a nice couple of beach cabanas to the south. She is a co-owner in a very classy beach resort, which was started about 20 years ago with the idea that the resort would produce all its own food (organic), extract its own water, recycle and minimize waste and be made entirely out of sustainable materials.

I believe they have achieved most of their goals, and it is a wonderful place to spend a night or two if you are looking to read and lay on the beach and do nothing else. At the party were many of our friends from Puerto Lopez as well as some other really nice people from the mountain town of Baños.

Some friends from Salango, another town nearby:

The Puerto Lopezians from the left, Diane, Kevin, Jill, Jaibol and Carolina

The people from Baños have started a library for the children, the Interactive Library of Baños, and offer English lessons, painting, music and computer lessons, as well. They were a great group of people to meet. Bob playing with Chaco in the surf.

Here is an assortment of photos from this week, with brief explanations:

When it is dry here, it is dry. When it rains the skies open up for an hour or two.
We caught some turkey is trying to steal our moto.

Two different plovers on the beach, the semipalmated and the collared. The most distinct difference between the two is the extent of the white collar ring: in one it is complete and the other it is not.
A big egg and its parents, wood-rails that are nesting in the forest here and not before seen in this region of Ecuador (more professional kudos to Jessie!).

Some funky spider.

An aggregation of stink bugs.

And a lizard trying its best to blend.