a great day

Well, I could explain some of the things I've done in the past days here at Palo Verde, but to hear about that it would really be much better for you to visit Hart's blog, which I will link again. More productively, I'll tell you about my day so far, which has been pretty great.

We began working on our first faculty-led projects today, the first two of five total that will occur throughout the semester. The two projects at Palo Verde are about the effects of group size on howler monkey behavior, and the pollination biology of a flower and it's interactions with a couple insects. Today I worked with the howler monkeys, which means waking up at 4:45am to get out and find a troop of howlers (by their howls). We did this with some difficulty, but ended up finding them by 6:30. On the way, some of us got to see some owls up close, which was cool.

Then we proceeded to observe their behavior, which consists of observing individual monkeys for fifteen minutes, taking point observations of its activity once a minute, such as traveling, foraging, eating, resting, or being vigilant (watching for predators). This was quite a bit of fun, I thought, despite the crick in my neck and back pain. Here's one of the monkeys I observed.

While we followed the troop of monkeys (until 11), we got some great wildlife viewing in as well. There was an anteater species, which isn't common, and had huge claws. Also, a yellow naped parrot, another uncommon species. We had a good snake encounter, a good sized brown one which I don't know the name for. On top of the owls, a pretty good list.

Then, for lunch there was my first mango of the trip (delicious), and a big pile of beets, accompanied, of course, by my now-customary rice, black beans, and syrup mixture. After lunch: beet-induced naptime, also known as a beet coma.

Two days ago, on our day off, Hart and I hiked around, part of the time with one of our friends from the program. Crown jewel: from a high point we saw a pair of scarlet macaws zoom over the forest. Unmistakable, beautiful, and what I've been told is the only pair of scarlets in this park. Awesome. Here's pictures of our day-to-day schedule, and from the same day off, here's a panorama from a viewpoint (La Roca), and Hart and I from the same viewpoint. My parents will be excited about having another picture of Hart and I. You're welcome!