There are two towers on the station's land. This morning the guide took a group of us (composed of almost all of the boys) up to one tower while the girls and one guy went to another tower. Yeah, we're more than half-way done with college and we still split ourselves up as boys and girls. The tower we went to was 45 meters up (that's 150 feet). It was supported by a Ceiba tree. Ceiba trees are ridiculous because they're so freakin' big. Also on their branches really high up there are tons of other plants growing, like Bromeliads and vines. I'm really surprised when I see them because I can just imagine how much extra weight that puts on, and so far away from the trunk too. There's also a lot of moss and lichen and vines that grow on them (like almost every other tree here in the rain forest).
From the top, we could look out over the canopy of the forest for a long ways in every direction. It rained for the first hour or so that we were up there, so we didn't see too many birds, but once it calmed down, they all came out and we saw so many. Here are some of the ones we saw. I suggest you google image search these as well as any other animal I mention. The internet here is a little slow sometimes and a lot of people are sharing it so I don't know if they'd be too happy about me using up bandwidth to upload pictures. I'm not saying it won't happen, just don't hold your breath.
We saw:
Scarlet Macaw
White-throated toucan
Chestnut-fronted macaw
Blue and yellow macaw
Orange-cheeked parrot
Fork-tailed winged humming bird
Greater yellow-headed vulture
...just to name a few
We also saw many butterflies other hummingbirds, bats, and conga ants. Conga ants are huge. One bite can make a grown man cry. 3 or 4 can leave you sick in bed with a fever.
After lunch, we'll be heading out to the second tower to look for other things.
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3 comments:
Amazing! You're living in books I got out from the library as a kid. When we go back to the natural history museum you can point to all the animals and say, "yeah I've seen that... but alive."
... so I did google image all the birds. For those who read this comment before you do the same I can spare you some time.
Scarlet Macaw - http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/ArchOLD-6/1170052545.jpg
White-throated toucan -
http://www.andeanbirding.com/assets/images/white_throated_toucan02.jpg
Chestnut-fronted macaw-
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Chestnut-fronted_Macaw_(Ara_severa)_-Southwicks_Zoo_c.jpg
Blue and yellow macaw-
http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/bolivia/images/28.jpg
Orange-cheeked parrot-
http://www.tropicalbirding.com/tripReports/TR_EEcuador_Nov07/orange-cheeked_parrot.jpg
Fork-tailed winged hummingbird- (not sure if this is the right one)
http://www.packerlighting.com/CR_WEB/images/thumbnail/Fork-tailed%20Flycatcher%20front.JPG
Greater yellow-headed vulture-
http://macawmonitoring.com/gallery/yellowheadedvulture.jpg
... those didn't show up as links. Maybe you're gonna have to google image them after all. I tried.
Damn kid, you are living the dream!
Keep postin' all of these species you're saying, it's fascinating and awesome (in the worthy of awe way.)
And they did show up as links on my computer so thanks Allie, you did save me some time. Maybe it's a google chrome thing if that's what you use too?
Your blog is just getting more and more amazing, J.
Stay safe!
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