Today we said goodbye to half of the Herp Team as Juanito and Mario were headed three hours away to Altotambo in search of other exciting finds. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was, unfortunately, the last we would see of Mario before we left Ecuador. Though Callie, Natalia, and Javier had left early that morning to go inspect a potential new property to add to Dracula Reserve, the rest of the expedition team lined the dirt road in front of the campsite and waved goodbye.
Read MoreCallie and I had fallen asleep late after a midnight photoshoot with Dipsas elegans and awoke to the sound of the song “Angel Exterminador” by Ilegales and Miguel showing off his vocal skills in the shower before our alarm could even go off. We had breakfast at 7:30 with the now expanded team, including Marco, Gaby, and Rolando, whom we had all met the day before.
Read MoreWhat do clothes and chocolate have to do with each other? Well, for one thing, the color of the water in which our clothes from the first week in the field had soaked overnight could really only be described as that of dark chocolate. In warp speed, as to not outlast our held breaths, Javier and I transferred over these “chocolate” soaked clothes to the washing machine at Casa Dracula.
Read MoreOur last morning at the Peñas Blancas campsite began with our now-routine activities of drone flying and bird monitoring. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day, and Callie took advantage of the good conditions to give Milton and Geovanny an impromptu lesson with “Bebecito,” EcoMinga’s new DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone while Javier opened the mist nets.
Read MoreDay five started with our customary drone flight from the abandoned pasture above camp, filling our memory cards with blankets of dripping green, billowing clouds, and a beautiful cascade of two twin waterfalls nestled deep in the hidden jungle. The morning conditions and the associated soft light set the ideal stage for sending our drone, affectionately-dubbed “Bebecito,” to the sky. After our perfectly timed flight, both maximizing flight time and ensuring that Bebecito made it back to camp (rather than crash landing and requiring a search mission … *foreshadowing*), we joined Javier and Daniel Valencia in opening two perpendicular mist nets along the forest edge.
Read MoreWe started off our fourth morning by joining Javier for the first early session of mist-netting, which is essential to monitor both the diversity and the health of the birds on our site. The previous afternoon, Daniel Valencia and Milton, with help and instruction from Javier, had cleared a path and installed two 2.4 m high, 12 m long, mist nets (very fine nets to catch birds for scientific research) at the forest edge of the clearing above camp.
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