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Published: February 12th 2006
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Hola everybody. I am good here. There are a lot more people at the station now. Among them a couple from Canada has come to shoot a documentary. This is their first time making a movie, and I think it’s going to be really neat. They are always aiming their cameras at some interesting insect or plant or bird.
I have two items of good news. The first is that the quetzal chick has left the nest! I saw her the day she fledged and she could fly really well. So I no longer have to wake up so early to go run around the forest (although I do sometimes anyway.) Now I am finishing up watching the video I took of the nest, I probably have a couple more days of doing that. After I’m done, I will start to write a paper about the quetzals, and possibly look for a new project. I still have a month and a half here, so I’ve got plenty of time.
My other good news is that I was offered my first choice job for the spring/summer season! I will be working in eastern Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory,
as a “field biologist” (graduated from field tech at last! At least for a season). My main duties will be to locate, mark, and monitor Mountain Plover nests on privately-owned agricultural lands. I’m really excited about it, because there will be a lot of interaction with landowners, and it sounds like everyone they have worked with in the past has been really positive. Also, this project is really helping boost the number of successful nests on agricultural lands. We will mark the nests and then the landowners can deliberately avoid them during routine spring agricultural practices. I think it’s going to be really fun. I will get to move around a lot, I think we work in about 14 counties. I don’t have to take my car though, they are providing a truck for me. I think this project could really make a difference in the long run for Mountain Plover success. I’m really excited to be a part of it. So if you like you can stay tuned after Ecuador to hear about the shortgrass prairie.
So, now for stories about Tomate and the wild cat (luckily these are separate stories, to my knowledge, Tomate has not interacted
Tomate!
Doing his Snoopy impression. with the wild cat.) Tomate is our pet guinea pig. As you may or may not know, Ecuadoreans love eating cuy (guinea pig), and so it is said that our Tomate is the only pet cuy in Ecuador. Some people still petition for the consumption of Tomate, but I think they are joking on the square. Anyway, one day I was the only one around and I noticed that Tomate was acting really strangely. He was running all around his (tiny) cage and jumping onto his house. My first thought was that perhaps Tomate (who is of indeterminate sex) was looking for some love, so to speak. I quickly found my camera and started taking photos, because he’s usually very shy and when you want to take pictures he normally goes in the house. So I was standing next to his cage in the lawn and all of a sudden there was an incredibly sharp pain in my foot. After leaping away and yelping, I looked down and realized that the place was crawling with ants! Tomate was acting crazy because he was being constantly bitten by ants. I quickly moved his cage, because they seemed to be swarming on
the ground below it. Unfortunately there were a bunch already in his cage and fur, so I got a pillowcase and tried to catch him. Tomate does not like being handled at all, and I thought dumping him in a pillowcase would be the best idea. However, I couldn’t get a good handle on him, and I didn’t want to stress him out anymore, so I just moved his cage again and left him to work it out with the ants. They left pretty soon after that and I didn’t know if he was going to be alright. He just sat in his house with sort of a glazed expression. He made it, he’s perfectly alright now. Our little Tomate. And he loves to eat. I was in charge of feeding him for a while, and I would practically fill the cage with bamboo and in an hour or two he eat it all.
The wild cat has been in our kitchen before. We saw its paw prints on the table. That was a few weeks ago, and I hadn’t seen any more cat sign in the kitchen. A few days ago, one of the old gusaneros (a caterpillar
biologist) from the states visited briefly with his parents and brought us some baking cocoa and walnuts (thanks Aaron!) I made some delicious brownies with them. Everyone ate a bunch of them, but then we left the pan on the counter overnight. When I came in the next morning, the brownies had been ripped apart. It looked like someone was really hungry and they just couldn’t be bothered to use the spatula to cut a piece. Someone else then brought to my attention the muddy, streaky footprints on the counter next to the brownies. The wild cat strikes again! She ate my brownies! So it’s apparently my cat now, because I fed it. We shall see.
That’s all for now. I hope you are all doing well. Enjoy the photos.
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Adrian
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Tomate
Congratulations on Colorado, Becca! Any chance of lobbying for a larger cage for Tomate? Ze looks a bit cramped in there.* And I'm glad to hear that you're attracting potentailly dangerous animals to your living area with delcious baked goods. Espero que vas a encontrar muchas aves bonitas y interesantes mientras vives en el bosque . . . creo esos van a ser meses importantes en su vida. (Don't make fun! I haven't had a class in five years!) Keep sending pictures! * Neutral pronoun used in the interest of not imposing human gender norms on the cuddly woodland creature.** ** Kidding, of course.