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Author Topic:   Off on a field trip to Costa Rica
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(9)
Message 1 of 111 (758259)
05-22-2015 11:11 PM


I am heading out for the next 3 weeks to Costa Rica. I am meeting 3 friends in Chicago and then we will fly down together. We are mostly going for the dragonflies and damselflies, but the country is so rich in wildlife and scenery that we will be emersed in the whole experience.
The first week will be on our own exploring and then we will meet about 30 other dragonfly enthusiasts and spend a week each at 2 different field stations (La Selva & Palo Verde) operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies.
La Selva - http://www.ots.ac.cr/index.php?option=com_content&task=vi...Located in the Caribbean lowlands of northern Costa Rica at the northern base of Braulio Carrillo National Park and situated within tropical and premontane wet forest.
Palo Verde - http://www.ots.ac.cr/index.php?option=com_content&task=vi...Located within Palo Verde National Park on the Pacific slopes of Guanacaste Province in northwestern Costa Rica and encompassing deciduous dry forest, freshwater marsh and extensive wetlands bordering the Tempisque River.
With this many people we should be able to carry out some pretty extensive surveys. There are 264 described species of odonates in Costa Rica and more than a dozen discovered but undescribed species. One of the things we are all excited about is the chance of finding new undescribed species. I expect to come back with more than 5000 photos, which should keep me busy all next winter processing.
If I get a chance, I will post updates from time to time.
Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

Replies to this message:
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 Message 14 by anglagard, posted 05-29-2015 10:34 PM Tanypteryx has replied

  
Larni
Member (Idle past 164 days)
Posts: 4000
From: Liverpool
Joined: 09-16-2005


(1)
Message 2 of 111 (758263)
05-23-2015 4:37 AM


Name the first novel species you find after my four week old son (William Arthur Brian Ager-Cawley).
Then if he ever has to do 'show and tell' at school he can shine a light on Odonata in his class.
There's a shiny green up vote in it for you, lol!
Either way, have a great time.
Edited by Larni, : No reason given.

The above ontological example models the zero premise to BB theory. It does so by applying the relative uniformity assumption that the alleged zero event eventually ontologically progressed from the compressed alleged sub-microscopic chaos to bloom/expand into all of the present observable order, more than it models the Biblical record evidence for the existence of Jehovah, the maximal Biblical god designer.
-Attributed to Buzsaw Message 53
The explain to them any scientific investigation that explains the existence of things qualifies as science and as an explanation
-Attributed to Dawn Bertot Message 286
Does a query (thats a question Stile) that uses this physical reality, to look for an answer to its existence and properties become theoretical, considering its deductive conclusions are based against objective verifiable realities.
-Attributed to Dawn Bertot Message 134

  
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8513
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 5.3


(1)
Message 3 of 111 (758268)
05-23-2015 7:23 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Tanypteryx
05-22-2015 11:11 PM


If I get a chance, I will post updates from time to time.
You know, in this forum that is not just expected but is required, right?
After all, we know that in this universe nothing is real until it is observed, or something like that.
Anyway, as always, updates (with pictures) or it didn't happen.
Safe hunting!
by Adminnemooseus

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Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(1)
Message 4 of 111 (758269)
05-23-2015 8:40 AM


Waiting for the first leg of my trip at PDX. I hate security BS.
Trying something new. ....I got the audible version of Neal Stephenson's new science fiction novel "Seveneves". I just got a new set of Hose noise canceling headphones. So far the book is great. Neal is my brother-in-law's brother-in-law. I also listened to him be interviewed on Science Friday yesterday. I'm typing this on my phone so excuse any typos.

Replies to this message:
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petrophysics1
Inactive Member


(1)
Message 5 of 111 (758270)
05-23-2015 9:32 AM
Reply to: Message 4 by Tanypteryx
05-23-2015 8:40 AM


You should have a great time. Several years ago when my youngest son was going to Red Rocks CC in Denver he had taken biology and geology and at the end of the year they offered 2 combined field trips to Costa Rica ( 4 cr hrs in each subject). He had a fantastic time climbing volcanoes, caving, and catching bats at night.
When we visit my older brother in Belize ( he retired there) it always amazes me how much he knows about the jungle. I guess it was money well spent.
Take care, watch out for the bot flys.

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RAZD
Member (Idle past 1405 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


(1)
Message 6 of 111 (758285)
05-23-2015 3:07 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Tanypteryx
05-22-2015 11:11 PM


More pictures?
Enjoy

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAmerican☆Zen☯Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.


Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Tanypteryx, posted 05-22-2015 11:11 PM Tanypteryx has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 7 by Tanypteryx, posted 05-24-2015 9:59 AM RAZD has replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(1)
Message 7 of 111 (758360)
05-24-2015 9:59 AM
Reply to: Message 6 by RAZD
05-23-2015 3:07 PM


Yep. If we ever get there. Waiting in Ft Lauderdale. Security coming out of Chicago this morning was awful. And I will not fly Spirit agin

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ooh-child
Member (Idle past 344 days)
Posts: 242
Joined: 04-10-2009


(1)
Message 8 of 111 (758470)
05-26-2015 4:00 PM
Reply to: Message 7 by Tanypteryx
05-24-2015 9:59 AM


Traveling there is the hardest part - had a 3+ hour drive through jungle & mountains once we landed at Liberia in Guanacaste. Once you get there though, wow. Have a terrific time.

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Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(10)
Message 9 of 111 (758527)
05-28-2015 12:09 AM


Thanks to all for the good wishes.
We are in Cartago tonight. It is a large city and the traffic was pretty intense and we could only find one hotel. The photography of dragonflies was good this morning. We were right next to the Pacific Coast and started getting tired of seeing the same species and similar habitats.
We headed over the mountains and we were surprised how much of the forests had been cut and converted to farmland and developed for high end housing. We didn't find many of the streams we like to explore in the tropical mountains. Tomorrow we are looking for several species that belong to families or genera that we have all been studying for years, but none of us have seen these species before. My personal goal is to get good photos, but we also want to collect some specimens for collection and to provide material for several DNA studies.
Our trip over the mountains was interesting because we passed through several climate zones to reach the 11000 ft highway summit and then passed through different climate zones on the east slope. The weather has not been very cooperative, but the forecasts were for solid rain all day every day before we left and the mornings and early turned out to be mostly sunny.
There is a certain romance to sitting in an open air restaurant/bar after a hard day in the field watching the tropical downpour and lightning strobing the sky. Amazing how good a cold beer tastes.
Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

Replies to this message:
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AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8513
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 5.3


(1)
Message 10 of 111 (758540)
05-28-2015 6:31 AM
Reply to: Message 9 by Tanypteryx
05-28-2015 12:09 AM


There is a certain romance to sitting in an open air restaurant/bar after a hard day in the field watching the tropical downpour and lightning strobing the sky. Amazing how good a cold beer tastes.
Oh, you tease!

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ringo
Member (Idle past 412 days)
Posts: 20940
From: frozen wasteland
Joined: 03-23-2005


(1)
Message 11 of 111 (758565)
05-28-2015 12:33 PM
Reply to: Message 9 by Tanypteryx
05-28-2015 12:09 AM


Tanypteryx writes:
We are in Cartago tonight.
Found you on Google Earth.

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 Message 9 by Tanypteryx, posted 05-28-2015 12:09 AM Tanypteryx has seen this message but not replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(5)
Message 12 of 111 (758594)
05-28-2015 10:12 PM


We had to make some major changes in our plans. Last night one of our party, got news that his mother is very ill and probably will not live until we get back home. So this morning we took him back to the airport in San Jose so he could fly home. He was one of the 2 leaders scheduled for the parts of the trip when the large group joins us. We will be able to fill in for him, but it will not be as good because none of us has his expertise in tropical dragonflies and damselflies. Plus, we will miss his company, but he made the right decision.
The 3 of us forged ahead and we ended up close to La Selva, so we decided to see if we could spend the night at the field station. It gives us a chance check out the accommodations and what the habitat is like. They seem to have a well run facility and the dinner they served was excellent. There were more than 200 researchers in the cafeteria. They are working on research on almost every tropical subject you can imagine. There are more than 35 miles of jungle trails in the preserve, so we should be able to find almost every kind of Odonate habitat. Some of the most spectacular are a group of damselflies called pseudostigmatids. The are some of the largest Odonates in the world both in wing length and body length. They specialize in oviposting in tree holes and stumps that have water in them. We have already seen a number of species of them on this trip.
We passed 2 spectacular waterfalls on the way here and saw some nice mountain streams.The Odonate habitats are quite different than those we saw on the Pacific side.
We saw fireflies on the way back to our cabin from dinner. ...something I wish we had in Oregon.
Cheers

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

  
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1405 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


(1)
Message 13 of 111 (758603)
05-29-2015 11:29 AM
Reply to: Message 7 by Tanypteryx
05-24-2015 9:59 AM


and you thought the spirit was willing ...
Loss of habitat is certainly a problem and will get worse, but it gives you an opportunity to rescue a damsel in distress.

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAmerican☆Zen☯Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.


Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)

This message is a reply to:
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anglagard
Member (Idle past 837 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


Message 14 of 111 (758640)
05-29-2015 10:34 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Tanypteryx
05-22-2015 11:11 PM


Please do
Tanypteryx writes:
If I get a chance, I will post updates from time to time.
Please do. From what I understand from others, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Belize are potential retirement options. I only hope that unlike the former paradise of the Sierra Nevada in California, they are less negatively affected by gentrification, pollution, and climate change.
Edited by anglagard, : No reason given.
Edited by anglagard, : No reason given.

Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. - Francis Bacon

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Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(4)
Message 15 of 111 (758969)
06-06-2015 4:26 PM


I have written several long posts only to have them disappear when the Internet/ WiFi failed. I haven't figured out how to compose in a word processor and then copy and paste here using this phone.
A bunch of us are sitting in the only air conditioned room at the Palo Verde field station. The heat, humidity and mosquitos here are making it hard to get anything meaningful done. It is incredibly dry here....yesterday had the first rain storm of the season, they hope. It is hard to tell if it is the beginning of the rainy season or not. When we planned this part of the trip we had no way to predict that the rain would be late.
One thing that I did not expect was that most of the trees shed their leaves in the dry season. There are dragonflies around, but not that many and the species diversity is low. All their normal habitat is completely dry. Right now they are scattered in refugea in the forests and once it is wet enough they will return in huge numbers to breed.
Earlier during the last week at La Selva, we had good luck and despite lots of rain our survey went well. We didn't find all the species reported there, but added a number that had never been seen there. I managed to get photos of an undescribed species and others also got specimens.
Some of the things I wanted to get photos of the most were the giant helicopter damselflies. I got up close and personal with 4 species!
The largest species is called Megaloprepus caerulatus. It has a long thin abdomen and long wings with black iridescent tips and a white patch beside the blaks one. The long abdomen allows them to oviposit in tree holes that have water in them.
One of the guys brought back some incredible video footage of a female oviposting with a male guarding her. This is just amazing footage of events that are very rarely seen. When ghost species Flys they move their forewing and hindwing in synchronization and the wing beats are relatively slow so it makes them look like they are floating. Most other Odonates flap their wings independently. If this video is posted on the Web I will post the link.
One thing I did not expect in Costa Rica was how much land is developed for agriculture and housing. When you hear that 25% of the land is in preserves and parks, that is true, but the forests are pretty much cut right up to the border. There are lots of tourist lodges and private preserves, but it is pretty spendy to stay there.
I have heard people say that you can retire cheaply down here but every thing seems expensive to me.
One of my friends and I had a load of laundry done at the hotel Bougainvillea in San Jos and like dummies we didn't ask for prices first. ... $133..mess on learned.
The overall biodiversity of Costa Rica is much less than we have encountered in Ecuador and Bolivia. I have seen 3 species of monkeys, Sloths, Anteaters, lots of kinds of parrots, innumerable other birds, lizards, snakes, and all kinds cool insects.
The crowd in this room is growing ....I'm taking pictures with my phone. ...intrepid explorers indeed.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

  
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