Hand-collected seedlings in Osa Conservation's tree nursery

By Max Villalobos

The arrival of May brings heavy rain to invade the forests of the Osa Peninsula. It is a time of great change and exceptional beauty. Millions of tiny trees and leaf litter form a living carpet across the colorful forests. These seemingly insignificant small seedlings are invaluable because they represent the renewal of a healthy ecosystem and over time, they will slowly become the forest of tomorrow.

Native tree saplings ready to plant in Osa Conservation's restoration plots

Rainy season has meant a lot of activity at Cerro Osa because it is the time for one of the most rewarding tasks of our work in conservation and land management, tree planting. This year we will plant 8,000 trees of 50 different native species in our forest restoration plots. These new trees will begin the process of ecological succession that will allow us, after several decades, to recover biodiversity in these degraded areas and get a forest that serves as habitat to such important species as the Spider Monkey, the Puma, the Peccary and hundreds of birds.

So I invite all those who are interested to have fun restoring the Osa rainforest with us as volunteers in our forest restoration programs.

Contact reservations@osaconservation.org

Our executive director Manuel Ramirez and conservationist Theo Gund planting a tree in our forest restoration plot.

Side by side, you can begin to see the characteristics that visibly differentiate the three sea turtle species we documented inside Golfo Dulce.

When we began our research, nobody expected us to find very many sea turtles inside Golfo Dulce — most sea turtle activity was thought to occur on the Pacific side of the Osa Peninsula. It turned out that chelonids were the most frequently seen family of animals, accounting for 38 percent of our total sightings. Discovering such significant numbers of sea turtles was one of our most important findings. Sadly, fishermen with many years of experience in Golfo Dulce say the sea turtles there have declined at least 30 percent in recent years.

Jorge and I documented three species: Pacific Black sea turtles, still commonly referred to as “Greens” (Chelonia mydas agassizii), Olive Ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) and Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata). Locals also reported seeing near-extinct Pacific Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) inside Golfo Dulce. That’s four endangered species of sea turtles utilizing the embayment. Amazing!

Our biseasonal data show Golfo Dulce to be a year-round feeding and breeding area for endangered Green sea turtles. We logged over a hundred sightings of them between both surveys. This species, by far the most common, was usually observed in the upper regions of the gulf resting at the sea surface. But we also documented Green sea turtles mating in all four quadrants of the inlet, so their use of the fiord waters appears widespread.

Although some amount of nesting may occur throughout the year, the primary nesting period for Olive Ridley sea turtles in Costa Rica is from July to December — the rainy season. Although we did see a couple Olive Ridleys in January/February, we weren’t surprised that the numbers and frequency of sightings rose dramatically in July/August. During the rainy season survey, nineteen Olive Ridley sea turtles were documented, including a pair mating just off-shore from Puerto Jiménez. Every lora, as the Olive Ridley is called in Spanish, was observed in the lower half of the gulf, suggesting that is the primary sector for them

Between 2010 and 2011, we saw only ten Hawksbill sea turtles. They were found in various locations around the gulf, although all close to the shoreline. The small population of Hawksbills in Golfo Dulce is particularly important because this species is critically endangered. In fact, until recently Hawksbills were considered functionally extinct in the eastern Pacific! Called carey in Spanish, this species is often locally described as “the little turtle”, something that was confusing to me at first, since the Olive Ridley is published as the smallest species inhabiting Costa Rican waters. But of course the locals were right. The Hawksbills seen during our surveys were unquestionably the tiniest.

Since sea turtles nest along the shores of Golfo Dulce, people who find their tracks are often curious which species left them. While Olive Ridleys and Hawksbills crawl one front flipper over the other, leaving an asymmetrical track in the sand, Greens pull with both flippers—like dual canoe oars—creating a more balanced print. The size of the tracks can also help determine the species.

Anyone with interest in learning more about sea turtles or working with them on the Osa Peninsula should check out the Osa Conservation’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program.

Brooke Bessesen conducted Marine research at the Osa in 2010 and 2011 as a recipient of the Greg Gund Memorial Fellowship. Check out her Golfo Dulce report on our website.

They have a saying in Costa Rica: “Pura vida.”

It literally translates as “pure life,” but to Costa Ricans, it can be inserted into many contexts and applications: “Thank you,” “You’re welcome,” “So it goes,” “Wonderful.” It is used so freely here I wouldn’t be surprised if it meant, “Pass the papaya, por favor.”

I’d dreamed of visiting Costa Rica since I was 12, and recently for two glorious weeks I got to sample the “pure life” – visiting the southernmost quarter of this West Virginia-sized nation – from San Jose down nearly to Panama.

My introduction to the Pacific rain forest lowlands began with Roy Orozco, a soft-spoken, gracious naturalist out of Quepos. First light for birding in the tropics is 5:30 a.m., so Roy picked me up at 4 a.m. at the Costa Verde II parking lot near Quepos to drive an hour and a half up the coast to Carara National Park, west of San Jose.

Carara, one of Costa Rica’s marquee ecotourism destinations, is a unique mix of “life zones,” where the drier habitat of the north meets the wet lowlands of the south.

A day in the field with Roy – a whirlwind of activity from pre-dawn to post-sunset – netted us 110 bird species, lounging crocodiles, great conversation, much learning, and casados for lunch – Costa Rican “comfort” meals typically composed of salad, beans, rice, potatoes, fried plantains and a meat side.

The special of the day was pollo sudado – “sweaty chicken,” traditionally enjoyed with a cold beer and a splash of Lizano salsa – the national condiment of choice.

The heady blend of Costa Rican highlights rendered me emotionally and intellectually lightheaded. We decided to do it again the next day.

At 4 a.m. the next morning, we barreled – a generously mild description of Costa Rican driving style – up the highway to San Isidro and beyond, rising 8,500 feet into the cloud forest at Mirador de Quetzales, a rustic Costa Rican-run resort where the quetzal is king.

If you don’t know about the resplendent quetzal, you haven’t been paying attention in life. The male quetzal is a 2-foot-long (more than half of which is tail) beauty decked in iridescent red and green. The female, even without the tail, could star in her own TV series.

The quetzal is the Holy Grail bird. Nature lovers everywhere seek it, and when they do, they pilgrimage to Costa Rica.

So here too was I. It was 41 degrees in the dawn, and because of poor planning, I was wearing sandals. But the adrenaline rush of seeing birds such as the fiery-throated hummingbird, the flame-colored tanager and the flame-throated warbler kept me warm.

We located six quetzals feeding in the fruiting moss-draped avocado trees, plus a dizzying assortment of other high-altitude wonders such as the yellow-thighed finch, long-tailed silky-flycatcher, slaty flowerpiercer and wrenthrush.

From there we traveled down a long valley to Savegre Mountain Lodge, where a leisurely mountain hike provided birding highlights such as the black-faced solitaire, the sulphur-winged parakeet and spangle-cheeked tanagers – eight in one tree.

A quick stop before dark descended like a velvet curtain at 5:30 p.m. rewarded us with the green-crowned brilliant hummingbird, silver-throated tanager and a total of 70 bird species for the day – a full half of which I had never seen before.

Back in my room the phone rang. It was Roy calling to joke that “he missed me already.” I thanked him again for the thrill ride. It had been a fantastic two days exploring southwestern Costa Rica, but the biggest part of my adventure was yet to come.

The next day I returned to San Jose to meet up with a contingent heading down the Pacific Coast to the Osa Peninsula.

The tour was led by Craig Thompson, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources West Central District land program manager based in La Crosse, in conjunction with Osa Conservation, a Costa Rican nongovernmental, nonprofit conservation organization.

The rest of the group consisted of Mary, Craig’s wife; Carole Schneider-Phillips of La Crosse; Sarah Hole and Eileen Mershart of Madison; Mary Jo and Tom Clark of Melrose; and Rory Cameron of Chippewa Falls. Rory and I had decided to team up with the tour back in June.

After an hourlong flight, we deplaned at the jungle airstrip in Puerto Jimenez. For the next six and a half days, it would be just us and the rain forest, but the rain forest has got a lot of personality.

Five percent of the world’s bird diversity – more than 800 species – lives in Costa Rica, half of them in the Osa Peninsula. Fifty-five of those bird species breed in Wisconsin and winter in the Osa Peninsula – the “Wisconsin-Costa Rican connection” that is at the root of the tour’s origins. (Among those birds are the Tennessee warbler, golden-winged warbler and Baltimore oriole.)

The Bell Family Foundation, a private charitable foundation, donates annually to the DNR’s Bureau of Endangered Resources. Of that, $25,000 is passed on to Osa Conservation to help preserve rain forest habitat. A $500 portion of the trip cost each of us had paid also went directly to the cause.

“You try to protect as much forest as possible,” Thompson said. “There is a real urgency associated with this kind of work.

“This is such a beautiful place that a lot of people from Europe, Canada and the United States are coming down and building second homes, and as a result, land prices are skyrocketing.”

In the 1970s Costa Rica experienced one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. By the ’80s, national parks like Carara and Corcovado, in the Osa Peninsula, were being created.

Costa Rica faces a bit of an irony. The beautiful parks that support the country’s No. 1 “product” – ecotourism – are still threatened.

Gold miners that work the parks poach freely, sometimes bragging of killing off hundreds of wild peccaries, or pigs.

There is talk of building an international airport in the mangrove forest where the endangered yellow-billed cotinga lives.

But the real indicator of habitat health lies not in bird populations, but with cats. As the jaguar goes, so go the birds.

“The jaguar is the umbrella species, so if you protect enough for them, everything else falls in place. Their primary prey is peccaries so you need the big forest to keep everything stitched together,” Thompson said.

Even the grand idea of pristine forested parks isn’t enough. “Islands” of good habitat do not ensure viable gene pools.

“What we want to do is create a corridor that extends from the tip of the peninsula all the way up to Corcovado’s southern boundary,” Thompson said. “You’ve got a swath of protected lands that extend from Corcovado, so you’re not going to get isolated patches of forest that result in isolated populations and the host of problems associated with that.”

Studies have shown birds forced into subprime habitat arrive later and have smaller clutches of eggs, while birds that come from healthy habitat are more successful breeders.

“If tropical forests cease to exist, the birds are gone. It’s really very basic,” Thompson said.

So, why not invest in Costa Rica?

“(U.S. citizens are) currently sending $180,000 a year to Canada to support wetlands conservation – supported mainly by waterfowl stamps. This is a chance for birders to step up to the plate. It’s a really big deal.”

Our bird guide for the week, Nito Castro, was one of sharpest naturalists I’ve ever met. Not only was he a step ahead of me on all the birds, but he could line them up in the scope before most of us could get them in our binoculars.

He did it all on a gallon of gallo pinto a day – a Costa Rican staple consisting of black beans and rice – well … maybe two gallons.

The “jungla” isn’t for everyone, and I think that is a good thing. This is not a place for the tiny hawk of heart. Paltry tyrannulets need not apply.

You are going to tramp for miles in clunky knee-high boots meant to guard your shins from venomous snakes and you are going to sweat.

You also will pass beneath “cicada showers.” So many of the insects are feeding in the treetops that their bodily waste sometimes falls down like rain from the canopy.

And the spiders here eat small birds.

But I survived each day supremely, thank you. My only complaint was a serious case of “binocular shoulder” from watching all the birds high in the trees.

From the veranda at supper, we admired the coastline tailing off to the northwest. Bunking down for the evening, we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the surf broken by the tremulous wails of great tinamous and the purring of crested owls.

Once again we rose before light for a bite to eat before hiking. Nito pointed out not just the slaty-tailed trogons and the charming hummingbirds, but also tent-making bats; ajo – or “garlic trees”; and a parrot snake.

The group paused faithfully at every scarlet macaw crossing. The bright red, gold and blue birds – more populous here than anywhere else on Earth – are always paired. With their long tails, they appeared to be 4 feet long in the air.

After all the hiking I was one “sweaty chicken.” It was time for a rinse.

But in the Osa Peninsula, they run a tight green ship. They conserve everything – especially hot water. I must confess I emitted an unmanly whimper the first time I ducked under the shower head – shifting from 88 degrees to 40 in one pass. Now that’s invigorating. It felt good to be clean again, however, and I no longer smelled like an ajo.

After two nights at Cerro Osa, we hiked to to Piro Research Station, where we would spend the next three nights catching whatever sleep we could between the raucous barking of howler monkeys.

From there, Playa Piro – the longest stretch of undeveloped beach in Central America – was an easy stroll. We got a monkey “grand slam” along the way, seeing all four of Costa Rica’s primate species: spider, squirrel, white-faced capuchin (aka Taco John ads) and the incredible howler.

The mantled howler monkey is widely considered to be the loudest land animal on the planet. (Funny … I thought the title belonged to us humans).

My first encounter with them – in the deadest, darkest middle of the night – was one of those “What the hell was that?” moments. Like everyone else, I quickly became enamored of the wild and spectacular sound.

I topped every day of hiking off with a cold Imperial, the cerveza (beer) of choice in Costa Rica, and great food, whether I was ready to eat or not. In fact, upon returning to the States, I was briefly rendered confounded and helpless when no one volunteered to step forward and slide a heaping plate of food in front of me.

Dinner at Piro is by candlelight in the high-ceilinged open veranda, with pauraques – the common Costa Rican nightjar – strafing the airspace between the supper table and the high thatched roof in pursuit of bugs.

After supper one night fellow traveler Sarah Hole had an announcement to make:

“The bathroom around the corner is temporarily closed; the army ants are cleaning it.”

That, of course, brought Nito and me at a run. The entire floor of the tiled bathroom, and halfway up the walls, was crisscrossed with lines of ants. Nito, flashlight in hand, pointed out the vanquished black ants, crickets and spiders being carried back to the invaders’ bivouacked nest, while a tiny cockroach dashed madly through the lines, escaping with its life.

For the last two days of the tour, we said goodbye to Nito and loaded into taxis for the bumpy ride to the Golfo Dulce region and Bosque del Rio Tigre Lodge near Dos Brazos.

“BRT,” as it is called for short, is a lovely, compact, two-storied resort operated by Liz Jones and Abraham Gallo. Abraham and his nephew, Ulysses, serve as expert bird guides.

Short forays into the wild got us up close and personal with a dozen species of hummingbirds and a shy uniform crake.

Lounging in hammocks, we were treated to a “mixed flock” of birds including bay-headed Tanagers, endangered black-cheeked ant-tanagers, a squirrel cuckoo and red-legged honeycreepers.

Little tinamous, blue ground-doves, and gray-necked wood-rails congregated at the feeding station to peck at rice before it was carted off by leafcutter ants.

When we did the “bird roundup” at days’ end, we were delighted to tally 141 species.

Each night, unfailingly, I lay in bed, with bats passing in and out the open windows, thinking, “I’m sleeping in the jungle” and wondering what was going on in the “outside world.”

But the “outside world” is here inside the rain forest.

What we call jungle is really life turned on high – a rain forest buzzing with diversity and drenched in cicada pee and filled with 1,500 kinds of trees – that is more raw and more real than anything you ever will see on television or read about in a newspaper. Nothing on earth substitutes for deep immersion.

Pura vida.

Steve Betchkal is a freelance writer for the Leader-Telegram based in Eau Claire, WI.

Hello!!

My name is Jo Garrett and I’m a television producer based in Madison, Wisconsin. I am also a BIG-TIME Osa admirer since I had the pleasure of traveling there to shoot a documentary called, “Our Birds.”

We produced the documentary for Wisconsin Public Television and you can view it at this link:

http://wpt.org/ourbirds/

The “we” is our production crew: location sound recordist, Kerman Eckes, me, and our videographer, Frank Boll.

So why was a Wisconsin television crew in the Osa? Our documentary began as an investigation into some of the problems confronting Wisconsin’s migratory birds.

Every spring and fall more than 240 species of birds travel to and through Wisconsin as they migrate between their summer breeding grounds in the north and their wintering grounds in Latin America.

These migratory birds are very treasured in Wisconsin. It’s a big deal when these beautiful birds arrive every spring. Wisconsin residents put up feeders outfitted with orange slices and grape jelly to feed hungry Baltimore Orioles, birders join “warbler walks” to catch sight of these beauties, and even the tiny hummingbirds are treated to sugar water served in bright red containers. Spring is a delight when they arrive and we miss the birds when they leave in fall.

We love “our birds” and conservationists in Wisconsin are working hard to tackle problems such as habitat loss and collision with windows. Some of that work is profiled in the documentary. (There is a very happy ending for a Canada Warbler that crashes into a skyscraper in the city of Milwaukee!! Check it out!).

But it became clear that an important part of the story of Wisconsin’s migratory birds was to look at what happens to the birds while they’re in their wintering grounds.

We came to the Osa to profile some of the amazing programs that Osa Conservation and partners are engaged in to save “our birds” AND, to show how important it is that we work together if these birds are to survive and thrive.

Conservation Birding is a concept whereby people who come down to the Osa on fantastic birding trips agree to make a donation to Osa Conservation to support protection and restoration of bird habitat and avian programs. These trips result in the raising of critical funds to protect not only migratory, but resident endangered bird habitat as well (in addition to supporting local jobs in eco-tourism and bird guiding!)

A picture is worth a 1,000 words so here are a few production stills from our trip

If you save the ocelot, you save the oriole. We explored that connection with Wild Cat Researcher Ricardo Moreno seen in the image above. He and fellow researcher Aida Bustamante have set up one of the largest camera trap grids in the world to capture photos and garner information about Costa Rican wild cat populations.

Ricardo got a photo of a margay that day. What a rare occurrence. Reason? Margays live in the trees of the rainforest and seldom, sometimes never, touch the ground. Amazing. The canopy cat.

Early morning. Rio Tigre. Barefoot. Working. I think this is a great production photo. Frank and Kerman are intent on their job, gathering images and sound, and all around them the day is unfolding

We were all changed by this trip. Kerman was so inspired by our shoot in the Osa and Thompson’s birding conservation trips that she returned to bird with Osa Conservation the next year!!

Frank has retired from Wisconsin Public Television but please note that he’s now in Peru on a three week shoot, volunteering his time as a videographer to document other conservation efforts. I know that the dedication of the folks in the Osa was SO inspiring for him. We talked about it when we retuned back home. He spoke of how determined he is to “give back” to conservation groups in his retirement, in part because of his experiences in the Osa and with Osa Conservation.

As for me, I have a renewed focus on how best to communicate the importance of caring for “our birds:” preventing window collisions, saving habitat, planting our backyards with the native plants and bushes that give these spent, exhausted migrants the food and shelter their need during their migrations.

I am writing this blog entry from Madison, Wisconsin on November 8th. We’re under a “winter storm watch” and the snow is tumbling down, winds are howling, and I’m so glad the birds we share (the Baltimore Oriole, the Indigo Bunting, the Scarlet Tanager, and all those many, many Warblers) are all safe and sound in the forests and wilds of the Osa.

Take good care our little feathered friends!! We’re counting on you!

We’ll do our best to watch out for them in Wisconsin.

Thank you!!

-JoAnne Garrett
Wisconsin Public Television

Let emily.angell@osaconservation know if you are interested in birding opportunities in the Osa!

Female Yellow-billed Cotinga on the day of her tagging Feb. 15, 2011

It really is like no other bird that I have seen. These birds are truly beautiful with movements and behavioral characteristics unique to its species.   These big black eyes belong to a male Yellow-billed Cotinga (Carpodectes antoniae), a highly endangered Costa Rican resident bird species.  It is also know locally as the Cotinga Piquiamarillo.

He is just one of a dwindling number remaining here in the southern pacific coastal slope of Costa Rica and hopefully the north pacific coast of Panama.  I say hopefully because historically this species was found on both sides of the border inhabiting coastal mangroves and adjacent mixed rainforest.  Loss and degradation of habitat for this regional endemic bird is the main cause of its decline with a population estimated to only be somewhere between 250 – 799 birds remaining.  Because of the several intact mangroves that are found around the Golfo Dulce and up around Térraba-Sierpe National Wetlands of Costa Rica, the Osa Peninsula and its environs now appears to be this species one and only remaining stronghold.

The male and the female look quite different; the female sporting a mottling of gray, white and black on her wings and back while the male is a stunning pure white with slight hints of soft light gray all over.  Its signature yellow beak with its central black stripe is what sets it apart from the Snowy Cotinga, its closest relative found on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica.  You won’t find much yellow in the females’ beak however except along the base of the bill.  The fledglings look like mom while the sub-adult males, probably not much older than one year, have that in-between look going on.   As far as vocalizations are concerned any form of communication that may be used between individuals is not readily apparent to those of us on the ground.

Now picture about 6 male Yellow-billed Cotingas in a single tree snag branching out in all directions each male swooping down and back up into an adjacent tree, mostly leafless or semi-leafless, all in an effort to gain the attention of a nearby female.  Just imagine a gymnast on parallel bars.  This is the courtship display and is also a movement that is seen by males throughout the breeding season.   Once the female has made her choice it is thought that she then takes on 100% of all parental duties.  The males spend their time feeding and returning to their core areas to make their territorial rounds day in and day out.

So let’s go back for a second and let me reiterate something before moving on.  There may be as few as 250 Yellow-billed Cotingas remaining on the planet, not found anywhere else!

Because of this, Friends of the Osa in partnership with the American Bird Conservancy took on the task of investigating this species actual distribution in a study completed in 2009, and a more specifically aimed study currently looking at its habitat use patterns and its spatial and temporal movements during the reproductive and non-reproductive times of the year.

Male Yellow-billed Cotinga 2011

We are able to determine the birds movements via radio telemetry.  We have placed small radio transmitters on three cotingas, one adult female and two adult males from a small population which breeds in the mangroves of Rincon de Osa located on the north end of the Osa Peninsula along the Golfo Dulce.  We have been able to follow all three birds around their breeding grounds via their radio frequency signals since their capture in mid February.

Essentially what we have done is take geographic satellite positions (waypoints) of birds locations throughout the day using a hand held GPS unit.  With an accumulation of waypoints we are now able to determine each individual’s home range which is basically the size and configuration of the area the bird occupies or uses.  As the birds disperse into other areas of the peninsula during the winter months between June and December we will track their movements and map the areas used in order to more precisely determine which areas are in need of protection and possible conservation measures.

Not only will results from this study reveal important patterns of movements throughout the year of the Yellow-billed Cotinga, it will also serve to safeguard sensitive mangrove habitats and better protect other species which also rely on the mangrove and rainforest ecosystems unique to this part of the world.

YBCO with his unique black bill stripe

Other species to keep an eye on that specifically rely on mangroves are the Mangrove Hummingbird which is a Costa Rica endemic species and the Prothonotary Warbler, a North American  migratory songbird.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank George and Luke Powell for their tireless assistance in capture techniques (including net construction and radio harness placement) as well as home range data analysis, and to Luis Vargas for his energy and tenacity during many weeks of work towards what ended up being a successful capture and beyond- high tides and all! Thanks to Manuel, Courtney and Christina for all the long hours climbing mangroves and wading through rivers.  We would also like to thank the owners of El Chontal Cabinas, and ADEPAS for providing us lodging and the staff of Friends of the Osa for constant support and feedback.  Thanks also goes out to Optics for the Tropics for their donation of binoculars for field staff and to Andrew Judd Pruter of Psycho Tours for supporting this project with climbing equipment used during the cotinga capture.   And this list is growing…

Please keep your eye out for more information on the Yellow-billed Cotinga project…

Piro Research Center

Tree samples waiting to be process by Greg Asner´s working team, January 2010.

Piro Research Center is our Costa Rican biological field station and has:

• Three cabins, each with three rooms and a bathroom (total capacity 36)
• Laboratory/classroom area
• Reference library
• Dining hall/common area

Staying here will give you quick access to mature rainforest as well as to the coastal habitat along the Pacific, making this campus ideal for researchers, field biology student groups, and sea turtle volunteers.

Greg Gund Conservation Center

The Greg Gund Conservation Center is an educational campus located on the Cerro Osa property. Here you have the option to stay in the bunk house or on a camping platform; no matter which you choose, you won’t regret the breathtaking view looking west to Corcovado National Park and the Pacific Ocean.

• Bunkhouse with two bathrooms (total capacity 12-16)
  

  View for the GGCC

• Three screened-in platforms (total capacity 12)
• Dining area
• Education Center (under construction)

The Cerro Osa property where this campus is located, is a 1,500 acre tract of land that is contiguous with the Piro Research Center property. You can get here either by walking the Cerro Osa trail or by car on the access road. While the Greg Gund Conservation Center isn’t as close to pristine rainforest as the Piro Research Center, the land use history of Cerro Osa makes it an ideal location to study tropical forest regeneration since the forest directly surrounding the campus is recovering plantation.

If you’d like to book a stay with us, or if you have questions about accommodating a group, please visit www.osaconservation.org or email our Station Manager: carlosmonge@osaconservation.org

Recording a Stream Soundscape: Jeff Woodman, Luis Vargas & Leo Garrigues

By Karen Leavelle & Jeff Woodman

The Osa Peninsula is known for its high level of biodiversity and is one of the most “biologically intense” places on earth according to National Geographic. The Osa has over half of all species found in Costa Rica. This is evident in the over 400 bird species found here. That’s quite a few birds for such a small area. Well, its time then to make them heard; to record their songs, calls, mews, ooo’s, churrs, drumming and scolding notes and make them available for all to listen to.

That’s exactly what Jeff Woodman, board member of American Bird Conservancy and Amazon Conservation Association, Luis Vargas, ornithology student at the University of Costa Rica, and Tim Burr, recordist for more than three decades thought when they met at a recording workshop held by Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology last summer. Partnering with Friends of the Osa, The Osa Recording Project began in December 2009 when Jeff, Luis, and Tim joined Al Houghton, Bob Levy, and Bob Schallmann on the Osa Peninsula. There they met up with Liz Jones and Abraham Gallo from Bosque del Rio Tigre Lodge and Kory Kramer, Guido Saborio, and Manuel Sanchez from Friends of the Osa to begin the somewhat daunting task of recording as many bird, mammal, amphibian, and insect sounds as they could. The first trip was highly successful

Jeff Woodman, Tim Burr, Luis Vargas and Bob Schallmann recording birds on the road from the Osa Biodiversity Center to Puerto Jimenez

prompting the group to once again descend upon the Osa for round two in mid April. The expertise of the group expanded significantly with the addition of Costa Rican birding experts Leo Garrigues, Gary Feliz and Oscar Herrera, and with Karen Leavelle with Friends of the Osa. Now Gary, Oscar, and Karen who reside on the Osa can simply walk outside and record when they wake up in the morning!

This recording group has travelled from Luna Lodge at Carate to Friends of the Osa’s Osa Biodiversity Center, out to Cabo Matapalo and Puerto Jimenez, Bosque del Rio Tigre Lodge and everywhere in between. This group has even gone all the way over to the Rincon mangroves on the Golfo Dulce side where one can find the endangered Yellow-billed Cotinga and the Mangrove Hummingbird.

So why record all this wildlife?  Education, Education, Education. One intention is to create one or more CDs that could facilitate the training of aspiring local naturalists. Also, birders who come to the Osa can learn some songs before being inundated by the local avifauna when they get off the plane at Puerto Jimenez. Researchers and students will also benefit as well as local guides who work in this amazing environment. We also hope to have songs linked to the Friends of the Osa website along with a bit of natural history and images to allow folks to make visual connections with Osa wildlife.

Oscar Herrera, Lana Wedmore, Leo Garrigues, Tim Burr, Jeff Woodman, Gary Feliz & Luis Vargas at the end of a long recording trip.

We will of course keep you updated on this amazing project and gigantic undertaking as we progress.  You can already begin to hear bird songs on our Featured Bird blog post which is put up every Saturday where we are showcasing a particular bird species, its ecology and the bird’s song or call in its partially edited version. Final edits will be made by recording specialist Al Houghton out of New York.

Hatchling Sea Turtle at Piro Beach - FOO Sea Turtle Program - photo: S DePolo

Manuel Sánchez is the field coordinator for this season, accompanied by his field assistant, Ronald Villalobos; both an example of the efforts of FOO to hire local people for its projects. Manuel was born in the area and has spent his life on these beaches, on the Piro river estuary and the lands of the Osa Biodiversity Center (OBC). Not only is he finely attuned to the rhythms and behaviors of the turtles, he is an expert spotter of all kinds of wildlife and an aspiring photographer.

We would like to send out a very BIG thank you to all of our 2009 volunteers and an even BIGGER thank you to our two Research Field Assistants, Jim Ward and Liam Hogg, who both dedicated three months to FOO’s sea turtle conservation program in 2009.  We couldn’t have done it without you!

In 2009, Friends of the Osa protected 240 nests on Piro Beach and 164 nests on Pejeperro Beach of the Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea).  We were able to protect all 12 Black Turtle nests (Chelonia mydas – agassizii) we discovered on Pejeperro Beach. No Black turtles were observed nesting on Piro Beach in 2009. As for Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas agassizii), just three nests were reported in Pejeperro. These three turtle species are threatened.

Activities included: two teams doing nightly patrols of the two beaches, monitoring the arrival of the nesting turtles, counting nests and attempts at nesting (false crawls,) marking confirmed nests,  tagging and measuring of sea turtles encountered while nesting. Patrols visited the beaches each morning, and where possible placed wire mesh over nests to cut down on predation by wildlife, such as coatis, and feral dogs. Nests were visited after the hatching, and shell remains and nest mortality were tallied. In addition the team did daily and nightly collection of sand temperatures at the depths sea turtles bury their eggs. Our presence on this remote beach has also helped to reduce poaching in the area. In response to the concerns about turtle egg poaching, MINAET (the Costa Rican Ministry of the Interior,) has been conducting patrols on roads and on the beach, which have been effective at reducing the presence of egg-looters in the area. Overall predation has been low this season, as a total of 24 nests have been preyed upon in Piro and only two in Pejeperro.

Piro and Pejeperro beaches, extending northwest from Matapalo point, are wild and untrammeled, far from any city or town, facing directly into the powerful Pacific currents. Situated near the OBC campus, they represent a rare habitat in this hemisphere where the rainforest touches the ocean. The sea turtles nesting here are returning to the beaches where they were hatched. They travel long distances across the Pacific in their feeding, mating and nesting. The female hatchlings that leave the beach each year may not return to nest for up to 20 years. Females may need to make multiple attempts to nest successfully, and some will return to lay more than once a season. They face a gauntlet of hazards, from wildlife predation as hatchlings during their first hours on the beach and in the ocean, to suffocation as adults from ingesting plastic bags mistaken for jelly fish. Above all, to nest  they must brave a wall of death off the Pacific Coast in the form of fleets of long-line fishing boats. The turtles face drowning when they are accidentally ensnared.

These magnificent, ancient creatures fascinate with their timeless migrations–yet their long term survival is uncertain. Our efforts will continue on  Piro and Pejeperro beaches, and in conjunction with other local and international efforts, until their survival can be assured.

For the 2010 season, Friends of the Osa, with support from El Tigre Fund and in partnership with Carate lodges, is expanding our Sea Turtle Conservation Program to cover Oro Beach and Carate Beach.  For this effort to be successful, we will need the help of many more volunteers!

Please visit our volunteer page to sign up for the 2010 season.  Volunteers patrolling Piro and Pejeperro Beaches are housed at the OBC’s rustic but pleasant facilities, and give a donation to cover the cost of the three daily meals prepared by the OBC’s staff. Or you can sign up with a partner lodge and help protect the endangered sea turtles on Oro and Carate Beaches.

Measuring Turtle Tracks on Piro Beach

Also in 2009, locals from the Carate community, including nature guides, were trained on sea turtle conservation and techniques. The community is getting organized and is considering creating a turtle hatchery, with the help of the Sustainability Committee of Carate, La Leona Lodge, Luna Lodge, Finca Exótica, Carate Wildlife Refuge, El Trigre Fund, MINAET and FOO.