DECEMBER 17-22

Space is still available on our Holiday Birding Trip, so join us for spectacular birding through the tropical forests of the Osa Peninsula! This five-day trip includes extensive birding, forest hikes, and nightly talks and excursions with our staff of biologists and conservation professionals.  The trip culminates in the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count—where you, along with thousands of other citizen scientists throughout the Americas, can participate in the longest running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations.

The Osa Peninsula is the wildest, yet most under-birded, corner of the country.  It is home to over 460 species of birds, including the healthiest population of Scarlet Macaws in Central America, Red-capped Manakins, Yellow-billed and Turquoise Contingas, and even the Harpy Eagle.  Osa Conservation’s birding trips are led by resident ornithologist, Karen Leavelle, as well as trained naturalist guides who are intimately familiar with the bird species and tropical ecosystems of the Osa.

Your participation in the Holiday Birding Tour directly supports OC’s avian conservation and education programs. We invite you to be part of our mission to conserve the Peninsula’s globally significant biodiversity and we hope to see you on one of these fantastic trips!

For more information on our Holiday Birding Tour, or to see a trip itinerary, please visit our website at www.osaconservation.org/ConservationTrips.html. For trip registration or questions please contact Emily Angell at emilyangell@osaconservation.org or Karen Leavelle at karenleavelle@osaconservation.org.

Volunteering with the FOO Sea Turtle Research Program was a wonderful experience.  My observations and field notes taken while on the Osa Peninsula were used to complete the final independent study project of my Master of Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).  The topic of my independent study project was Global Threats of Sea Turtles.  I graduated from VCU in December of 2010 and feel very lucky to have had this volunteer/research opportunity on the beautiful Osa Peninsula.  The personnel at the FOO Sea Turtle Research Center were very helpful in my data collection and field studies, even after I returned home to finish my independent study.  I couldn’t have asked for a more hospitable and professional research program.

Jesus Christ Lizard

Getting from San Jose to the research center was quite an adventure.  Visiting the Osa during the height of the rainy season made it a bit tricky, but it was well worth the effort.  I spent nine thrilling days and nights at the Osa Biodiversity Center from the end of October through early November of 2010.  I participated in four night beach patrols and two day beach patrols with the sea turtle research program.  Watching the sea turtles nest at night was a magical experience that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

With several FOO conservation projects underway, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the local biodiversity of the peninsula.   I stayed busy, practiced Spanish a bit, received plenty of rest, and filled my belly with wonderful home-cooked meals served onsite at the research center.  The people of FOO were a lot of fun and I enjoyed working with them.   I’d do it all over again! Thanks for everything FOO. I’ll be forever grateful.

Sincerely,

Vickie Buisset Jones

What turtle has the best eye sight?

A SEE TURTLE!

And that´s why it´s so important that we make sure on night patrols that we spot the ladies before they spot us…the last thing we want to do is scare them back to the sea. A good turtle detective just doesn´t do that. An Olive Ridley could have swum thousands of miles to get to this specific beach  which is why here at Friends of the Osa we do what we can to ensure we have minimal impact on beach patrols- especially at night. Females can be deterred from nesting and the hatchlings’ important journey to the sea can be disrupted just by the presence of white lights. For this reason, we only use red light on the beach. Sea turtles, like many other reptiles, don´t actually have the color red within their visual spectrum so it means we can work safe in the knowledge that they don´t feel like a criminal fleeing from the scene of a crime!

Volunteering with sea turtles on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

We´ve just said goodbye to the lovely Brandy and Nick who were volunteering  with us for 2 weeks, staying at Finca Exotica in Carate. Their second day it was unnecessary to use ANY  artificial light to spot a turtle as on an afternoon stroll to the lagoon at around 3:30pm, we  discovered a solitary uptrack and on the top…an Olive Ridley covering a nest! It was a beautiful day anyway so this just completely topped it off. Most sea turtles come up during the night to lay their eggs as they feel it´s safer but this individual obviously had other ideas! It was a real treat to see her in natural light.

Of course, night patrols aren´t always a walk in the park.  We are in the peak of the rainy season, and it’s not uncommon for there to be times when the rain has penetrated every ounce of clothing, sand has made its way into every crevice you never thought possible and throughout the patrol, one can´t help but feel like you’re on the losing side in World War III against the elusive sand flea. But the second you catch a glimpse of a turtle, watching each egg drop into the nest she created ever so carefully, we are reminded of how much energy has been invested in this process and just how vital our efforts are to protect nesting sea turtles. Our efforts here on the Osa seem so small- but nest by nest, day by day, the data we gather can be interpreted and contributed to the global effort for sea turtle conservation, and together we can make a difference.  Besides, who wouldn´t care to swap the office for this?

Male Turquoise Cotinga. Photo by Ulises Quintero

This week as promised I am bringing you the Turquoise Cotinga (Cotinga ridgwayi).  This is definitely one of those species of bird that makes you go “WOW” when you see it.  This is also one of Costa Rica’s most sensitive species to loss of forest habitat.  BirdLife International has this Cotinga species listed as Vulnerable which puts it one step away from be considered Endangered.  It is a regional endemic only found on the Pacific slope of central and southern Costa Rica and western Panama.  Its population is estimated to be between 2,500 – 10,000 birds and declining.

So why the decline?  As with many species, the Turquoise Cotinga is faced with deforestation and severe habitat fragmentation.  This coupled with an already naturally small range makes it difficult for the Cotinga population to remain stable.  This is also true for its closest relative the Yellow-billed Cotinga also found here on the Osa Peninsula whose population is estimated to be much smaller between 250 – 1,000 birds (more on this species in the weeks to come!).

Because of the Turquoise Cotinga’s conservation concern and its rarity, it is a special occasion when we see one.  Now you must know there are certain areas on the Osa Peninsula where this bird is quite common such as Carate and Corcovado National Park and folks flock to these areas to see them.  Since we at Friends of the Osa are in the middle of our seasonal avian monitoring we have had the distinct pleasure to have encountered several Turquoise Cotingas in the last two weeks within our monitoring points and just up the road from the Greg Gund Conservation Center on Cerro Osa.  It is possible that Turquoise Cotingas are more common than once thought on Friends of the Osa property especially outside of the breeding season when they are seasonally migrating in search of food resources.

This passerine species is found mainly in the canopy of humid rainforest and secondary growth and can also be seen along forest edges and in tall trees within shade grown coffee plantations.  They will wander throughout the canopy of wet forests and are known to rest on high exposed perches.  They consume the fruits of fig trees, Cecropia and parasitic mistletoe Psittacanthus and will go down low to gather pokeweed berries Phytolacca in clearings on occasion.  In case you were wondering it weighs in at about 50 grams, just under the size of a Red-winged Blackbird.

The males and females apparently do not form pair bonds.  The males gather in group display leks to attract females.  The female then builds the nest and rears the two young all on her own.  Nesting takes place between January and May.

Conservation measures are to investigate current distribution and discourage the conversion of shade coffee to full sun grown coffee.  Unfortunately very little information is available on the behavioral ecology of this species so the more we learn the more we will bring to you.

Frugivorous Butterfly Trap

The methodology used by José consists of traps that are placed in the canopy and the understory that attract butterflies with fermented fruit. Fruit is placed in these traps during the first week of each month. All butterflies captured during this period are identified, which gives a pretty good idea of the species richness in both strata of the forest, if sampling is performed at adequate intervals.

Jose shared with us some of his vast knowledge of frugivorous butterflies of Costa Rica, which, he tells us, make up between 40-50% of all Costa Rican butterfly species. He also told us how the species richness of frugivorous butterflies has greater variation vertically than horizontally; i.e. there is a greater difference between the canopy and the understory of the same site, than there is between different sites at similar heights.

Not content to talk only about butterflies, José also gave excellent lectures on the concepts of diversity, evenness, dominance and beta and gamma biodiversity, all fundamental concepts in the work he has been doing.

I would like to thank La Leona Lodge, especially Ifigenia Garita, for the opportunity to have participated in this activity. I also want to thank José Montero his great willingness to teach and share his knowledge.

The information generated by this project was included in the latest update workshop of the conservation status of amphibians in Costa Rica for the IUCN Red List, held in San Jose in July this year. The workshop was organized by the University of Costa Rica’s School of Biology and the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) of the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN. The workshop summary will soon be published by the organizers, and we’ll share that report through the blog.

Dermophis occidentalis

As part of this project, and with some good luck, we’ve observed many interesting species of amphibians.  One species in particular which has attracted the most attention is the caecilian seen in this photo.

Caecilians are a group of amphibians that has invaded the underground environment, so that their bodies are elongated, they have no limbs and their eyes are vestigial – all characteristics that allow them to squirm through their subterranean tunnels. Because of their penchant for the underground, these animals are rarely seen, and therefore, little is known about them.

According to the latest review of this group in the Osa Peninsula, there are three species of caecilians, one of these endemic (Oscaecilia osae), which has been reported only twice in Corcovado National Park.

The species that we have been observing, Dermophis occidentali, has been found at both the Piro Research Center, and the Greg Gund Conservation Center (GGCC).  The individual in the photo was found at the GGCC by Kory Kramer, in one of the buildings. This was in early July, when the onset of the rains saturates the ground forcing caecilians to surface.  If you’re lucky, you’ll see one. On this occasion, all Friends of the Osa staff were gathered for an activity so that everyone had the opportunity to observe this rare species.

We are officially half way through this year´s turtle season and it has been a very busy 3 months indeed! Within this time, we have been continuously patrolling our beaches morning and night to help our favorite reptiles. There seems to never be a dull moment, even the walks to the beach prove exciting! Already, we´ve been fortunate enough to have encountered jaguarundi, coati, caiman, anteaters, armadillos, as well as a variety of beautiful and rare frogs and snakes. Last week on a morning patrol in Carate, Greivin and Phoebe were lucky enough to see a group of 6 humpback whales pass by. It really is like a party in the jungle at the moment! Apparently whales can be camera shy so a group photo was out of the question but here´s a shot of one of the females:

Photo by Carlos García

Of course seeing these animals is all well and good but it is the sea turtles we are here for and they´ve proved not to fail with appearances. Olive Ridley are commonly sighted here with Green´s following second, but in the last month we´ve also had a handful of the critically endangered Leatherback and Hawksbill coming up onto our beaches – amazing! Due to the incubation period of some Olive Ridley nests being 45 days we are also starting to see more and more hatchlings appear too. For anyone who has been in the right place at the right time, you´ll know how incredibly cute these youngsters are! Sadly only 1 in 1000 makes it to adulthood which is why it´s so important that we use all of our best efforts to do what we can. One of our protected nests just hatched yesterday morning and we caught a straggler on her way to her new home, the sea. Fingers crossed she will be one of the females returning to the beach in the future to continue the cycle.

Baby sea turtle making its way to sea

We would like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to all of the fantastic volunteers we´ve already had come and help us in our conservation efforts this year. This is a critical time in the history of sea turtles and with the help of volunteers we as humans really can save them from extinction. Please don´t standby whilst the last of these majestic creatures disappears.  Come get involved and make a difference too!

Figure 1. Density of sea turtle visits during the months of July and August on the beaches of Piro-Carate, Osa Peninsula 2010.

By calculating the July and August data in this way, taking the sampling effort on each beach into account, we get the results shown in Figure 1. As you can see, Rio Oro is the beach with the highest density of in situ nests, nest predation and false crawls, followed by Pejeperro. From this graph, we can also see that the density of depredated nests on Rio Oro beach is very similar to the density of in situ nests, which is obviously worrying. In the coming days, I will conduct a preliminary analysis of predation in conjunction with Courtney Thomas, one of our assistants, who is using her participation in this project as part of her studies at Evergreen State College.

I would also like to take advantage of this note to thank Mr. Eliecer Villalta and Mr. Geinor Barquero, from MINAET’s Department of Control and Protection, for their support in recent weeks. Their presence, along with other peers in the area, had an immediate effect in reducing poaching of turtle eggs. I hope we can continue to coordinate this type of support throughout the rest of the season.

Remember that you can help us to protect sea turtles that visit the southern part of the Osa Peninsula in several ways: 1) telling others about our project and the importance of protecting sea turtles, 2) participating in our sea turtle volunteer program and 3) by making a donation to help fund the continuation of the Sea Turtle Conservation Program.

Karen Leavelle presenting the Yellow-billed Cotinga spatial distribution project

The Costa Rican Ornithological Union’s second annual conference was held July 28 – 30^th 2010 in the school of biology at the University of Costa Rica in the capital of San Jose.  The conference was dedicated to Daniel Janzen and his pioneering work in the field of conservation and reforestation in Costa Rica over the last several decades.  Attendees present represented national and international organizations working hard at avian science and conservation throughout the country coming together to share common interests in the more than 830 resident and migrant bird species found in this tropical landscape.

Friends of the Osa’s avian ecologist Karen Leavelle was in attendance to present a poster outlining the upcoming Yellow-billed Cotinga radio telemetry project slated to begin at the end of this year.  Also in attendance were Liz Jones and Abraham Gallo to present their findings from a two year study looking at the current distribution of the Yellow-billed Cotinga, Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager and the Mangrove Hummingbird all of which are endemic species considered to be endangered by BirdLife International.  This project was supported by Friends of the Osa, the American Bird Conservancy and the Evergreen Foundation producing vital information highlighting the conservation status of each species and the importance of the rainforest and mangrove habitats to species survival remaining on the Osa Peninsula and surrounding areas.  You can read the full report by Jones et al. 2009 on our Science Report page at Friends of the Osa website.

Elizabeth Jones presenting Yellow-billed Cotinga project results

The Yellow-billed Cotinga project was born out of Liz and Abrahams results on the species current distribution.  This project will focus on tracking Cotingas throughout the Osa Peninsula in order to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of a population of Cotingas from the Rincon area.  Essentially this project will show temporal habitat use and the spatial movements of the birds between feeding, nesting and roosting areas.  Information gained will indicate forested areas in need of protection for this species and others that also depend on the same habitats for their survival.  Keep your eye for more information on this project as its December date approaches.

The conference itself and Friends of the Osa’s participation proved to be important as a manner of disseminating information to a national and international ornithological audience on project results, upcoming studies and our role on the Osa Peninsula in avian science and conservation.

The Osa Biodiversity Center (OBC) provided a brilliant opportunity for biological research at an accessible location bordering Corcovado National Park (CNP). CNP represents the largest remaining tract of tropical lowland forest left standing on the pacific coast of Central America. The Osa Peninsula is phytogeographically unusual with high floral species diversity of an estimated 500 species of woody plants and exhibits high primate abundances as well as being home to charismatic large felids such as puma and jaguar.  The work undertaken at the OBC during April 2010 primarily aimed to clarify insights into the microhabitat preferences of particular dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) identified in earlier study investigating the fidelity of ecological methods used for inventorying insect functional groups at Sirena Biological Station (CNP) during the months of July and August 2009.  In order to efficiently and cost effectively map diversity it is widely recognised that the use of indicator groups is necessary. The sensitivity of Dung Beetles to light, soil type, moisture, temperature, leaf litter, structural complexity, vegetative cover, and resource type are widely recognized, advocating their utility as an indicator of the influence of abiotic environmental parameters on patterns of diversity in tropical ecosystems on a global scale. In order to map spatio-temporal distributions of biological organisms it is important to measure habitat variables on the scale at which they influence the taxa studied. If the habitat is not defined from the perspective of the organism then inference made from data reporting environmental influences on distribution of populations may be inaccurate.  The material generated during the study at the OBC will be identified at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It is an exciting prospect that the work at OBC may back earlier work that has identified a microhabitat preference of dung beetles on trap placement, work that potentially has serious implications for sampling methodologies currently employed in comparative ecological work which  aims to report the influence of deforestation and habitat degradation on tropical biodiversity.

All photography by Zia Mehrabi on night walks at OBC during April 2010

The accommodation facilities at the OBC are superb, with comfortable beds, clean running water and delicious food. Furthermore the staff are extremely friendly and helpful, facilitating communication with the local community and achievement of research objectives. In addition, accessibility from the nearby town of Puerto Jimenez and contact via satellite connection ensure ease of logistics. There is a nicely set out trail system that provides some great tracks for night walks where a plethora of insects , arachnids and reptiles may be easily observed and photographed. Overall I was very happy in the time I spent at the OBC and would recommend it to other researchers wishing to explore this interesting region of the world.