Blogpost written by Marvin López, Botanical Specialist [caption id="attachment_11074" align="aligncenter" width="4608"] Flowers of Aristolochia goudotii, a plant commonly called pipevine, in its natural habitat. It is a woody, evergreen, twining vine of the birthwort family that produces unusual apetulous flowers, each of which features a calyx resembling a dutchman’s pipe.[/caption] I have lived most of my life here, in the Osa Peninsula, one of the places with the most extensive forest cover of my country, Costa Rica. It holds a vast diversity of plant species, some of which are still unknown to...

Post by Philip Przybyszewski, DC Office Intern. [caption id="attachment_11117" align="aligncenter" width="6000"] A view of the far-reaching canopy and the Pacific Ocean from up above.[/caption] No, this isn’t just an issue for raving environmentalists. This is a big deal for everyone. Even though they only cover 2% of the Earth’s surface, they are of utmost importance to all species, particularly humans. Tropical rainforests are the wettest, most vegetation-intense biomes in the world, so densely-grown that a canopy is formed that weaves together the ecosystem into a far-spanning green landscape. Incredibly, this ecosystem...

Blogpost written by Sydney Denham, Conservation Volunteer [caption id="attachment_11002" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Sydney's favorite stingless bee nest.[/caption] Studying bees can be tedious work, but not because of needing to carefully avoid the stingers. The bees I've been observing (thankfully) lack them, making it easy to get up close and personal with my little buzzing friends. Rather than getting stung, this work is difficult because the nests are very challenging to find. I've learned that field biology is not just recording data vast quantities of data all day. First, the subject must be...

Blogpost written by Manuel Sánchez, Sea Turtle Program Coordinator and Wildlife Photographer The first rains. After six long months of the dry season, strong downpours have returned at last to wake the forest once more, and with them return the creatures that hid away from the rainless weather. The first glass frogs (Neobatrachia centrolenidae) begin to sing in the creeks and rivers, the water level gradually rising with the first floods of the year. The rainy season advances across in a roaring song, and various amphibian species begin to search...

Blogpost written by Eleanor Flatt, Restoration and Biodiversity Monitoring Research Field Assistant and Birder. [caption id="attachment_10882" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Black-cheeked ant tanager, endemic to the Osa Peninsula; photo by Manuel Sanchez[/caption] In the 1900's, the first Audubon Christmas Bird Count was conducted in 25 areas with 27 birdwatchers in the US & Canada. 100 years later, the tradition has expanded to over 2,200 areas in 20 different countries. The Osa Peninsula is one of these locations and this year marked its 8th annual Christmas Bird Count. Data collected from Christmas Bird Counts form...