News + Stories

Birds / 13.09.2010

[caption id="attachment_1341" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Riverside Wren nest by Cheryl Chip & Jim Tamarack"][/caption] For those of you who may remember, I posted a feature on the Riverside Wren (Thryothorus semibadius) back in April.  It was one of my first postings for the then new Friends of the Osa's blog The Osa Chronicles and a few of you commented on both the nature history and photography by Gianfranco Gomez. One of the species ecological behaviors I wrote about was of reproduction and nesting.  When I spoke about the nest of...

Science and Research, Sea Turtles / 07.09.2010

Last month I shared with you the total data for in situ nests, nest predation and false crawls for the month of July, and mentioned that these data were not adjusted for sampling effort. By sampling effort, I mean the amount of time and / or distance that was invested on each beach to get the data. For example, we monitor 2 km of Piro beach and 4.5 km of Pejeperro beach.  So, it isn’t the same to walk Piro beach and find two turtles as it is to walk...

Birds / 05.09.2010

[caption id="attachment_1239" align="alignleft" width="240"] White-whiskered Puffbird by Gianfranco Gomez[/caption] Not only does the White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis) rank pretty high on the cuteness scale, it is also an interesting species from an ecological perspective.  Puffbirds are most closely related to jacamars, toucans and woodpeckers.  They are primarily insect and arthropod eaters and are considered to be flycatching birds along with tyrant flycatchers, and nunbirds.  Even though they eat spiders, frogs and lizards taken from the ground they are known for sitting perfectly still in the forest understory until a...

Uncategorized / 04.09.2010

El mes pasado compartí con ustedes los datos totales para nidos in situ, nidos depredados  y salidas falsas para el mes de Julio, y mencioné que estos datos eran sin ajustar por el esfuerzo de muestreo. Por esfuerzo de muestreo me refiero a la cantidad de tiempo y/o distancia que se ha invertido en cada playa para obtener los datos.  Por ejemplo, en Piro nosotros monitoreamos 2 km de playa y en Pejeperro, monitoreamos 4.5 km. No es lo mismo recorrer Piro una vez y encontrar 2 tortugas,...

Birds, Community Outreach / 30.08.2010

[caption id="attachment_1220" align="alignleft" width="300"] Karen Leavelle presenting the Yellow-billed Cotinga spatial distribution project[/caption] The Costa Rican Ornithological Union’s second annual conference was held July 28 – 30th 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...

Environmental Education, Marine Conservation, Sea Turtles / 21.08.2010

Friends of the Osa’s Environmental Education program is carrying out educational activities on the conservation of sea turtles and marine ecosystems in the schools of the Osa Peninsula. The objectives are for students to learn the importance of sea turtle conservation, why Golfo Dulce is a tropical fjord, and the ecological and scientific implications of this designation. Students learn about the four sea turtle species that nest every year on the beaches of the Osa Peninsula: Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), East Pacific Green or black turtle (Chelonia mydas agassizii), Hawksbill...

Sea Turtles / 19.08.2010

This year we started our Sea Turtle Conservation Program with a great challenge, to expand our project to the beaches of Rio Oro and Carate on the southern side of the Osa Peninsula. With an excellent group of Field Coordinators (Geri Cubero, Erick Gomez and Greivin Barroso) and Research Field Assistants (Phoebe Edge, Heidi Montez, Courtney Thomas and Carlos Garcia), under the direction of Manuel Sanchez and Guido Saborio, we have taken the challenge with great enthusiasm. We also have help from Frontier, a volunteer program based in England with whom...

Science and Research / 15.08.2010

By: Zia Mehrabi, University of Oxford. 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...

Birds / 10.08.2010

[caption id="attachment_1189" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Common Pauraque by Karen Leavelle"][/caption] Have you ever been out at night driving along a country road and been startled by red ember eyes darting across the hood of the car, and then to have it happen every few hundred meters or so?  If you are driving anywhere on roads, especially dirt roads, from South Texas on down to Argentina you are bound to see the Common Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis). Here on the Osa Peninsula on the road to the Osa Biodiversity Center it is...

Uncategorized / 06.08.2010

El Programa de Educación  Ambiental  de Amigos de Osa, está llevando a cabo actividades de sensibilización en conservación de Tortugas Marinas y Ecosistemas Marinos en las escuelas de la Península de Osa. Los objetivos de este son, que los estudiantes conozcan la importancia de la conservación de las especies de Tortugas Marinas, y el porqué el Golfo Dulce es llamado un fiordo tropical y la importancia ecológica y científica que esto conlleva. Los estudiantes aprenden cuales son las 4 especies que anidan todos los años en las playas de la...