Well, apologies. Here I am, over a week since that last post, with too many things to say and not enough time to say them.
Rainy season has begun.
That fact is currently dragging a lot of people with weather-picky research organisms down. I've been largely lucky with my owls: the thought is that I've been able to identify six breeding pairs and one juvenile, more than anyone has really studied previously. And as of my first habitat characterization yesterday, the nest hunt is on.
Updates.
The main events since last post:
The completion of our second Tropical Diversity practical: a four-hour deal involving such gems as cotton balls glued to the underside of a modified heliconia leaf (for a "field identification" of Ectophylla alba), and quetzal playback calls (they make one noise that makes it sound like they're on a rollercoaster.) I don't know at what other point in my life I'll be able to be so belligerently playful with my peers during a test---sleep deprivation can be magical. I'll mention once again how thankful I am that everybody here is as crazy-silly as I am. Biologist power.
And as thrill-seeking, I suppose.
Vera and Kyra!
Birthday girl Bailey and Jeff!
I can't believe I only have a month left with all these wonderful people. The one thing I have to say I dislike about being nocturnal is that I don't get to hang out with the group as much during the day at the local spots: The Common Cup, the Santa Elena Pension and community center next to TacoTaco, the lower lab at the station. Also, the University of California program, the EAP students, have arrived at the station! It's been great getting to bond over Marin and Claremont and California things with them at the bars on weekends. Fun to figure out mutual friends.
The group!
One thing I can say: I do get around town and talk to enough people to have a solid group of Costa Rican friends. People in Monteverde know me as the owl girl (what more could I really want from life)--which led to a friend from the Common Cup walking to my homestay house a few nights back to inquire as to whether or not I knew much about owl care. Jesus, the local vet, had an owl that my friend had found in the street one morning: blind, probably hit by a car, and a baby. He wasn't taking food.
...until I went to the Serpentario, a snake and lizard zoo in the area, begged them for a squirmy white mouse, and took it over with owl calls, a towel around my hand, and tweezers. I had to kill, skin, and cut the mouse in thirds, but he finally took it, and my owl-girl reputation was set in stone.
Such a hard decision to make, when an owl is injured this badly. He's got a bum leg, and will need a flight cage if he's to learn how to fly and feed himself. The vet was hoping I'd care for him...but I have a month, and school, and I don't know how ethical it is to keep him, anyway. But bwuhhhh so sadly adorable. I gave my two cents about what I'd learned of owl and raptor care from the Oakland Zoo and the Bird rescue center and left him with Jesus.
To be known in Monteverde. What an honor. What a place to live.
I really don't know how I can ever leave this life. I love the hours of walking and the fresh food: the fact that a 2mil colones bill has a shark on it and salsa on Saturday nights at La Taverna. Coming up tomorrow we have lecture, Spanish cooking class, and a dinner at Alan's house with a guitar sing-along after---we'll see if I can make it out for a night with owls afterward. Pura vida, indeed.
Write soon, now that my computer is back up and running. The fact that it was out probably contributed to the blogging drought. So.
Cheers.
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