May '10 When I travelled to the project earlier this month, I was greeted with a great deal of excitement over a recent discovery near the property--an extremely rare and endangered nocturnal bird known as the great potoo was found sitting high in the top of a dead tree with its chick. A member of the nightjar family of birds, great potoos are giants of the group--roughly the size of a barred owl. Their feathers blend perfectly with tree bark, making the birds extremely hard to spot while inactive during the day. At night they hunt large flying insects, scooping them up with a wide mouth characteristic of this specialized group of birds. They require undisturbed rainforest to thrive, and are one of the first species to disappear when trees are cut. Knowing that these birds are living and reproducing on and near the project property is wonderful news and a compelling reason to hopefully expand our property holding in this very special area in the future. Work continues on the guest cabin--the next task is to install rain gutters and start the process of wiring the building. During my visit, another group of students from the Texas Christian University field station visited the project, and Alex accompanied them to visit the great green macaw almendro nesting tree they recently purchased for protection. We continue to enjoy the enthusiastic help of new volunteers--see the Volunteers and Supporters page for their names. This project would not be where it is today without this generous support of people's time, energy and donations! The raccoon has been released, bringing our number of rehabilitating animals down to only four at the moment. We do not want to get lulled into thinking that we will not need the large flight cage however. It is still a priority for us, and its completion depends largely on our funding situation; materials will cost approximately U.S. $3,000 with building labor provided by ourselves and volunteers that may be with us at that point. The tree plantation is doing great--some of the trees are close to seven meters tall now and some will be flowering for the first time in the next year or so, providing food for a variety of birds, mammals and insects . The troupe of white-faced monkeys, one of three monkey species found on the property, has been gradually moving closer to the buildings, indicating they are becoming more comfortable with our presence. My daughter Mariana and friend Jake accompanied me on this trip, and much to their delight, we were able to spot both white-faced and howler monkeys during one afternoon hike on the property, along with the "usual" amazing number of other species. More news to come! Pura vida, Kevin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March '10 Last month we received an injured aracari that, we are happy to report, recovered much more quickly than expected and has been released. Two more confiscated red-lored Amazon parrots have been brought to us, as well as another spectacled owl with a broken wing. As mentioned earlier, after the Semana Santa holiday, we expect to receive more birds and other animals that are illegally collected by people on vacation. This influx could put us at the highest number of animals under care here so far. Some fabulous news from Puerto Viejo--an active great green macaw nest has been found within the city limits! It has been several decades since this has happened; another positive sign that local conservation efforts are beginning to pay off. Pura vida, Kevin |





