On September 5th we found a swallow-tail butterfly which looked different than our common Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresponthes). After taking photographs and looking in our field guide we determined that it was the Androgeus Swallowtail (Papilio androgeus), which much to our surprise, is known in Costa Rica only from the Pacific slope! Based on the literature, our sighting would be the first for the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica.
The forest canopy holds many secrets, kept safe by the towering heights of old-growth trees. It is only when a branch or tree falls to the forest floor that we really get a chance of exploring the vast flora of the forest canopy. Such is the case of this tiny orchid of the genus Macroclinium. Its flowers are only a quarter inch, and its leaves are not more than two inches long, but it lives on the small twigs in the highest parts of the canopy in order to get more sunlight and grow quickly.
- Ernesto Carman
Thanks to Ela Villanueva for taking a photo of this beauty:
We are very excited to welcome everyone to the first Birding and Nature Festival – Costa Rica.
Take a look at the next three full days of activities:
DAY 1 - Friday August 31st 16:00 – Nature walk 18:00 – “Dining with Owls” 19:00 – Night walk at Las Brisas Reserve with Ernesto M. Carman and Donald Jiménez Chávez. Overnight at Maquengue Falls Hotel.DAY 2 – Saturday September 1st
05:15 – Birding with coffee. 08:30 – Breakfast at Maquengue Falls Hotel. 09:00 – Keynote: “Birds and floral diversity: before and after” by Julio E. Sánchez. 10:00 – Nature walk at Las Brisas Reserve led by Julio E. Sánchez. 12:00 – Lunch at Maquengue Falls Hotel. 13:15 – Keynote “Herpetofauna of the central Caribbean region of Costa Rica,” by Brian Kubicki. 14:30 – Nature walk. 17:00 – Lecture “Coordination for the IV Cerulean Warbler Count, and results from 2011″ by Ernesto M. Carman and Juan Diego Vargas. 18:00 – Dinner at Maquengue Falls Hotel. 19:30 – Night walk at Las Brisas Reserve led by Brian Kubicki. Overnight at Maquengue Falls Hotel.DAY 3 – Sunday September 2nd
05:00-07:00 – Breakfast at Maquengue Falls Hotel and departure in groups for the IV Cerulean Warbler Count. 07:30 – Count / Bio-documentation of the Cerulean Warbler and other migratory birds in Las Brisas Reserve 13:00 – Lunch at Hotel Maquengue. 14:00 – Raffle prizes among participants. For more details about the festival visit the website: http://www.fancr.org.Tomorrow starts the Birding and Nature Festival (Costa Rica) during which the IV Cerulean Warbler Count will take place. For the next days we will focus on bringing you highlights from the event.
We will start with comments from Ernesto Carman co-founder of the “Conservación Reinita Cerúlea – Costa Rica” (Cerulean Warbler Conservation-CR).
“Late August and early September are a special time of year at Las
Brisas: this is when Cerulean Warblers are found using the Reserve as
a stopover site during fall migration! Our research shows that Las
Brisas is probably the most important stopover site for this species
in Costa Rica. This season we saw the first Cerulean Warbler on
August 18, and on September 02, we will be hosting the Fourth Annual
Cerulean Warbler Count.”
Earlier this year our team and friends made a trip to Turrialba Volcano which is about two hours by car from Las Brisas Reserve. We were eager to see for ourselves the transformation that the recent volcanic activity has done to the surrounding areas after many years of just being considered a dormant volcano.
Who went? Erick Berlin, Donald Jiménez, Jairo Jiménez, Jim Vanas and David Young.
Where we stayed? Volcán Turrialba Lodge
What birds we saw? Check our Bird List. Special thanks to Jairo.
And as always Donald has some beautiful photos for everyone to enjoy!
To see live footage of the Volcano head to this OVSICORI-UNA site.
We were happy to have Dr. Dmitri Maslov from the Biology Department of the University of California – Riverside at Las Brisas Reserve. He came to the reserve for a few nights to continue his molecular and genetic work on parasites of the insect family of Hemiptera as part of his research time in Costa Rica.
Here are a few snapshots:
This month we were visited by Michael and Sharon Williams from IT’S A WILDLIFE – Nature and Wildlife Photography. During their stay at C.R.A.R.C (The Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center) owner and amphibian expert Brian Kubicki suggested Las Brisas Reserve for an opportunity to photograph Isthmohyla lancasteri. We look forward to seeing the photos!
On May 06, 2012, we made an interesting discovery at Las Brisas. Ernesto Carman, Erick Berlin and Ela Villanueva noticed a butterfly flitting about rapidly in the understory, posing for only seconds at a time on the leaves of certain Calatheas. It was a species they had never seen before. Ernesto was able to get a couple record photographs, but the insect’s behavior did not allow for better ones. All we knew was that it was a Skipper (Hesperiidae), so we sent the photos to our friend Ichiro Nakamura who has studied butterflies at Las Brisas, for a more precise identification. Several days later Ichiro had news for us: apparently this butterfly was the Chagres Skipper (Vettius chagres), and if so, it would be the very first time this species was found in Costa Rica.
These are the first photographs testing the new camera lens. By Donald Jimenez.
Two weeks ago we decided to spread some bananas along a couple of trails in the reserve where we placed two cameras for 5 days, see below who took the “banana trails” and couldn’t resist.
