Jan 23--Ornate Hawk Eagle

Monday, January 23, 2006
La Casita

La Casita

We must rise half an hour earlier here than at La Mono because of our steep climb to the mist nets on the upper ridge. Thus the new week begins with a 4:30 wake-up call. I don’t mind as I’ve been awake most of the night anyway. 

Our days at La Casita will be spent banding birds from the 20 ridge-line mist nets in the morning and surveying and capturing hummingbirds in the mountaintop pasture in the afternoons. This means that we must climb up to the banding table in the morning, climb down to La Casita for lunch, and then climb up to the banding tables and beyond another 45 minutes to an hour to get to the hummingbird meadow.

I am feeling puny after my restless night so decide to pack myself a lunch and to continue up to the hummingbird meadow after our mist net session to save myself having to climb down and back up from La Casita. The others will meet me up in the pasture around 2 o’clock.

Our mist netting is surprisingly slow. We’ve reports that these nets usually net over 100 birds and keep the banders so busy that they get 10 and 15 birds behind. While we net a  steady number of birds, we do not capture the numbers we’d expected. It is very dry for this time of year and Susan suspects that this is the reason for the dearth of birds. The forest’s fruits and flowers have not bloomed yet. One of the prettiest birds captured on the whole Expedition is caught this morning, however . . . It is a Bay- headed Tanager with yellow, green, and turquoise feathers and a rusty red head.

At noon all climb back down to the Casita for lunch, and I head up to the hummingbird meadow on my own. I really enjoy being by myself with my thoughts and no need to respond or interact with anyone. I walk slowly and examine every interesting thing I come across. Part way up to the pasture one must walk through an old paja toquilla plantation. It is like being inside a tunnel of  leaves and is fun to hike through. The spiky flowers on the plants are covered with small honeybees and I watch them for a while trying to determine if they are of the same species as the banded Italian honeybees I keep. In fact I have been seeing honeybees ever since we entered the forest. There must be a lot for them to forage on that is not evident to my eye.

One hidden flower that Susan says hummingbirds love is the elongated red flower that hides beneath the fushia- tipped leaves of the Genaria plant.  I love this plant with its beautiful leaf tips. It is one of the few plants with matte leaves in the cloud forest. Most of the Cloud Forest plants have shiny, waxy protective leaves. The other day, Carlos explained why many young plants are red or whitish. This because they are low on the forest floor and if red or white do not need to compete for chlorophyll-producing sunlight.

I take photos of these interesting bees, plants, and of a few butterflies, but, of course, these are on the photo card that I erased. I cannot find a photo of the fushia-tipped Genaria on the Web, so hope Carlos or a fellow volunteer comes through with one. [No such luck.]

When I reach the hummingbird pasture, I want to lie down and take a nap, but of course I have forgotten to bring the requisite plastic trash bag. Not to be deterred, I cut two of the youngest, largest, and cleanest banana palm leaves and make myself a “bed” on the slope. I cannot wait to get my boots and socks off my soggy, hot feet. Ahh!

The two banana leaves that I used to nap on

I place my bandana over my face and drift off. I am awakened by the sound of flapping wings. “It must be a vulture,” I think, and drift off again. A little later I am again awakened by the sound of flapping wings. This time I lift the bandana and find myself staring up into the piercing yellow eyes of an Ornate Hawk Eagle in a nearly bare cecropia tree near where I am lying. My heart lurches a little.

Of course I don’t know it’s an Ornate Hawk Eagle at the time. I only know that this bird is huge, has an odd crest of feathers on its black-capped head, a distinct black stripe through its eye, and black stripped underparts. The underside of its tail that I can see is also striped in black. It also has rusty head and neck feathers and big yellow feet. I memorize all these details, and now can’t wait until the group gets to the pasture and I can look up the bird in the bird plates!  When they do come, they are very envious, particularly Evelyng, who has never seen an Ornate Hawk Eagle though she lives in Ecuador.

When Susan and the group arrive at the pasture we get to the business of trapping and banding hummingbirds. Teams of two are positioned at the three hummingbird traps, which are similar to the one pictured below that I pulled from the Internet. When a string is pulled, the net falls, trapping the bird or birds inside. Those doing the trapping then reach inside, grab the bird, put it in a  cloth bag, and take it to the banding station, which in this case, is a tray set up on a tripod. Susan, who wears jewelers-type magnifying goggles to allow her to read and see the tiny bands, bands the birds and takes all their measurements and data while I record these data. 

Both of us must stand, and after two hours of standing in the heat and concentrating so intensely, I am near collapse. My feet are throbbing like native drums. I think I would have killed for a chair and some shade at this point. Several of the other volunteers are chair hungry also and suggest that maybe Earthwatch could transport some simple, lightweight, folding chairs to the meadow and leave them up here for future teams.

Hummingbird band  on penny

I do not remember how many hummingbirds Susan banded that afternoon, but probably 40 or more. Susan wants to run the banding for another half hour, even though it is sifting rain, so I relinquish my spot to Donna who, with Erica, has been feeding the hummingbirds before release. Donna continues to record data while I hike back down to La Casita.

My feet are a mess, very swollen and blistered and I will surely lose the three nails I mentioned earlier. Toughest on the feet is the slippery, muddy steep descents where one’s feet are forced to the front of the shoe or boot. I am limping along slowly when I spot another Chestnut-mandibled Toucan. Then, before I round a bend in the trail, I hear strange noises. I take off my pack, get out my binoculars, and creep toward the noises. Imagine my surprise when I spot two white-fronted capuchin monkeys (the organ grinder’s monkey) high in the trees. I hurry past, thinking of howler monkey behavior. They are excited by my presence and shriek abuse, but rain down only twigs.

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan

Capuchin Monkeys

When I get down the mountain to La Casita, I get in the last shower before we run out of water. Unlike La Mono, there is no river near this site, though the Ecuadorian men disappear for an hour or two and return after bathing in a river. At any rate, we need more water, so Pascual climbs to the ridge where he can get a cell phone connection and calls down to Jose in El Suspiro. Jose makes it up to La Casita the following day in the near dark, his horse’s foal following along as usual. There is great joy as he also brings up the laundry which we had sent down on moving day for the women in El Suspiro to wash. They ask $5 a load for this task and do a really fine job, though they wash the clothes in the river.  I am in desperate need of clean clothes. I am out of underwear and have been wearing my purple nylon shorts to bed for the past three days. This is not good—for those anywhere near me as well—though we are all pretty ripe at this point.

The village women doing our wash in the creek

Donna watches as Alejandro helps unload the drinking water that has been brought up from El Suspiro. Pascual’s son (the young boy) has come up with one of Mauricio’s sons (in camouflage); the horse’s young foal has managed to climb the mountain with its mother also and does so every time she comes up with water or supplies

Note the primitive rough wood, rope, and palm leaf/fiber saddles and rope halters. The saddles are held in place by passing a loop of fabric under the horse’s tail and around its shoulders (insert left). 

“SPI-DAH!” How I wish Donna’s alert had gone out on this spider. It’s a Goliath Bird-eating Spider and is common in Ecuador’s moist cloud forest. Other teams have recorded seeing it, but our team doesn’t, probably because it is unseasonably dry. The beautiful purple one pictured is from another Earthwatch volunteer’s account of his Cloud Forest Expedition.

Goliath Bird-eating Spider

Here is what I found on the Internet about this interesting arachnid:

“Generally recognized as the largest species of spider in the world, the female goliath bird-eater can attain a leg span of over 30cm [11.8 in.], weigh in excess of 200gm [.70 oz.] and have fangs 2.5cm [0.98 in.] long —truly an awesome spider. The general body color is a chocolate brown, though this may vary somewhat depending on locality. The body is covered in fairly short hairs, while those on the legs are much longer. The abdomen has ample irritant or urticating hairs that are readily flicked into the air if the spider is annoyed. 

“Bird-eaters, like other spiders, must shed their skin periodically as they grow. To do this successfully a constant humidity of over 90% musty be maintained during the process [something that is not hard to find in the cloud forest]! If these conditions are not present, the spider cannot extricate itself from the old skin and it will die. “The goliath bird-eater is at home in the hot steamy tropical forests of northern South America. They use their long fangs to excavate burrows, usually at the base of large rainforest trees. The burrow mouth is oval in shape and is lined with a thin layer of silk.

“Despite their name, these spiders do not survive on a diet of birds. In fact most specimens never eat birds, depending more on large insects, lizards and frogs. However, they are certainly large enough to catch and overpower chicks of ground nesting birds if given the opportunity. In captivity they will readily consume young mice without any problem.

“Goliath bird-eaters are a long-lived species, with records of females living for over 18 years. Males and females are similar in size and general appearance. After mating the female may store sperm in special sacs for long periods of time until she produces eggs, which are then fertilized. However, if she sheds her skin before the eggs are produced, all the stored sperm will be lost as the external skin also lines the sperm sacs.”