Long time no post

Ok so its been a long time since I posted, but Ive been busy.

Started my experiment this week. Basically the idea is to test the ants aggression response to moving enemies, versus enemies that are hiding (potentially by their immobile behavior). So I have been walking aroud with a cooler, freezing ants and spiders to make them immoblie and then putting them to the test on the acacia trees. I feel like I am set up gladiator matches. I found a formidable opponent to the acacia ant with my "palm ants" (thats what I call them now, before I know what species they are. They are a arboral ant common on the research plot so they are my unvoluntary volunteers.

Other than that, have seen some cool things this past weeks (two weeks). Like Crocidiles, Glasswing butterflys and the Sunbittern, which is this colorful heron type bird that lives near forest streams. You should have seen how excited Dr. Styrsky was to see it haha.


And Jaguarundis! Now thats exciting! you can check out more about them at http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/Jaguarundi.html

I finished reading The Hobbit It good but not what I expected. I have not read the lord of the rings, but I guess the author is so hyped that I expected an amazing book. Guess ill have move on the the series.

I also got through Mere Christianity. I like the book and the way its based on C.S Lewis radio broadcasts, I dont agree with maybe about half the things the book has to say, but it was a good read and informative.

So now I am moved on to The Constant Princess, a Phillipa Gregory book, of whom I read many. So its typical but good, very detailed historical fiction about Queen Katherine of England (originally from spain) who was Henry VIII's first wife. So its mostly about marriage...having sons... and not getting executed by the king, which is always intriguing.

Not sure whats on deck, I have read 7 or 8 books by now, I've lost count.

Gotta run, off to see Harry Potter in a bit!

Love,

Loriann

Rain

Its been raining for the past two days...so no field work for us. Which is both good and bad. The good is there is no ant stinging involved in the daily plans. The bad is that there is not much to do around here, especially when its raining.

I finished reading one flew over the cuckoos nest and it was okay. Good book, but crazy old men are only interesting to a point. But at least now I know what the hubub in my 1960s class was all about. I dont feel so ignorant now.

Other than that me and Kaitlen went up to the canopy tower this past weekend. Tried to catch the sunset, but it was cloudy....(surprise).

Heres a quick bird update (these are not my photos).

Ringed Kingfisher

Slaty Tailed Trogon

Thats all I got for the birds right now. I want to post more, but Im on the Mac again and its proving tricky.

So just trying to keep myself entertained in the rain........Guess ill go running later if it calms down.
Love,
LA

Experiment Update

We finished exterminating ants today!! yay!! Hopefully no more 20 sting days for the rest of the summer....its kinda painful. No rain no storm could stop us. Our theme song was "Let the bodies hit the floor" by Drowning Pool. There were also many fly casualities because they wouldnt leave me alone. So I made them leave me alone.

Anyways 15 plants ant free using pesticide and syringes. We look like a bunch of drugges in the forest.

So other than that....just looking forward to the weekend so I can sleep in a little bit....might go home and make myself some pancakes today. Craving striaght up American food really bad....someone send me some steak fries!

Love,

LA

A walk to the computer lab...

As you know, I have a pretty nice walk to the computer lab when I decide grace the world with my presence. It usually takes 15-20mins depending on how fast I walk but I thought I'd share with you whats its like :)

First I walk down the street from the house.... and catch glimpses of birds like the crimson backed tanager (left, my pic for once).

So after that I walk past the infamous Gamboa Resort.

Then after a little way I get to the actually Gamboa townsend (looks like rain!) and I make another left.

Walk up the hill....

And reach "183" the Smithsonian building :).

Thats it! A day in the life of trying to communicate with the outside world from Gamboa, Panama!

Love,

LA

Just had an exciting find on the way to the computer lab.....me and kaitlen saw a blue crowned mot -mot......how sweet is this!!! (not my picture btw....thanks wikipedia!)


But we've also had some other awesome bird encounters.... ill try to post more pics later but I dont really know how to use this Mac. Sigh.

Other than that, we also saw an ant-eater today! So it was pretty good day today.

Weekend in Panama

So, when we are not jungle exploring (aka the weekend).....




We went to a restuarant on the causeway out to the islands in Panama Bay out side of panama city. Awesome view, and the sea breeze was really nice. Panamaians like to use the causeway for biking, walking, running, roller blading etc. There are also a lot of fancy fancy hotels. Mom would love this.










Also we came across an ad for some sort of contest about democracy, plastered with Obama's face. Had to take the pic at an angle because it was night so there was glare. Kinda humerous...... There is $200,000 worth of prizes and since the money is worth the same as American dollars, maybe I should enter? Probably have to write in spanish though...darn.















Anyways I've had a relaxing sunday morning, made myself breakfast of champions. Aunt J's pancakes (done with no spatula mind you) with bananas. :) And Im sure ill spend the rest of the day reading.....or wandering around town looking at birds. I finished New Moon, its mostly ridiculous. Romance gets kind of boring to me after a while.....lovey dovey stuff is not too fun to read at least for me. So now I have started The Bean Trees. It's pretty good. So far the best line is "Something about Oklahoma makes you feel like there is no more hope." (or along those lines). It made me giggle....so true. I have also been reading tidbits of Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis. Its interesting, but kinda hard to follow. Reminds me of lit class in high school. yikes. And of course Ive been moving along on in the GRE study book. Did I ever say how much I hate word problems? and the vocabulary is out of control! sigh. ETS rules the American education system...and its all for money.

Dora the Explorer

This is me for the past two days......

We've spent time in new parts of the forest looking for more acacias. Had to trek through some parts dora the explorer style. It was slightly tricky (think rivers and revenes, vines and thorny palm trees.

But thanks to all the exploring we ran into a few neat things. Yesterday we happend upon a rufous mot mot nest. This a picutre of the rufous mot mot during the bird netting that I got to hang out for last years. Anyways, they nest in the side of banks in deep wholes so when we flashed our light down it, there were two orange puff ball baby mot mots back there. They were so cute!

Some other things we came across include..... jungle crab!!!

Panimanian Army training!

Sweet Butterfly!

Hope you have enjoyed the randomness of my jungle exploring. Get excited for more adventure!

Love, LA

Hey yall

Okay so been here about four days and I am already sweating my butt off! The humidity is slightly out of control lol.

Anyways, Monday was a shopping day in the good old El Rey (The King--24 hour grocery store). I braved the deli and the bakery and got some empandadas!! Yum!

My limited spanish skills hasnt gotten us too far yet. Our house keeping lady keeps trying to tell me stuff but I only catch about a 3rd of what she says.... I guess thats an improvement over last year when I caught nothing. So far me and Katlien have the apartment to ourselves but someone else will be moving in July. I think she is supposed be from Columbia?


We are in the same apartment this year, but lucky us the bathroom and refridgerator work this time. Talk about a fustrating time. Hopefully everything will stay in good order.


Some packages with our field equiptment hadnt come in till today, so yesterday was a really chill day of reading, going to the pool and watching a movie on my laptop.



Today we went out to the study plot (its called "Limbo) and its located on pipeline road. I took some pictures today but I havent uploaded them yet but I will soon. We basically just hiked around for a few hours so that Kaitlen could get oriented. Found lots of my ant and spider friends, I'm exited to get back to work on the project.

Anyways, on our way out of the forest, we ran into (well, literrally walked into) an army ant swarm. They are really cool because many certain species of birds follow the army ants around and pick off the insects that are trying to flee from the ants (the ants will attack anything in their paths---insects, lizards etc.) But since the army ant swarm was essentially on the road we got some good looks at the Ocellated Ant Bird. Its not rare or anything, but it is pretty neat if you look at it through binoculars. This is not my picture, because Im not that cool but I thought I'd share a glimpse of what Im talking about.

We also came across toucans and the collard acarcari today :), which are some of my favorites.

Crazy Creature isnt it?

Thats all I got for now folks!

Miss you all!

Love,
Loriann