WK 11- CANO PALMA

It's almost time to go home.  Two more weeks and I will be on a plane  back to Canada.  It has been a very long journey, an unforgettable one...being away from home doing studies for a whole year and in several places around the world has been no less than incredible...but I'll give you my thoughts on that a bit later....for now...im still here....two more weeks.

Right now, I am sitting in a kayak on Cano Palma canal...I can hear the waves in the ocean across the vegetation to my left...I can see spider monkeys jumping in the trees to my right, I can hear birds, crickets and howlers...this is so wild!! :D

The canal water seems a bit dirty today, I don't know why, it's a little unusual, but it is soooo peaceful to be floating on it, to be just taken by the soft current, and to be surrounded by nature...on my own, with just a camera, pen and paper.

Throughout the last week, we've had a new group of students at the biological station.  This is the second large group of volunteers we've had since I have been here working for the marine turtle monitoring project  with COTERC.  This particular group of students comes from McMaster University in Canada. They are taking a very interesting course on conservation photography.  Their professor is here with them and gives them several assignments  to complete everyday.  It is very cool to see them around the station, so enthusiastic about their work, their art.  They've all come with their photography equipment and they take pictures of everything in sight, from plants and crawling insects, monkeys and caymans to sunrise and sunset.

It is now down to Lauren and I now, guiding the volunteers on turtle walks.  These students have come with us and helped us with the work...looking for nests, for hatching babies, and laying mother turtles...they help us to measure, to identify, to locate, and record all information.  Unfortunately for them though, we are now in change of season; baby turtles haven't hatched lately, and during the night, taking pictures on the protected beach is illegal, so getting a picture of mother turtle is just impossible.  Turtle work aside though, the students have seen and learned a lot that they did not know before...and it makes me very glad to have contributed to that.

I love it here at Cano Palma.  I love the tranquility of the place and the simple life...not worrying about fashion or makeup at all...it's very refreshing.  I love the nature and all the animals around me.  Even though at this point, having people in and out  of the station all the time starts to get on my nerves a little sometimes, I know that I will miss it so much and I know there isn't an experience quite like it....I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to do it...to do something good for the world...to give a little, contritute.....by learning, teaching, and saving the lives of many little turtles and mothers of future turtle generations.

I've had the priviledge to be part of something very big...a research study..working to conserve and protect endangered marine turtle species.  I just hope that at least one of the hundreds of little hatchlings that I have helped save, make it to adulthood and start their own generations...they'll have to get to their 30's to have these babies, since that's the time of sexual maturity for these special creatures.

I'm glad to be a part of this....it makes me very happy.

EVEN MORE NEIGHBOURS AT CANO PALMA



BIRD BANDING- CANO PALMA BIOLOGICAL STATION


To do bird banding and identifying, one needs to be up by 5am and the job ends at noon. The day starts by setting up several trap nets around the biological station. We need to do this as fast as possible, since birds start coming out very early.

I have done this work only a few times, with Charlotte, the lead, and some volunteers. I will be doing a couple more times before I leave the station, as I really enjoy it. It is great to learn about each and every bird we catch, to identify it, and then let it go free. We get record of each bird's sex, age, species, craneum and wing size, the status of its plummage, etc.

The job does not entail only the recording of all this information, but also lets you learn all the birds calls and songs, since we also walk the area quietly and carefully a few times during the shift, watching and listening for different species of birds.

I hope that later on, I will be able to apply and improve all the basic skills I have learned working with the birds, and be able to do more of it in the field. Tropical birds are awesome and so beautiful. I would like to try birding back home in Canada in order to compare and get some knowledge of our own little amazing creatures.