One week on the Job

In my renewed attempt to keep everyone updated, I thought I would post again since I've completed my first full week on the job.

Thus far it has been hot, humid, and sunny, which is not too surprising considering our location. I've been handing the heat fairly well (even turning the fan off some nights!) although steep climbs through the jungle can be fairly epic depending on the time of day.

Although I am still quite new at this, the job is starting to make a bit of sense; we have two birds who still have radio-transmitters, and both birds need to be seen each day. Depending on where the birds are, this can either be really straightforward, or needlessly complecicated. The two birds have been pretty cooperative, although for a moment we thought the battery had died in one. Turns out she was hiding behind a rock off the edge of  a cliff. Silly birds.

The other main portion of the job is nest searching - this is conducted in predetermined territories and seems a bit hit or miss. Generally we hang out around old nest sites, as birds will often re-nest nearby, sometimes using materials from old nests. Other times we wander slowly through the jungle, trying to annoy nesting pairs into giving up their location. The nesting season is winding down, but Mike and I managed to find an active nest our very first afternoon nest searching on our own! We also (potentially) found an incubating nest yesterday, although that remains to be confirmed. That brings our total number of nests up to four, plenty to keep us busy until we learn the ropes.

Free time has been spent exploring the remaining bits of the island, snorkeling, reading (a lot), perusing the grocery stores, and getting a garden started. Not sure how to grow things in the tropics, but we have a lot of seeds started and about 25 cabbage seedlings - hopefully some other stuff will sprout soon. If not I will get tired of cabbage quickly. More photos to come - stay tuned!