Category Archives: Gallery

Farewell Rio WTF

My first post from Costa Rica is a farewell to the first leg of my trip.  This morning, at 4:30 AM, Allison and Erin climbed into a taxi for the airport, and so ended our three week excursion to the Osa and premontane rain-forest.  I find it fitting then to post a picture of the four of us posing atop the first cascade of several in a river we dubbed Rio WTF.  The river’s original name (Koyok) was immediately revoked when we realized that we would need to climb two waterfalls and a mountain to collect leaf samples from it (Mike and I were able to do it in under 10 sec with minor injuries).  If you’re not aware of what the new name’s acronym stands for, google it.

In under 12 seconds, I climbed the waterfall and posed for the timed photograph.
In under 12 seconds, I climbed the waterfall and posed for the timed photograph.

Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve

I will be staying in a field station at the Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve outside of San Ramon, Costa Rica for nearly two weeks.  There are several activities planned for our stay here, including (1) research on litter transport and retention in streams and (2) finding cool amphibians and reptiles.  The pictures posted here were taken within the field station.  The entrance is shown on the left, and a view of some clouds rolling through the rain forest from the ‘gallery’ is on the right.cloud-forest-1-3-2008-9-28-37-amalberto-m-brenes-biological-reserve-1-3-2008-1-44-11-pm

Monstrego

monstrego-9-25-2008-10-31-30Monstrego, my male red ear slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), comes up to breath in his 55-g tank.   Monstrego and Barzini are currently in the same tank, and Monstrego is constantly courting Barzini, although I haven’t seen him successfully breed this year.  Barzini has laid three clutches that I’m aware of, none of which  had any hatchlings emerge.  Luckily though, these turtles can live upwards of 30 years if well cared for, and both of mine are about six.  I’ll get a hatchling one of these times…

Witch-hazel frame

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This may not be the best use of a natural frame for a photograph, but I’ve seen several natural frames in photographs across the Internet and think it’s a cool technique. Last fall, I took this picture near ‘deep pool 3’ at Jennings Woods (many of the stream habitats are designated for research purposes).