News That Stays News

Close to home June 17, 2018

You may have noticed that a lot of the stuff I’m mentioning is close to where I’m working and sleeping, rather than off in distant parts of the forest. This is because the project I’m currently working on, while really cool, has an even higher lab-to-field time allotment than my dissertation research. I can collect enough insects in a couple of hours to keep me busy in the lab for a couple of days. And since the plants I’m collecting insects from are really common, I decided I might as well start with the ones that are nearby, at least until I get to the point where I’m targeting particular species rather than just grabbing everything because it’s all new.

While this means I’m unlikely to see a cat or anything else really dramatic, I’m still seeing cool stuff. It just tends to be small (like the leafcutter ants) or so fast I don’t get a chance for photos. This morning, as I was crossing the suspension bridge from the labs to the dining hall, a clueless and possibly young broad-billed motmot* stayed sitting on the handrail with an insect in its beak until I was within a couple of feet. What was really amazing is that I was walking and talking with someone else, until we got so close that I noticed it. If this is a typical example of its survival instincts, I suspect it may soon receive a Darwin Award.

*I couldn’t get a photo of this one, but broad-billed motmots are beautiful. They have rusty orange heads that fade into olive green bodies and turquoise tails, with a little black bandit mask around their eyes. They really like the bridge and the riverbank, and since my cabin is close to both, I’m sometimes woken by choirs of motmots before dawn. But they’re much easier to sleep through than howler monkeys, so I’m appropriately grateful for them.