Six hours until we depart campus for SUNNY Panama!!!

So much to do...so little time!

Countdown to Panama 2012!

In just seven days eleven Marvelwood students, a parent, one representative from Audubon Sharon, a conservation biologist with Connecticut Audubon, Sean Graesser (a former student), and myself will make our first of two trips to Panama this year. Students will keep you posted with respect to our travels and research via this blog whenever we have access to the internet.

Students packing Audubon Sharon shirts for village children.

Students packing clothes in ziplock bags to keep them dry.

Ms. Doss spraying field clothes for kids.

More packing images.

Last year's mural project.

Some of the children at the school in La Zahina.

Ms. K (oops Mrs. Zweig now) putting down the paint brush long enough to do some scientific data collection.

Adventures of a Teenage Field Researcher - Part 2: Camera trapping in Panama and in Kent, CT

Camera trapping is a way to study animals in the wild.  It is a method of being able to take pictures of mammals and birds, especially those that are shy, nocturnal, and/or have large territories.  It is important for researchers to have an idea of what lives in the area, and also have an idea of the number of species.  The camera trap is usually attached to a tree and is triggered by motion.  When the camera detects motion,  during the day or at night with an infrared sensor, a photo it taken.

            Each year in Panama Marvelwood students set-up Reconyx cameras in different habitats (secondary forests, primary forests) throughout Cocobolo Nature Reserve.  We also set up camera trapping stations on the Kent Land Trust Property near Marvelwood School.  To allow researchers from CREA to continue their camera trapping when Marvelwood is back in the states,  we have donated two cameras to stay in Cocobolo. We have caught numbers of species throughout the year.   Our goal is to one day have forty camera traps in use both in Panama and Kent in order to better estimate the populations or animals and study their ranges. 

Camera trapping is not always easy!  In Kent, there is not as much vegetation as there is in the tropics which makes walking though the forest both difficult and dangerous (We have to watch out for those snakes, ants and trees with thorns!).  Also, the hikes in the tropics are much longer and the trails are steeper.  Aside from the adventure of setting up the cameras, the most rewarding aspect of camera trapping is seeing the diversity of wildlife and realizing they just might have been studying you when hiking on the trails!

Here are some of our camera trapping highlights both in Panama and in Kent.

One of the camera traps on a trail

Mike Esposito '11, and Sean Graesser II Alumni 

Putting down Catnip after setting up the camera

Checking our bird net lanes at 2:58 PM

8 Minutes later (3:06 PM) Puma smelling us!  (Sorry about the upside down writing in the picture, we put the camera upside down on the tree!)

Puma hot on our trail! 

Jaguar caught on camera trap on the 4th of July

Jaguar caught on July 14th a good sign knowing Jaguar's are in the reserve 

Ocelot passing by a camera trap 

A very nice picture of a Puma 

Agouti caught on the camera

Female Greater Curassow

Male Greater Curassow

Peccary; this is a good sign and a good food source for Jaguars 

A big piggy having an early morning snack at 5:38 AM

Kent, Connecticut camera trap images

White-Tailed Deer 

White-Tailed Deer with fawn

Eastern Coyote

Manakins captured during MoSI Banding (2011) and informal banding (2008-2010)



Golden-collared Manakin (male) and (Female)

Manacus vitellinus

Status: common on pacific slope from western Panama province eastward

Breeding resident

Caught in 2011

            

Blue-crowned Manakin (Male) and (Female) 

Pipra coronata

Status: Common

Breeding Resident

Caught in 2010

Red-capped Manakin

Pipra mentalis

Status: Common

Breeding Resident

caught in 2010

Woodcreepers captured during MoSI Banding (2011) and informal banding (2008-2010)

Wedge-Billed Woodcreeper

Glyphorynchus spirurus

Status: fairly common eastern Panama Province eastward

Breeding Resident

Caught in 2011

Northern barred-Woodcreeper

Dendrocolaptes sanctithomae

Status: Uncommon in lowlands and rare in foothills

Breeding Resident

Caught in 2010

Community Mural

Anarelys and Isbeth working on the mural

Joseph painting his flower for the mural 

Ms. K painting her Poison Dart Frog for the mural 

Ms. K taking a pose for the camera 

Katie painting the Harpy Eagle Panama's national bird

Ms. K setting up on the first day of the mural

Diana, Kerry, Katie, Lucas and Ms. K working on the mural

Carlitos working on the mural 

Diana painting with Angela 

In La Zahina painting the community mural

Young Painters 

                                               

Juan working on the mural

Thomas, Connor, Nicole, and kids from La Zahina 

Painting on the side of the school house cafeteria

The whole group in La Zahina with finished mural

The mural hanging up at the school house in La Zahina 

The whole group in La Zahina