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Showing posts from March, 2011

Bats of Bosque del Cabo

Our first night here we saw bats (not sure of the species) flying around at dusk right outside the back of our bungalow, lots of them! And they would fly very near us! What an experience!

bats outside Lapa at dusk
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Some nighttime views from our bungalow's observation deck...

Off to bed...

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At dawn, you could sit out on the observation deck and observe the bats finding their way back home. What an early morning treat!

bats outside Lapa at dawn
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Bosque del Cabo has (that I currently know of):
White-Lined Sac-Winged Bats (Saccopteryx bilineata/leptura) in a cave on the Pacific beach (which I learned after our trip)Spix's Disk-Winged Bats (Thyroptera tricolor) - observed in rolled heliconia leavesJamaican Fruit-Eating Bats (Artibeus jamaicensis) - observed pollinating the Guapinol or Stinky Toe TreeTent-Making Bats (Uroderma bilobatum- note: several bat species roost under leaf tents, including the Caribbean or Honduran White Bat (Ectophylla alba) - that look like pow…

Primary Forest Tour at Bosque del Cabo

December 31, 2009
The Primary Forest Tour is about a 4 hour long hike through primary rainforest of Bosque del Cabo's grounds. Again, this tour completely brought to life what I'd been reading in Tropical Nature.
Philip Davison was once again our tour guide. I thought I'd be smart and snap photos of everything, that would then jog my memory of the stories and interesting tidbits that Philip provided - because there were so many! What I ended up with was a lot of interesting photos that unfortunately do not jog my memory because I waited so long to write about them! I apologize in advance for the lack of information. Nonetheless...
Spix's Disc-winged bats (Thyroptera tricolor) use the furled leaves of the heliconia to roost. They have been observed at Bosque, but we were not that fortunate.
Whenever you see cecropia trees, take a good look - with binoculars if you can. This is where you're likely to find sloths (who eat the leaves and buds) and squirre…

The Lowland Tropical Rainforest

Part of what goes into making a forest a tropical rainforest is the climate, which is very warm and very humid but not necessarily very hot. In the tropics, daylengths are more-or-less the same throughout the year, so there are no opportunities for heat to build up or be lost; therefore, you have more-or-less consistent temperatures throughout the year. What differs throughout the year is the rainfall: there is a marked rainy and dry season. Tropical rainforests generally receive at least 80 inches of rain per year.
So what is it that is so appealing about the warm and humid tropical rainforest?

For me, there's something about the ecologic complexity, the incredible biodiversity, the interdependency of the plants and animals, and the quietly dynamic personality of the rainforest. And then there's the enveloping exoticness, otherworldliness, and the captivating lushness that closes you off from the rest of the world.

This "lushness" however is somewhat deceiving. As I …

Morning Coffee at Bosque del Cabo

After breathing in the sunrise, we'd take a short walk to the restaurant for coffee...

 it's bananas!
past the pool and bar area 
hairy heliconia
this spider's making darn sure she's having lunch today! 
the artist
the restaurant and reception
this bird was perched here every morning 
inside the restaurant and reception area
library/meeting area upstairs 
Then we'd either drink the coffee here, take it back to the bungalow, or take it with us while exploring the grounds around the restaurant...

What I wanted to do was see the things that Philip pointed out to us during the Sunset Tour. It was actually quite hard to find some of these things in daylight.

found the wasp nest

Then I photographed various palms.

I believe these are the ones the tent-making bats use

Not sure if these are the same species, but these palms (above and below) remind me of the Traveler's tree of Madagascar in which the sucker-footed bat roosts.

I think this is a termite nest
the path to our Lapa bungal…