Belize it! Day 3 at La Milpa

Joni recording plant transect data

Katie and Emil measuring a bird's wing length

Osiris, Ryan and Emil photographing bird

The class during La Milpa site orientation

Dr. Wright's lecture on experimental design


Dr. Wright checking on Katie and Ryan's bird extraction from mist net


Dr. Wright and staff leading a morning hike to see study sites

Mid-day meal at La Milpa outdoor dining room

Plant transect group near the Mahogany trail

Dr. Wright and the class are doing great! The students (and guides Emil and Kimo) are working very hard on the Tropical Field Ecology projects. One group has been capturing birds in the mist nets for a biodiversity study. A second is drawing a blood samples from these birds and capturing mosquitos to test for avaian malaria. The third group is running plant transects to measure insect herbivory. These students are amazing and the 2 Belizean students are fitting right in. We are all big fans of the hot water showers, nice food and hammocks here at the beautiful La Milpa site. A big thanks to Vladamir, Jorge and the rest of the staff at Programme for Belize.

Here are some messages from this morning:

LISBETH: Hi Everybody. I’m Lisbeth Perez. I am from San Jose Succotz village and I attend Galen University here in Belize. I am enjoying being with the students of New Mexico State University. It is my first time being outside home doing field work but I am enjoying it a lot. I am working with the group of plants and how plants are damaged with insects in Belize. We have been working so hard out and in the bush. We are measuring the outer part and today we are measuring the inner part of the forest. In my team, we are Estrella, Vicki, Joni, Leilani and myself.

KIMO: Good morning, this is Kimo Jolly. I'm the coordinator of the Belize Field School here in Belize. The NMSU students - they are excellent – they are great! I'm with the plant group - we are running a couple plant transacts to compare edges with interior forest ecosystem - comparing insect predation of forest edges and the interior.

COREY: Hello from the jungle, this is Corey Jefferson. I am part of the malaria group. In conjunction with the bird group, we are mist netting birds and attempting to trap mosquitoes. From the birds we are obtaining blood for thin smear preparation; from the mosquitoes we will obtain mid-guts. The purpose is to determine the prevalence of avian malaria parasites infecting Belizean Neoaves and Culex mosquitoes, the major avian malaria vector. Aside from the project, Belize is amazing. A five minute walk from the place we’re staying we can find howler monkeys. Reagan and Blair, I miss you monkeys. I can’t wait to show you this place.

Corey blogging after breakfast

La Milpa, Day 2

Rachel taking notes at orientation

Kelsi and Vladamir hiking 'medicinal trail'

Kimo and Vladamir having a logistics pow-wow

Daniel Velazquez creating a video diary of the course

Emil Gamez, our star guide. (You may have seen him on Discovery, History or Travel channels 'for real!")


La Milpa dorms (with hot water showers, ahhhh)

Cassidi viewing Black Howler Monkeys

Here are a few messages from students about their first 2 days in Belize...

RACHEL: Well folks, we’ve made it… you betta belize it.

Yesterday we arrived in the airport of Belize where we successfully made it through the greeting checkpoint and the customs counter. We were then greeted by Kimo, Kristi, Emil and Daniel and we packed our bags, got into a lovely air conditioned bus-esque vehicle and rode our way to Orange Walk (1.5 hours). We stopped in Orange Walk to get gas and purchase a last minute chocolate bar or two. We then continued on our voyage to the La Milpa Field Station (1.5 hours). Vladimir found us and much to our relief let us go unpack our bags into our rooms and then eat! The dormitories are rooms with two bunk beds and a loft. We had a brief introduction to the camp, ate, and then went to bed.

At the ripe hour of 5:45am we all arose to go on a bird walk. We observed an Oscillated Turkey, Keel Bill Toucan, White-Collared Sead-Eater, Roadside Hawk, Red-Headed Turkey Vultures, many types of hummingbirds, all the while hearing a howling in the distance… the Black Howler Monkeys. Much to our enjoyment we got to venture in their direction. We saw 3 adult Howlers and one of them was carrying the baby. It was an amazing sight to see and we’ll try to post pictures for you all soon!!
After our bird walk we were given a delicious breakfast of eggs, cheese, tortas, a slice of salami and fresh fruit. The condiment of choice here in Belize is Marie Sharp’s Hot Habanero Pepper Sauce. It’s addicting and delicious!

Our next adventure of the day was touring the local hiking trails that introduced our group to three types of forest so that our special project groups could decide where they wanted to conduct their study. Prior to embarking into the forests Vladimir told us a bit about the program here, Programme for Belize. It is a non-profit organization, has been working in this area for 22 years, and hosts over 460,000 acres of protected land. The hikes we went on were brief introductions to the Cohune Forest, the Medicinal Trail (which is a young forest that then segways into an older forest), and the Bajo Forest (which has a 4-6 foot layer of clay beneath the surface). All three forests provided us with an excellent taste of what the area was like. We transitioned from our hikes into a lecture about our experiments, ate lunch and then began our projects!!

The groups are conducting field experiments that include mist netting birds, sampling avian blood for the presence of malaria as well as checking mosquitoes for malaria as well, and assessing insect herbivore damage. All groups found their sites and hit the ground running.

The bird groups set up mist nets and caught an astounding amount of two birds, Greenish Elania and the Stub-Tailed Spay Bill… but there is much promise for the 4am mist netting tomorrow! The plant group set up their line transects and started sampling plant damage along the outer edge of the forest.

After a LONG day of work, this group ate some delicious food for dinner and joined a guide for a night tour of one of the trials. The night trail allowed us to hear the wildlife in the forests and see some of the bioluminescent plants in the area.
All in all, we’re having an amazing time. Very limited bug bites to date. Going to be out in the field tomorrow… keep you’re fingers crossed we catch lots and lots of birds!!!

SHOUT OUTS:

Estrella “Star” Yglecias: Hi mom, dad, cristal and Rayne..I miss you guys, having a really great time. I MISS YOU, AND LOVE YOU VERY MUCH RAYNE. See you guys in 11 days.

Vicki St. Clair: Hi guys. I hope you don’t miss me too much. It is so beautiful here, I am having a blast. Tell nana I love her and I hope she is feeling better. I love you and I miss you. See you soon.

Joni Loyd: Hey Everyone! It so beautiful down here, even the weather! Believe it or not, I’m not sunburned! :] Hey mom, would you post the blog web address on my fb wall, I may have forgotten to tell my friends about it! Oops! Thank you everyone who has been praying for my safety on this trip. I feel it! My knee is doing alright and I’m diligently doing my exercises and icing my injury. I love you mom, dad and ber and all my extended and adopted families. See you guys soon, although I’m in no rush to go back!

Rachel Judge: mom and dad i miss you tons. mom, i realized we talk on the phone 20 times a day sometimes and i have been wanting to call you after everything cool. love you guys and miss you tons. hope you’re feeling better, dad and are well on your way to recovery for our own central american adventures!! Xo

We're here!

Hi Everybody. This is Kristi, the Director of the Belize Field School for New Mexico State University. Students of Dr Tim Wright's class arrived in Belize today and we are currently at Blue Creek Village on our way to La Milpa Research station-where we will spend the next four days. We are stopping here at Blue Creek Village only long enough to call my dad back in Las Cruces so he can post this short message - WE'RE HERE and all doing well. Please check back later for more details.

Scarlet Macaw project

Hey everyone. We're ready and waiting for Dr. Tim Wright's class from New Mexico State University to arrive May 9. They'll spend 2 weeks here in Belize at La Milpa Field Station, Cayo, Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve and then Tobacco caye. Check back May 9 for class updates!

So, until then - I get to help with Charles' Scarlet Macaw project. It's going really well for them but unfortunately yesterday we weren't able to get two kayaks fixed in time for me to go out this week. SO, Charles and Brad are using the 2 working ones (the other 2 needs repairs) and James who's visiting from New Mexico doing short fish project is using his own blow up kayak. Our friends Ernesto, Daniel, and a belizean student who was with us on Dr. Roemer's class last year (Ron - who's dad owns Chaa Creek) helped find a solution to the kayak repair issue. No plastic welders in Belize but we may have come up with a temporary solution involving roofing materials...we'll see!

The drop off at Ballerina road/reservoir put in. The Jeep and the guys preparing for the 5-day expedition up Raspaculo.

Brad sharpening his machete. Notice the new gloves (thanks to Brad's mom for those and a million other things she's sent in care packages!)

Charles and Brad starting off (it's pretty mucky in the res).

Taking off on the Macal river (reservoir above Chalillo Dam); James on the left, Charles and Brad.

This macaw project is hard work. It's mostly due to humor (and going a little nutty) that they aren't burned out yet despite weeks of intense field work - with only a day or 2 off to fix the jeep, wash clothes, buy food, make jerky, update their data points, update the blog...and then hope to have time to sleep/relax. They are constantly on the go! If you haven't read their blog about what they are doing - you just have to see for yourself. Check out Charles' blog http://scarlet-macaws.blogspot.com/.

Glovers Reef Atoll

Hi everyone! Dr. Nishiguchi's Tropical Marine Ecology class headed to Glovers reef atoll yesterday (Thursday). A hour boat ride east from Tobacco caye, Glovers has some amazingly pristine reef in Belize. The guides, Nish and the students spent a whole day snorkeling and logging species into journals, stopped for a packed lunch on Glovers island and then headed back to Tobacco base - and then they were still hyped up enough to do a night snorkel in the shallow cove - this is an energetic bunch! Everyone is getting a lot of field time in on this marine ecology course. That, mixed with our traveling microscope lab is providing for a pretty rigorous field ecology experience. I'm amazed at their enthusiasm and very proud at the quality of the program NMSU students are experiencing here in Belize. Nish says: "There is crystal clear visibility in the back reef - you can't ask for more than that - its fantastic!" Student Casey De Leon says "I'm having the time of my life here in Belize." And Mary Wells says "we are finding every reef fish and coral in the book here". It's true - you need to see it to Belize it!

Kristi

Whale Shoal and the Smithsonian

Here's Chanze below keeping a species log on an underwater slate

Below are Casey de Leon and Luis Morales

Hello! Today Nish's NMSU Tropical Marine Ecology students are continuing their study at Whale Shoal reef site and the Smithsonian research station on Carrie Bow caye (this afternoon) with a stop at Southwater caye. Incredible class - the students are learning a lot and doing really well in their studies! Thanks to the marine guides: Kimo, Melanie and captain Lloyd. Scroll down- we are catching up on postings from earlier this week...

Ecology Lab, Mangroves, Bird Island and a close encounter with a Manatee

Hi guys! My name is Stephanie and I am another one of the lucky students that got to come on this amazing learning experience with the Belize field school. Let me just start off with WOW!!!!! We are only half way into this journey and have already experienced so much! We have learned about cultural differences between our community back home and the community here, about the ancient and modern mayan cultures, different types of forests, rivers, coastal zones, reef habitats and all the creatures that live within these places. It has truly been a sensory overload, not that any of us are complaining. Last night and today several of our students and coordinators came down with some sort of bug, myself included. But, for the most part everyone is feeling better. While some of us were resting up, the rest of the class went on an intertidal walk and were able to collect different sea specimans. They took the different organisms to our make-shift lab and were able to examine them more closely with microscopes. One table in our dining area has also been dedicated to our learning purposes. We have all sorts of books and reference materials to help us identify what we are seeing in the field. Also on the agenda today is a snorkel to the mangroves. Hopefully tomorrow everyone will be in better health and be able to go back out into the field. We miss you all back at home and look forward to talking everyone’s ears off when we arrive home ;)




My name is Cassie. Everyone here has come to know Stephanie and I as "the twins". One goal for me on this trip was to see a manatee. They usually hang out at the mangroves, but we did not see any the other day when we came down the river. Today we saw 3 from the boat! After we were all satisfied with seeing white blobs swim away very fast, we jumped in for a snorkel and there was one right under us! 4 of us followed him for a while and he was HUGE!!! This trip is amazing!! Hello Mom, Dad, Puffin and Crystal!!!!!