Cashew Phase 2!

Now that we picked our cashews, we removed the fruits from the seed and let them dry in the sun for a couple of days.! We can't wait to see how small the bag of roasted cashews will be coming out of this quantity of unshelled cashews?

Keep posted for Phase 3, the roasting of the cashews!

Cashews dried in the sun!

Interesting Trogon observation

 Last week during our Herp-o-thon, some of us where still looking out for birds and not just snakes and frogs! On our return walk from the waterfall hike we stumbled upon a really interested observation of a Violaceous Trogon (Trogon violaceus) in a Termite nest. These most beautiful birds in the same family as the Quetzal are found to next in wasp, termite or ant nests. While we had heard of this behaviour before we had never seen a live example. We were all quite pleased to come upon this female most likely incubating eggs in this large termite mound.  Apparently they will peck out a hole in the termite mound, in the following days the termites will fix up the mound and fill the damage part of their nest, thus creating a perfect little burrow in the middle of this well insulating and protected fortress, incroyable!

The waterfall!

Last week end during the famous herp-o-thon the whole TREES crew finally made it up the famous waterfall. This waterfall is very famous in Belize, everyday we have people stop in front of the property to take a peek and pictures of this waterfall. While it is very small during the dry season this 300 ft. waterfall can be gushing like mad after a big rainfall. We see this waterfall everyday from the station and were very pleased to reach it after about an hours hike in the thick jungle and a very steep climb. In addition to seeing many cool plants and animals we were rewarded by a cool fresh breeze at the bottom of the falls! We hope to bring our climbing gear next time and repel down this beauty.

Herping it up

We are just recovering from an exciting weekend spent "herping" with a visiting herpetologist from Save the Frogs, a non-profit organization based in California that is, you guessed it, saving frogs. We went out for two nights and two days with Michael Starkey and found some great new species on our property and on the neighbouring property and forest reserve! We also finally had the opportunity to hike to the famous waterfall which you can see from our place; every day tourists and locals alike stop on the edge of our property to oooh and ahhh at this site! So we were excited to finally get up there.

I think the highlight for the frog lovers was a beautiful Maya Mountain Frog, which is a rare species that lives only in the mountains of Belize. We couldn't believe our luck when our little herper dog Eva scrambled up a bank and scared this special little frog into the water right in front of us! 

Now I know the Moms and Dads and Aunties and Uncles are reading this so I probably shouldn't discuss the next herp we found, but I can't resist as it was beautiful and exciting. A little ways up the trail after finding this frog, Will, our guide from the nearby village of Mile 28, started yelling something to us slow pokes down at the tadpole pool that seemed pretty important. We ran up the path and he was holding Eva back, and told us there was a big Tommy Goff (a poisonous snake also known as the Fer-de-Lance) in the middle of the trail. The craziest (and scariest) thing is that it took each of us several seconds to even see it despite it being in the middle of the trail! That's why you need to always watch where you step in the jungle.

We also saw some pretty cool sleeping creatures on our first night out, including a beautiful little Pygmy Kingfisher and our first Green Iguana in trees overhanging the water!

Finally, no blog post is complete without a picture of yours truly holding a beloved critter. This lizard, which is aptly named the Old Man Lizard, is one of my personal favourites and we found him in our own backyard on Sunday! What a handsome little fellow, sure makes me happy to have him in my hands!

Critter of the week

I have not looked at the i.d books yet but this bug is super cool! My guess it is imititating a leaf with its really neat leg flaps (ok ok, I am no entomologist)! If anybody wants to do a little search and tell us at least what family at least this cool insect is in!

Pineapples are ready!

 

After successfully preventive the neighbours pigs from eating our growing pineapples, we can now enjoy our harvest! The only problem, we have now have too many pineapples and need to find new ways to cook, preserve, jam these sweet and juicy fruits! I have to say that I hope many of you will be able to come to TREES and try out our fully organic juicy pineapples!

New Hummer!

 The Brown Violet Ear (Colibri delphinae) has arrived at the TREES hummingbird feeders, this now being the fourth hummer species at the station. We are very excited by this new species which is considered an uncommon visitor to Belize. We are still unsure if it is a juvenile male acquiring breeding plumage or a moulting male acquiring his breeding plumage. He showed up on Monday and has been defending his feeder very nicely against the agressive White-Necked Jacobins. We will keep you posted on the trials and tribulations of the BVE!