Food

Karina Walking Down to the Boat to Go to the Clay Lick



Having let Karina know that I was not feeling well yesterday, I think she took mercy on me and reduced my work schedule for today. I didn’t feel good about it though, as it meant that she had to climb all four trees herself, while I just had to look after the climbing lines and the chick monitoring equipment, which, as it turned out, I didn’t do a very good job of. First somehow I allowed the climbing line to get tangled with a video cable that monitors the nest that Karina was climbing. Since the cable pulled out of the camera, it will have to be fixed sometime later. After she reached the nest, she sent the chicks down to me in a bucket, and I had the responsibility to weigh, measure and photograph them. Imagine handling a pound of squirming, warm flesh with no feathers. To take their pictures, I had to hold them with one hand and click with the other. Stabilizing their little wings to determine their length was a challenge too. Everything seemed to go well, but when I looked at the lengths of the culmens (upper beak) that I had noted, the larger chick seemingly had the smaller bill. I’ll do better next time.


Where We Sit to Monitor the Clay Lick


Food at TRC is good. As Karina and I were leaving late for tree climbing and would not return for breakfast at 730am, she directed me to ask the chef for some fruit and bread to take along for the climb. For lunch as well, since I would be monitoring the clay lick, there needed to be special arrangements, and the chef prepared a rice, plantain, vegetable and egg dish wrapped in a banana leaf for me – delicious!


A Macaw That Should Be at the Clay Lick, and Probably the One that Ate My Clif Bars

The chefs know that I am mostly vegetarian, and there are two other researchers who also are. The chefs create just enough of a special dish for us and place it on the table along with the food for the guests (if we are to be eating with the guests). The vegetarian dish is often the same as the meat dish, without the meat, or sometimes an egg dish. Last night a problem occurred when two guests took a portion of the food that Esperanza, Jerome and I were to eat, leaving only a very small amount. For the first time since I have been here I went to the manager, Monica, and complained. She saw to it that more food was prepared for the three of us.