Day 7, December 14, 2009 – “Return to limosus Falls”
I had made the decision to do 3 things on my last day in the field. Hunt the “golden hour,” hunt with Edgardo late into the night since he had had to hunt the jungles alone the last night or two, and cook pancakes for the group.
A good breakfast goes a long way in the field. I brought honey wheat pancake mix, freeze dried raspberry sauce and walnuts. My pan was a $6 skillet from the Wal-mart camping section and I know why it was $6 and the REI was $20-something. When I put it on the heat it warped and bent out of shape. It sort of became a wok. “Bob’s jungle cakes,” just got harder. I eventually had to pour in the batter and then hold each of the four sides over the flame. Nobody seemed to mind the extra cook time and the group started the day with a hot meal. We spent the morning processing last night’s frogs, and prepping moss, water and cups for the trip out tomorrow. We built another shelf out of string and board to hold the cups that would carry the frogs. By 3 p.m. we were far enough along to head to the field. Jeff and I were going to hunt the golden hour and look for limosus. Part way down the stream we met Edgardo who had gone out earlier collecting limosus tadpoles. We agreed to meet at 8 p.m. tonight so I could let him search as long into the night as possible for Gastrotheca and Hemiphractus. Jeff and I set off on a one and half hour walk to “Limosus Falls,” something we felt we should just do. We should not let the long walk on the last day discourage us from seeing if our little frog had been alone. We made it around 4:30 p.m.
We walked down the slot canyon and still nothing. We sat for awhile and talked, ate a snack, and thought about what we were not finding. Jeff decided to search and I decided to pray. I prayed for me, my family, the project and for the frogs. Now this is no joke. I open my eyes, stand up to stretch a little, for you yoga fans I was in a triangle pose, and out jumps a PAIR of Antelopus limosus 5 feet away, almost exactly where I found the baby the day before. You can believe it or not.
Now remember, this is day 5 and so far I had found 2 females. I was excited to say the least. For those of you who really know me, this was worthy of a “super good.” Still we found very little else. Even the golden hour was dry and hotter so there seemed to be less activity. We did check out a side stream and found several good species, saw a real coral snake, and a false coral snake, and enjoyed our last evening in the jungle.
We met up with Edgardo about 8:30 p.m. near “Colymba intersection” by the “strappy leaves.” Jeff took our catch back to camp and Edgardo and I started our next 4 hour search. We spent the evening searching the hillside above the stream for Gastrotheca and Hemiphractus. An hour later Edgardo spotted an interesting frog that I call “the mossy green frog.” It was only one of a few we had found on the trip. We found Edgardo’s wife’s favorite frog and I found a Gastrotheca!! It was my first and it was wonderful. I was like a kid, scared to death it would hop away and I would miss it. Edgardo assured me over and over they were gentle, and he was right. I slowly closed my hand around him and he barely moved. I have this unedited on video if you want to watch me beam like an 8 year old that just caught his first muddy bull frog.
The night ended with only those 3 catches and a swollen and reacting arm on Edgardo (near camp he was stung by something that was not good). We got him back, washed it out and gave him Benadryl. He would be fine.
.jpg)
Posts
