Hasta Luego

Yesterday was our last day at Snake Cay. We had a productive morning. However the afternoon brought another storm (see picture), with wind speed at 15 m/s and the lizards decided to go to bed early. Overall we collected approximately 100 videos of male A. sagrei. Kudos to Chivo for another GREAT performance and to his helper, who prefers to stay anonymous, for keeping all the equipment organized and spotting lizards. The REAL fun is about to begin. In a few months we should know if the physical properties of the advertise displays have changed due to predation pressure. Our next stop will be Puerto Rico and more research with anoles. Hasta la proxima!!!!

Caliente

Today was a HOT one. As we say back home "el sol estaba que pelaba." By 8:00 am we were drench in sweat, as illustrated by Dave's picture. Even the lizards are having a difficult time with the oppressing heat, limiting most of their activity to early morning and late afternoon.

Sandflies and Videotapes

Summer is finally here, which means heavy showers and the arrival of a thick cloud of sandflies to Snake Cay. The last two days have been particularly bad. It is easy to see hundreds of sandflies swarming over Dave's head while he is trying to videotape lizards. The land crabs (Cardisoma guanhumi) are also getting excited with the rain, and beginning their migration. Today we found a nice size male, picture above, on Cay 5.

iButtons & New Wheels

An update on the iButtons or what Dave eloquently described as pantyhose pouches on the previous post. I finished placing them in the cays. The iButtons will be collecting temperature data for the next 6 months. Time will tell if this was another great idea, or if the birds will enjoy using the pantyhose as nesting material. I just began looking at the data collected by the iButtons from October (2009) to May (2010) and there are some interesting differences between perch types. Finally a friend of the lab recently got new wheels, picture above. The car is a perfect match for her. We are looking forward to having a joy ride when we get back.

Pantyhose Pouches

The weather (wind & rain) failed us again, so we occupied ourselves by preparing for another small project. We will be measuring more daily temperatures throughout the year on the cays using penny-sized temperature recorders (or iButtons). To attach them to vegetation & rocks, Manuel decided that we should place them in pantyhose pouches that are breathable and will not influence temperature. This meant that we had to a.) purchase pantyhose, and b.) wrap ~50 iButtons in said pantyhose. Both tasks proved difficult. We had to search 4 stores, including one shop that specializes in "undergarments and 'butt boosters'," before locating the necessary materials. Despite the pain of driving around town, I must say that it was a pleasure to watch Manuel attempt to explain to each and every (disturbed) clerk why a grown man so desperately needed pantyhose in the Bahamas. And then we spent an indeterminate amount of time wrapping our iButtons, which is much trickier than one would imagine. Hopefully the pouches work ...