Palo Verde Dreaming....

...on such a Winter's day:

Side yard ponds with snow.

As the song goes,

 The twilight shadows deepen into night, dear

The city lights are gleaming o'er the snow

In the Rockies, spring snows are frequent, as are balmy, sunny days. You ride the roller coaster and keep boots and shovels at the ready.

Speaking of boots, I have found the perfect pair for potential Palo Verde rains:

Easy on-and-off, good tread, made by Servus: less than $30 at my local farm store. If it does rain, it'll look like the photo below, sheets of water off the roof tops. I'll see how the iguana react to real rain, if they change their burrows or just wait for the rain to stop. Do they change other habits: feeding, conspecific tolerance, siesta time? 

It's hard to believe but snow on the High Plains where most Coloradoans live is fleeting. At our high altitude, snow melts fast, the sun is hot, and the sky is a deep blue. Bacages, Costa Rica, not far from Palo Verde National Park, looks more inviting this week!

I am busy reviewing more than 200 videos taken during my last trip, iguanas doing iguana things, with birds, insects, and OTS staff going about the day. I can forget the snow....

Green Season

When I return to Palo Verde, the Green season (rain) should begin. Such plans shock some people (always wet, loads of moisquitos). This is part of an iguana's life, and their behavior, and I need to see and understand how rain changes their world.

I will in the best possible way relax into the discipline of Green.

Before...During...After....and After After.

A nose and one eye.

It's After. I've travelled home, 17 hours start to finish. The next day was dreary, grey, and rainy. I missed the iguanas. I missed the strong breezes and the heat. I went from shorts to winter jacket and hat.

So there is unpacking and figuring out what is needed for Trip #2, a mere 4 weeks in the future (which feels both tomorrow and a dream). 22 gauge needles do not work for blood draws. More PIT tags are needed. I will need to spray clothing with pyrethrin. I live in a virtually rainless world -- what should I bring for waterproof shoes? Most importantly, what data will be collected in the second going? And so on.

Tasting my world.

And then there is all the current data. Putting it in order so that it can be used and best reveal what I observed and tested. I've started. Maps, too, of trap locations, buildings, and markers like "Lab/Cistern Guayacan Tree." That will keep me busy for a time.

And After, there is After After...which hit today: altitude sickness. A mere three weeks away and I'm a tourist in my own home.

I trapped and identified or recognized/named 38 iguanas in 3 weeks. They were small and large, accommodating or disgusted with my presence, and ever fascinating. A few have house names: WWW is Webbie, and BYBr is Kaplan for someone who early on suggested a way to think about reptiles, especially iguanas. RWBr is Remalia. And WOG is Wog. Juice and Sappy will get beads next trip.

Tomorrow I hit the data full steam -- I look forward to 'seeing' again what the lizards did and didn't do during my time observing their world.

Gracias por toda su ayuda y paciencia. Nos vemos en el final de abril!

A slightly different blog today, in which I write about my last three weeks and show you many iguana photos.

Coatimundi pulling bark off tree for a grub breakfast.

Each day at the OTS station, I'm a bit underfoot -- in the way of hanging laundry, blocking a door with my tripod, causing staff to change seemingly each and every walking pattern around the buildings and their daily duties. Which they did graciously, and found me if they saw something exciting in the iguana department. They helped my work immensely. And if they weren't helping me with all things iguana negro, they were teaching me some Costa Rican Spanish. Otro mas! each time I set the trap for another iguana.

BrRG in office roof hide.

Along the way, OTS hosts both university classes and tourists who often come for the birding. Many meals were shared at table with guests from numerous countries and universities, and all leavened my days. (After all, while I saw iguana, iguana, and another iguana, they saw all sorts of other fascinating and beautiful animals.)

Spotted along the rear lab moat, KBPb heads to hide...

...which is in this block.

OKR at WWW's (Ig/Snake) area.

It seemed by all accounts the OTS station at Palo Verde National Park would be a good place to study iguana social behavior. 

Yearling UM with high-alert curled tailed.

Blocky drinking water with bees at the kitchen pipe.

But I had no idea the iguanas would be so plentiful, with every age class represented, from little yearlings to dominant males.

UM sneaker male hiding on a log near the laudry puddles.

My first iguana capture was Green-Green-Green (GGG) whose hide is a pipe under a step on the front porch of the OTS laboratory. Some days there is little traffic in and out of the lab while during other periods, GGG flees into his refuge dozens of times due to passersby.

GGG on the lab front porch.

GGG can see the entire Lab plaza lawn, the office roof, and the brush to the west of several buildings. In time, he let me sit on the green box in the lower right corner of the above photo. I shared his expansive view and numerous iguana interactions.

OBPb in hide.

Not every iguana is willing to trust nearby humans -- Orange-Blue-Pale Blue is one of the most shy iguanas at the station. Yet this lizard has good weight and is likely successful in what counts the most -- offspirng. Shy isn't necessarily bad news.

The ease of working at OTS, the most helpful and pleasant staff, the numerous iguanas, made for a superb trip. I have many more ideas about how to analyze their social structure and much more work to accomplish.

GGG and UM yearling -- GGG chased off a bit.

I might feel sad but I return to Palo Verde in about four weeks. I have a load of data to analyse and plans to make for Trip #2.

Gracias por toda su ayuda y paciencia. Nos vemos en el final de abril! (Thank you for all your help and pateince. I'll see you at the end of April!)

Water! Skuttlebutt!

....in that an iguana observing another iguana drinking will do the same: a response of bystanders to information available in their social environment. It is dry and hot at Palo Verde and water sources are known to at least some iguanas. Air conditioners drip water, regularly and reliably. GGG drank and a UM (unmarked) iguana quickly joined.

Remember the sap-eating male iguana? Here he is behind the library. Wasn't thrilled about me but didn't rush to flee, just moved off.

Yes, there is an iguana in the green grass. Does is mean there is a hundred UMs of this size?

The rarely seen Brown-Red-Green, an adult female.

Corporate Portrait

And the rarely seen Blocky, he who rested on a concrete block my first afternoon at the station. (His beads will wait for the next trip.) Blocky visited the water puddle above, walked near the kitchen, traversed GGG's area, and ended the day climbing a huge tree, to a very high secret place to sleep. 

My second last night -- time to sort equipment to leave and begin the packing process... 

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Blue-Pale Blue-Green

Yesterday's Fight Club was just the elimination round for today's excitement. 

Are female iguanas territorial? Possibly, though it needs a few caveats. About what, and when, and against whom is an iguana territorial?

Last night our star of the show, WOG, slept somewhere mysterious and unknown, closer to the front of the OTS office. In this way she could wake up and face her nemisis, the iguana formerly known as UM (unmarked). 

WOG began the day bobbing at all iguanas on the office roof (3) and I decided they had to be caught and marked. After I released the first named Brown-Red-Green, the OTS cook called for me to hurriedly bring the camera. WOG and another UM were fighting, and this was no skirmish. Full, open mouths, bite holds behind the shoulders, croc rolls, and spinning in the dirt for about 10 minutes. Finally the UM spun off to one side instead of around and around, and lo, WOG declared the winner! 

That the loser was a UM meant I still hadn't caught WOG's trouble, so back to trapping. Didn't take long and BPbG is a known iguana. All this before lunch.

The most important question of all this commotion is a simple WHY? BPbG is not near WOG's hide, her pirmary home area/territory. Why is BPbG so important? Is WOG making sure no one challenges her area? Is she letting all know that she is not to be triffled with? What fitness advantages does all her boldness give her compared to more reticent iguanas?

This could work for me.

Yes, it's a young UM -- in OBPb's hide. That will not last. 

WKY

White-Black-Yellow, one of many iguanas never observed fighting. 

Who Are You?! and Iguana Fight Club, Palo Verde Style

Not Aspens in the Fall in CO but Guayacans in  Palo Verde

Who am I, anyway? Am I my resume? Or just a picture...

I need to trap and mark more iguanas! Everywhere I look, here comes another UM (unmarked) lizard. A few I can distinguish from the masses of UMs but not enough.

It was Fight Club Day -- skirmishes and tussles, serious, but no blood shed. Above is Remalia and Sneaker Male. Remalia decided SM should not be near her though they usually feed in the same spot. She lost, with SM chasing her into her pipe refuge. (Remalia aka Bricky aka Red-White-Brown.)

  

Above WOG (bottom) in a big fight with a similar sized UM female on the roof of the Palo Verde OTS office building. Trapping this UM is a high priority --  an important dynamic in the World of WOG and other iguanas.

Brown-Brown-Brown in a tree thought dead.

You might think this tree is dead. I did, I watch iguanas wiggle into the trunk crevices each night. But this is the "Lab/Cistern Guayacan Tree" and parts are much alive.