  
Click on the image above for a full-page composite photo of the construction of the Insect Sampler. (may take 1min@28.8) |
|
Hill Bank, Belize
17.60o N, 88.69o W
David Tzul,Cordinator
|
|
|
|
The Hill Bank Golondrinas Site is the first full-scale implementation of the techniques and data-collection methods that were developed over many years at the Golondrinas Site in Ithaca, New York. Initiated in early 2000, with the erection of 50 nest boxes in the lagoon (seen in the background of the photo below) and grounds of the Hill Bank research station, the site will study the breeding and foraging ecology of the Mangrove Swallow (Tachycineta albilinea).
Hill Bank is a research/eco-tourism facility run by the Programme for Belize in the Rio Bravo area approximately 50 km WNW of Belize City. The station lies on the banks of the New River lagoon, from which the New River flows slowly north and east to the Gulf of Mexico. Habitats around the station are a mosaic of dry tropical forest and pine-oak savannah, and, but for the absence of large mahoganies and large parrots, the flora and fauna seem remarkably intact. It is a pleasure to have a Golondrinas Site in an area where currasows have not been shot out and where the tracks of tapir and jaguar are commonly seen.
In February 2001 a total of 78 nest boxes were established in the lagoon, with another 22 along the shore. In addition, a 12 meter Rothamsted-style insect sampler was installed to begin year-round sampling of the flying insect fauna. This is the first such sampling that we know of anywhere in the Neotropics. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
David brings to our collective, and to his position as Naturalist at Hill Bank, a voracious interest in natural history and considerable experience and native talent as a biologist. David’s work on the Hill Bank swallow study is funded by a private foundation and by the Wings Over America Program of The Nature Conservancy.
David visited Ithaca in June 2000 to learn Tree Swallow methods that would apply to Mangrove Swallows, and he visited Cornell again in Fall 2000 to take Wink’s ornithology course, learn how to make study skins, learn how to identify and measure insects from our 12 m Rothamsted sampler, and explore methods for studying autumnal roosts of swallows. David is a full-blooded Mayan, and while in Ithaca he also made his first acquaintance with water in his surroundings entering a solid state!
|
