Ecotour of HAFF (a syzygy*)

My American agronomist friend Rhoda and my Haitian bird guide friend Louiders finally got to meet!  Rhoda came up to spend the week with my team at HAFF (where she was a former intern) and we went on a bird hike with Louiders, who I met in 2009 and trained to be a birding guide.  Rhoda gave the two of us and Kristin a tour of the trails in the 40-acre HAFF compound in Bohoc while Louiders pointed out the birds, a black tarantula in a dark tree hole, and even a skinny green snake in a tree.  As a bonus, Louiders taught Rhoda some of the plants she wasn’t familiar with (including the banza, a vine with an edible root).  We saw a termite mound and all the trails it made in the tree, a cricket that blended in perfectly with tree bark, and a walking stick (known as a devil’s horse in Creole).  Louiders filled us in on the misbelief about cicadas (lasigol in Creole).  Louiders told us the cicadas grow bigger and bigger until they finally explode and die!  I figured out he was seeing the split skin left behind when the cicada molts from a pupa to an adult. 

Rhoda & Louiders

 *Syzygy - a straight line configuration of three celestial bodies.  Also the book by Frederik Pohl that I read on this trip, losing it twice – once for 2 days in my bed, and once at the Miami airport with my boarding pass in it (quickly retrieved from the snack counter where I left it).

banza vine

cricket

starfruit

eating starfruit

Rhoda and me in front of a termite mound

Dark termite trails along branches of a flamboyant tree

Ecology classes at HAFF

Last week I taught ecology to 7^th graders who attend the HAFF IBP school in Bohoc Haiti.  Friday’s class had 17 kids and Saturday had 8, aged 13 to 22 years old, chosen by their teachers to attend.  We talked about the importance of birds and bats, and I introduced two topics new for me to teach – native animals and littering.  We used posters provided by the Haiti Audubon society (thanks Keith!) to discuss animals that are native to the country – the ones that were here before Christopher Columbus.  One poster had a mix of exotic (lion, zebra), domestic (horse, cow), and endemic (solenodon, flamingo) animals.  We finished with a discussion of littering and being a good neighbor, and then had a campus cleanup contest – whoever picked up the most trash won a prize.  In the Friday class was an outstanding student named Donald who really took an interest in all the props I had.  I had wanted to give him a bird book and binoculars but couldn’t single him out from the class.  Fortunately he won the trash contest so I was able to give him the book and binocs as his prize.  Gregory won Saturday’s contest and I gave him a frog life cycle set (thanks LeeAnn!).  Thanks to Diranot and Rhoda for translating, and Kristin and Louiders for helping!