6:09 am I’m up, it’s cool and cloudy, no wait, the sun just rose; beautiful light on Mt. Orosi and the horse barn. It’ll be hot today.

12:58 pm Back, hot, sticky, muddy, did a nice butt-plant on that last quadrat. Seven and a half more plots to do. Other people have finished their data collection. Why are we torturing ourselves? I’m not going to wash these pants, despite the fall; there’s no point. I need a shower, thirsty, tired.

7:01 pm: Random quotage:
    “I do have ants in my pants today” – Kristen
    “I used to put mayonnaise on her” – Daryl
    “AAAH, something's biting my ass!” – Nicole
    “They’re like little flying pigs with horns” – Chantal, regarding bats

    We’ve given names to the more recognizable bugs that frequent the station. We saw Capuchin monkeys today and there was a large toad in the field. Someone caught the toad and bagged it for a quick show and tell on the station. I looked at the bag and was trying to spot the toad on the large grayish rock, when I realized the large rock was the toad. There was also a large gray snake winding its way across the field toward the station yesterday. It moved away too fast for us to ID it.
    We just found a giant (wider than 8in) spider on the wall, Heather is now curled up in the fetal position on top of a table across the station. Ross goes to measure it with calipers, then grabs a net and gloves to relocate it. Daryl: “It could probably bite right through those gloves.”
    Dinner was hamburger patties, Gallo Pinto, salad with that mayo/ketchup dressing, white pineapple and papaya.
    After dinner we went out to open the mist nets to catch a few bats. Using gloves to ward against rabies, we handled a few out of pure biological interest. Someone inquired about determining the sex of a bat. This was when we caught our first one. Dick said, “You’ll know.” Later we caught a male bat, which was indeed obvious. Chantal: “He’s all kinds of male.”
    We’re sitting around now arguing about the rules governing what counts as a “fall” on our blackboard score sheet. We’re weighing falls as equivalent to breaking a board on the station, Ross wants more credit for breaking through a board, but then Liz argued that if we do that, then we should award bonus points for how spectacular your fall is. Also, some of us are far more likely to break through a board than others, whereas we all have a decent chance at losing our footing in the field. Sarah is still leading with 10 points, 9 of which were from our Orosilito expedition. Liz has 7 falls and one board, Athena has 6 falls and two boards. I have 5 falls, no boards. I fell today while we were out in one of our quadrats on sloping muddy ground. We were walking out when both my feet shot out in front of me and I landed squarely on my butt, with a tree between my legs.

8:00 pm: Ross is sitting in the forest counting ants for his research activity. He’s using those clicky counter things, one in one hand to count number of ants entering the colony, the other in the other hand to count number of ants exiting. Because he’s constantly clicking, he can’t stop to record data. The rest of us have been recruited to take turns going out to him at 10 minute intervals to write down his numbers. I’ve got the 8:40 shift.
    It’s quiet now, people are at the front of the station and the stars are out. Lighting bugs are all over the trees and lawn and thunder clouds are rolling in. Flashes of light are coming from inside the clouds on three fronts, silhouetting the trees against a backdrop of violet, yellow, and stormy gray.
    I’m copying our data by candlelight and trying to ID the “filmy fern” thing, which looks like a large-scale liverwort. It grows right up the tree trunks in the forest. It sucks that we don’t get a day off. We’re masochists.

8:51 pm: Major leafcutter activity out there, it’s a miniature highway. Ross has built a stick “start/finish” line with a flashlight trained on it and is counting all the ants that pass through it. Constant thunder and lightning tonight, but no rain yet. We were up to over 3000 in and 3000 out in 40 minutes. I think the bird people are asleep. I should brush my teeth. It seems I’ve lucked out to be sharing the clean dorm room and clean bathroom.