Tag Archives: bat

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Kartchner Caverns & the night sky

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February 24, 2017 Friday – Kartchner Caverns & the night sky at Dragoon Mountain Ranch, Arizona, USA

2017 Southern Arizona & Astronomy

Garry reserved (a few days ago) the Big Room Tour for the Kartchner Caverns for this afternoon. We depart around 1PM so we have time to look around the visitor centre before the tour starts. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed, and they even insist that we leave our cellphones behind in a locker. The tour starts by everyone being taken up the hill in a tram, and then we enter the caverns through a series of doors and air locks. The Big Room is indeed very big, and the history of the caves is interesting, with lots of stalagmites, stalactites, and other cave objects to see. We also learn about the bats who inhabit the cave and use it as a nursery.

On the way back, we go to the Benson Golf Course for dinner. It is a modest place, but the food is good and reasonably priced. This is our last meal together, since we leave tomorrow for home or further travels.

We head back home to do some observing – my last night observing from this special place. We struggle to get focusing working while using the Ha filter, and eventually have to admit defeat. Once the system is restored back to normal settings, I image an object that interests me – NGC 2174, an emission & reflection nebula. I stay inside the house to keep warm while the system takes the images automatically until the series finishes at 2AM. A couple of my astronomy buddies get up at this time to observe Omega Centauri (photo), so I join them to have a look before heading off to bed. My observing report

NGC 2174 emission & reflection nebula
NGC 2174 emission & reflection nebula
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Langkawi, Malaysia

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Feb 26, 2016 – Porto Malai, Langkawi, Malaysia

2016 – SE Asia and Total Solar Eclipse cruise

Bats sleeping in their cave in Kilim Karst Geoforest Park Langkawi, Malaysia
Bats sleeping in their cave in Kilim Karst Geoforest Park Langkawi, Malaysia

Langkawi is a lovely island, which is a destination for tourism and a duty free area in Malaysia. I can see why Australians in particular come to this SE Asian destination. My shore excursion today involves bats in caves and exploring a mangrove looking for eagles.

After driving to the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, we board small boats and zoom around the mangrove channels to see a fish farm (setup for tourists), the Langkawi Eagles (brown colour) and Sea Eagles (black and white) taking food in the channel, and exploring the bat caves. The little bats are asleep during the day, but they apparently do a great job of keeping the bug population down. There are Long-tailed Macaque monkeys lurking around the entrances to the caves. They try to steal tourists’ water bottles, since their only other source of water is to climb to the tops of trees for the fruit to be found up there.

Other than getting a headache from the outboard motor fumes, I have a great day!

Langkawi
Langkawi
10 photos
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Poas Volcano & Sarapiqui

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2008 Costa Rica Southern Skies Fiesta, Volcanos & Rainforest

Feb 10, 2008 – Sunday – San Jose to Poas Volcano to Sarapiqui Rainforest, Costa Rica

Costa Rica Pura Vida frog coaster
Costa Rica Pura Vida frog coaster

I have a nice omelet for breakfast this morning in the Marriott before we leave San Jose. Our new, smaller group departs a little after 8am, driving north out of the city through coffee plantations in Alajuela. Our first stop is Doka Estate Coffee Plantation for a rest break, where I have a very well-made cappuccino, and I purchase a coaster with a Costa Rican frog motif embossed on it.

Nearby Póas Volcano is our next destination. Since this is Sunday, the place is crowded with Costa Ricans. The weather is notoriously fickle on top of this volcano. Our group hikes from the visitor centre to the main viewpoint, and as we arrive the clouds part for about a minute. Unfortunately I don’t take any photos before the clouds completely obscure everything again!

Steven O’Meara is on this trip as an expert in volcanoes. While we wait for the clouds to part, he stands on his Pelican case and gives us an impromptu presentation on the special features of Poas, and shares a general dissertation on global warming and how volcanoes are contributing to the problem in a major way. After about a half hour, the clouds blow away for 10 minutes or so, giving us a good photo opportunity before we leave Poas Volcano.

Our next stop is to see some spectacular falls along the road that follows the Sarapiqui River northward and then east over the mountains through the town of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. We have a late lunch along the way at Hacienda Pozo Azul Adventures, where the restaurant has a butterfly house with some very nice tropical butterflies. It’s free admission, however I only have a few minutes to take some photos before we depart, heading southeast.

We pull off onto a side road and park while our luggage is loaded into a pickup truck and taken to the Sueño Azul Hotel. We drive a bit further, and everyone walks across the river on a foot bridge, directly to the hotel grounds. Once I am settled in my room overlooking one of the many lagoons on the property, I observe several birds from my deck: a Snowy Egret and a Green Heron are fishing in the lagoon, and also several colourful birds are in the nearby trees.

A pair of Silver-beaked Tanagers

We leave the hotel after dark for the Tirimbina Rainforest Center, where we are given a wonderful introduction to the bats which are found in the area. One of the rangers catches several bats and brings them inside so we can look at them up close. They are fascinating creatures, and so small and cute. Their little faces are all screwed up, since they are so frightened by being handled, but they are soon released back into the night by members of our group. After returning back to the hotel and navigating the foot bridge once again, we have a very nice late dinner at 9pm.

Bat being gently handled