Coquetta La Vaca Lost and Found

Have you seen this sweet looking cow?  Coquetta La Vaca was last seen March 4^th, 2013, just outside the stable gate, awaiting her daily grooming and feeding.  Every day, Jose gathers and chops together lots of fresh grains and grasses for a feast for our two cows and three horses.  The chickens and turkeys feast on this mixture too, as well as all the other kitchen scraps.  The daily feast is the main reason why our animals don’t stray far from the stable and don’t vagabond out into the forest where predators lurk.  Bovines, Equines and Avifauna - all of them come back home from pasture to the stable yard for the daily feast.  However, having said that, we have learned from experience that bovines are vagabonds by nature, and will push right through the fencing if they’re determined to get to the greener grass on the other side.  Horses will respect fencing but not vagabonding cows!  We suspect that Coquetta meandered out of the pasture and onto the public road, and got caught up in a cattle run by the neighbors that same day.  But, alas, Coquetta could not be found amongst his herd when we phoned and inquired.  We have been searching for her in pastureland all over the mountainside and, at this point, we are very worried.  It’s not easy searching the steep, overgrown paths in the forest, especially on horseback.  I went to help last Friday and was more hindrance than help.  Remember – inside the tropical forest inhabits the feared Fer- de-lance – Bothrops atrox.  The horses are used to this sort of terrain so down we went, looking for signs of a lost bovine.  Well, first I lost my phone and then  I got knocked off Lucero as he trotted under low growing branches.  I fell sprawling and ripped my favorite green shirt.  Later, the girls took it away to the laundry shaking their head and muttering:  One day she will kill herself riding out there like a cowboy.   But as with all riders, whenever you fall off your horse, you jump right back on.  Lucero looked at me, head hanging with droopy eyes as if to say:  “The branches weren’t too low for me!”  We quickly tracked the phone down by phoning it…but still no Coquetta.  We thank the entire neighborhood of El Rodeo for looking out for Coquetta La Vaca.  Jose has spread the word.  Coquetta’s calf, Bambi, is disconsolate - and we humans can forget about homemade yoghurt this summer…NEWS FLASH:  Jose found Coquetta yesterday – in the same area where I lost my phone.  The guys brought Coquetta home after eight days marauding in the forest and mountainside.  She returned scratched and scraped and infested with ticks.  She went straight to the bath and first-aid and doing okay now.

Here's a shot of Matchi out in pasture.  Jose rode Matchi in the Cinta de Carreras Sunday, as part of a huge village fundraiser, called a ‘turno’, for the new Catholic Church which will soon be built in El Rodeo.  Jose reported that Matchi performed just fine – even though it poured down during their part of the competition.  They got drenched but had a great time.  Everyone loves a drenching tropical rain in the dry season, and even festival attendees rejoiced in the rain.  We are thrilled about the new Catholic Church and have made a donation in memory of mom’s recently departed husband, Cyril Pombier and Patricia Patrizi, his beloved sister.  They died within days of each other in February and our entire family grieves for these two extraordinary siblings.

Here’s a shot of Mr. Rooster and Mr. Turkey.  Our criollo (local, healthy and big) chickens are giving us delicious eggs, and our new female turkey has made a nice comfortable nest for her eggs.  Her new mate, Mr. Turkey (thank you Denise) gets along just fine with Mr. Big Rooster, who rules the roost of hens.  The chickens and turkeys generally live well together – the males are of different species and do not compete for food or mates.   But if we attempted to introduce a second rooster into the stable-yard, then the two roosters would probably fight.  Only the strongest and biggest criollo rooster makes it to rule the roost.  We trade-out Mr. Rooster every 6 months or so just to diversify and enrich the criollo bloodline.

Here’s a shot of Cortez amarilla – Tabebuia ochracea – you see in gorgeous yellow bloom all over the Central Valley of Costa Rica.  These trees also bloom in pastureland and throughout the forest, where the yellow blooms sparkle within the green tapestry.   Tabebuia trees drop their leaves during the dry season, so the flowering trees look like huge yellow lollipops.  And all those pink lollipop blooming trees you see along the roadsides in the western Central Valley, belong to the same Tabebuia genus – the pink Tabebuias are commonly called Roble de la Sabana - and are probably Tabebuia rosea, but there are also, taller, less common of Tabebuia species with more intense hues of pink flowers.

You can see from this shot of the Tabebuia ochracea flower that Cortez amarilla is in the trumpet vine family – Bignoniaceae. 

Here’s a shot of Petrea volubilis now in bloom out in the garden.  Petrea is in the Verbenaceae Family but some think it has more in common with the Bignoniaceae.  As with all native plants, once established you never need to water Petrea.  You can grow it as a vine or train it as a shrub.  Petrea vines grow also in the forest, and that glint of flowering blue up in the canopy might not be a Lonchocarpus: you might be looking at a Petrea vine.  There really is a lot in flower in the tropical forest during the dry season – the list is too long to mention here, but remember this flower gardeners: Save your Water, Plant Native Plants.  Native plants, vines and trees burst into bloom during the dry season without needing a drop of water.   

We love vines – they coexist with the trees.  Don’t cut down vines unless you need to protect a particular tree.  We even leave the strangler fig alone– usually strangler Ficus starts to grow and prospers on host trees that have already reached the peak of their shorter life-cycle, e.g. old Miconia, Guazuma,  etc..  The Ficus tree will actually someday replace the old, host tree and become a massive, spectacular forest tree and also… food bazaar, shelter and bridge for monkeys, pizotes, birds and all the other local wildlife.  The thick, dense roots of the Ficus tree also hold up the entire mountainside and prevent erosion.   We have several Ficus species growing at El Tigre: Ficus cotinifolia, F. elastic, F. goldmanii, F. insipid, F. obtusifolia, F. costaricensis, Ficus Jimenez and Ficus pertussa.  Perhaps there are others not yet ID’d.  Ficus trees and should not be planted near homes or water lines as their roots will invade.  The Ficus roots also protect and stabilize the mountain.  Think that before you chop down your massive Higueron out in pasture.

 Apart from the wonderful tropical shower El Rodeo enjoyed last night, the climate has been dry since last December.  This is great seed collecting weather!  Armando has collected many seeds of forest trees and we currently have them drying in the library upstairs.  In this collection you can see Sura – Terminalia oblonga, Family: Combretaceae; Ceibo verde - Pseudobombax septenatum, Family: Bombacaceae (yes I know the whole Malvales order has been thrown into Malvaceae);  Peine de Mico - Apeiba tibourbou, Family: Tiliaceae (yeah, ditto, now also called Malvaceae); and Yuco – Bernoullia flammea, Family: Bombacaceae (I know, I know, it’s now called a Malvaceae but I just love those magnificent giant trees once called Bombacaceae.  We are also collecting the seed cottons from the massive Bombacaceae trees - the seed padding from Ceiba, Ceibo, Pochote and Balsa are all so much softer than cotton! 

Pictured here you see seeds of Cascarillo – Lafoensia punicifolia, Family: Lythraceae; Volador – Gyrocarpus jatrophifolius, Family: Hernandiaceae; and Cedro – Cedrela odorata, Family: Meliaceae.  We have also collected a large sack of seeds from Cocobollo - Dalbergia retusa and Guayaquil - Pseudosamanea guachapele (Kunth) Harms, Family: Fabaceae.  Botanists often confuse Guayaquil with Cenizaro – Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.   This is because Cenizaro and Guayaquil appear very similar when not in flower.  The Guayaquil tree, which predominates here at Reserva El Tigre, has cream flowers that later turn kind of yellow-ish, and you can also distinguish Guayaquil by the gland in the center of the petiole.  The Cenizaro tree has pink flowers.  They are both beautiful forest trees.  I believe botanists now call both Samanea and Pseudosamanea by the Genus Albizia.  Taxonomists sometimes shift and merge botanical names as they learn more about the plant.  Linnaeus was just the first, the grandfather of botanical and zoological taxonomy.  You need to learn the scientific names if you want to have a conversation with other botanists worldwide.  Sometimes the Latin plant names are the only words you will have in common.  But it’s a start…

Now here’s a metaphor for nature.  I came home to find this scorpion on the wall and it had just stung the grasshopper.  The grasshopper was in the throes of death, while the scorpion just calmly held on to it until it died.  We could do nothing to save the grasshopper’s fate and could only photograph the scorpion start to eat the dead grasshopper’s head.  The scorpion paid no attention to numerous flashes and photos as I moved closely around him.  Perhaps he thought I would tolerate him as I do the geckos and the tarantulas.  No dice, however.  We kill all venomous wildlife that gets into the house – a rare event now that we have screened the house completely - but we do, after all, live in a tropical forest…still, the house is my territory.