Why do we organize an annual Welcome Back Migratory Birds Festival?
I recently sat aboard an “iron bird” headed south from Toronto, Canada to San José, Costa Rica, thinking about the many real (and much, much smaller) migratory birds charting a similar (or much, much longer) course compared to that plane. It is awe-inspiring! Among the migratory species: the beautiful Chestnut-sided Warblers, the emblem of Finca […]
Happy second and third birthday to my “babies”
I only have the one human baby, and it’s not her first birthday quite yet. But my other “babies” include Finca Cántaros Environmental Association (FCEA), legally incorporated in British Columbia, Canada two years ago yesterday (August 21, 2020), and the Children’s Forest, a collaborative community project created on cattle pasture within FCEA grounds in 2019. […]
The blog is back with exciting updates! But why the break?
The short answer: we’ve been so busy collaborating with partner organizations and multiple community members in order to plant hundreds of trees, while simultaneously running both ongoing and new programs, that my bandwidth for blogging has been limited. Perhaps that sounds a bit like one of those job interview exchanges where the potential employer asks, […]
Time for celebrations (and tests!) in honour of the Day of the Tree
FCEA is thrilled to celebrate exciting news with you: we recently acquired 42 hectares of primarily degraded cow pasture. The land is ripe with potential for forest restoration projects we can carry out in collaboration with our community and wonderful partner organizations, such as Osa Conservation, San Vito Bird Club, Las Cruces Biological Station, the […]
39 and thinking about time (and tropical forests)
I turn 39 today. As the date approached I indulged in cliché birthday behaviour of thinking about time—what has changed over the years, or not, and what is to come. When I was about to turn 13, I was living in Seoul, South Korea due to my dad’s job as a diplomat. Despite being contained […]
The “Bumbling Landowner” is back with her “bomba”*
The last time I wrote about being the “Bumbling Landowner,” I was nearly eight months pregnant. The baby I was carrying inside me then is now just over eight months old, and she accompanied me on my most recent Bumbling Landowner adventure. Let me remind you that I self-apply the “Bumbling Landowner” label with the […]
Discover something new in Nature and yourself on our Night Walks
How do you feel when you see a snake? Or a frog? Or a spider? Or all of the above? It doesn’t matter if you recoil with revulsion or get pumped up with excitement: the invitation to the Friday Night Walks at Finca Cántaros extends equally to everyone. This program is one of the many […]
Reflections on the unofficial anniversary of Finca Cántaros Environmental Association
Another month of March is coming to a close. And apologies to March, but for me, it will forever be synonymous with the dramatic divide between the pre-pandemic world and the Covid-dominated one that took hold in 2020. But I don’t only associate this month with all the new verbs that entered our vernacular that […]
To sea turtles and someone special
If you are a regular reader of this blog (thank you!), you are well aware that I’m *kind of* into birds. So you might understandably assume that the high diversity of bird species in Costa Rica is what first attracted me to this country. Surprise! It was not birds, but sea turtles. During my first […]
How the magic of this place connected us
In 1994, Gail Hull first sat by “Zoncho Lagoon” on a property she later named Finca Cántaros, here in San Vito, Costa Rica. She was moved by the magic of the place. She was drawn to the contours of the land, even though it was just cattle pasture at the time. And, she was fired […]
