Nests, More Nests, a “Graduation” & a Mother’s Note

We have been seeing a lot of nests around the Reserve in May. It began in late-April with a Silver-Throated Tanager nest. Though they have since fledged, we still see the family of 4 around the cabaña plantain feeders each day.

We have so many different styles of nests throughout 2025:

• Hummingbird nests with small, soft materials including some colorful flowers
• Andean Solitaire nests built into an earthen wall
• *Orange-Billed Sparrow nest built on the ground with a roof made of sticks to cover it & make it inconspicuous
• *Thick Billed Euphonia nest built so high we can’t monitor it’s progress, but we can see the “parents” flying in and out throughout the day
• *Slaty Spinetail nest built into an orb of sticks that you cannot see into
• *Yellow Throated Chlorospingus nest is made of moss and uses the naturally growing foliage and moss as a part of the nest
• Silver Throated Tanager nest covered by moss and fiercely guarded by the “parents”
• *Red Faced Spinetail nest is inside of foliage that is hanging from a branch in a tree

*indicates currently active nests

Though we would love to share pictures of every nest, we are trying to keep our distance to ensure the nests have the best chance at success. However, we are actively documenting the progress of each nest at the Reserve with our other science data. If you’re planning a visit in the next 3 weeks, we will happily point them out to you from the cabaña!

A “Graduation”

May brought the close of homeschooling for our resident 5^th grader, Parker. Parker will move on to 6^th grade in August which is the start of “Middle School” where we live. We conducted a fun “graduation” ceremony for him where he got to parade around the house to a graduation song of his choosing. Joshua made him a cap and gown and Danielle conducted the ceremony and gave a speech.

We wanted to get a final interview from Parker to get his thoughts!

How has your experience been at RLT?

Great. There were sometimes where I wanted to leave and didn’t want us to be on the job. After a while, I kind of grew into this place and I will miss it forever, to be honest.

What is your favorite thing about RLT?

Nature, the birds. There are a variety of birds and doing outside work sometimes was fun and sometimes was annoying. I got to see some cool birds and some enormous birds like the Crested Guan, which is my favorite. We got to see some mammals like the Central American Agouti and Nine-Banded Armadillo in the yard!

What is your least favorite thing about RLT?

No internet!!! (he asked for 3 exclamation marks in particular) It is nice because it forces you to look outside but sometimes, I wonder stuff or have questions and have to wait until we go to town to look it up.

What was your favorite part about homeschool at RLT?

There were less classes and after school, if it wasn’t science, I could just chill.

What was your least favorite part about homeschool at RLT?

Math.

What was your favorite subject in school this year?

Reading and Writing. Plus, a little bit of science.

What are you looking forward to in 6^th grade?

Not being overwhelmed by the people and to be an average student.

What are you looking forward to when you get back to Utah?

Internet, being able to flush toilet paper, good showers, other people I can talk to that aren’t just my mom and Joshua isolated together.

Any Final Thoughts?

I have found my love for a lot more animals here at Reserva Las Tangaras. My favorite animal was the Nine-Banded Armadillo but now is the Central American Agouti “It’s so cute OMG”. I didn’t really have a favorite bird before but now it’s the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. It is so cute; it looks like an alive stuffed animal.

I enjoyed just waking up and seeing the sunshine on the leaves and hearing the birds chirping. You don’t know what you’re going to see that day. Every day is magical here.

A Mother’s Note

Happy Mother’s Day! I wanted to take a moment to note my experience as a mother with a child at Reserva Las Tangaras.

Thinking back, Joshua & I were worried that since we had a child that would need to accompany us, we wouldn’t be eligible for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Dr. Becker was excited to hear we would be accompanied by an 11-year-old, and we were able to let out a sigh of relief. When I was 10/11 years old, I never would have imagined an opportunity like this. At that age, I recall being a great big ball of confusion and emotions (OH THE EMOTIONS). This was an amazing opportunity for us as a family.

Before coming to RLT, I was a hard-working mom navigating the world and trying to create a great life for Parker. My personality-type centering around ambition and perfectionism, I didn’t realize that I was actively missing out on Parker’s life. I was overworked and exhausted. Proposing movie and pizza nights instead of building Lego or drawing comics. I was a tired, overstimulated ball of stress.

For nearly 5 months now, the 3 of us have been spending a lot of quality time together, learning together, exploring together and acclimating together. Adjusting to a remote lifestyle after a lifetime of living in the city has been incredibly enlightening, to say the least.

Now that I have had time to slow down, I realize what I’ve been missing, but most importantly I realize what I’ve been present for since we arrived in Ecuador on 31 December. I have been able to watch my little boy grow into an adolescent. He has gotten taller, his face has taken shape and he exudes happiness daily. The best part was that I got to watch it all happen, I got to watch every moment. Thinking about what comes next: friendships, first love, new hobbies, High School, planning for adulthood, etc. I am so grateful to have been able to intentionally slow things down at this stage of his life and realize it’s importance, so I don’t miss out anymore. It is important, it’s not just a part of life.

My most prized takeaway from this experience is remembering what is most important to me, what truly brings me joy: my little family. We now know we can live on an ultra-tight budget, we can hike miles to get to the nearest services, we can tolerate only seeing/talking to each other for up to 2 weeks, we can help each other through different struggles, we can have the difficult and awkward conversations, we can learn new skills together and much much more. We can do all of this AND wake up happy every day. No busy city life, constant stimuli or job can take that away from us now.