Here’s where I post close-ups of some Butterfly Farm residents.

I have a few more photos from yesterday’s dives. The first set is from a wreck near The Proselyte. Little remained of the ship, but nearby there were large mounds of rock covered in sponges and corals that were quite interesting…and divers in Santa hats.

We also made further explorations of the area around Creole Rock. Late in the day, it was a bit dark and spooky underwater. As we were leaving the familiar parts of Creole Rock, Sally found an injured spadefish. As we continued on, the sea floor became like a scrubland with small sponges, corals and sea grasses and a variety of small fish hiding amongst them. Not a place where one would guide divers looking for excitement, it was an interesting chance to see a terrain not frequently explored. In many of these photographs, I had the background underexposed, which makes them look a bit light landscapes taken on a starry night.

Madam J was tired, but I managed to rouse her to attend the Grand Case Christmas Parade. We ran into Stuart there and were just in time to watch all the floats go by. Afterwards, we went to the Christmas village to enjoy a Presidente and the festive yuletide sounds of the Jolly Boys.

Today we went out to dive a number of spots that I have not been to previously, which was quite a treat. The first was a large rock or very small island called Molly Beday. Although it is a known dive site (we found an abandoned mooring when we went down), I don’t think it is in common use these days.

We anchored and dove on the side of the island facing St. Martin, and it was basically a fairly steep slope with large, coral and sponge covered rocks trailing down to the ocean floor. There were quite a few nice elkhorn corals, which we don’t see a lot around here. We also found an old porcupinefish that seemed to be blind in one eye. The reef seemed quite healthy and the slope and large boulders made it easy to take some nice photos. It isn’t a convenient site to reach, but it was rather rewarding.

A couple days ago I visited The Butterfly Farm, which is a nice attraction and definitely worth a visit. The farm features a variety of tropical butterflies, including many Asian species. They give tours where they teach the life cycle and habits of butterflies.

The staff was very nice, and very helpful. Earlier I had emailed asking names of some of the local species and Karin was kind enough to email me back with them. While visiting, they also identified a colorful moth I had seen on Goat Mountain, the hieroglyphic moth. Unfortunately, there are few indigenous species remaining on St. Martin due to habitat destruction and mosquito spraying. According to Karin, there are more remaining on Saba, particularly at the higher elevations.

Visiting on a cloudy morning was ideal for taking photos because the butterflies were relatively sedate and easily approached.

Today we undertook one of the most exciting explorations I’ve ever done. With a rental car, we headed to the southern end of Baie de l’Embouchure where an inlet connects Étang aux Poissons with the ocean. This is where I noticed yesterday that there are mangroves at the very edge of the sea. You may see the photo and think that a single small clump of trees seems inconsequential, but it is the only mangrove I have found thus far that doesn’t stand in contaminated, unswimmable waters.

We entered the water in the bay and swam to the outermost mangrove. The floor was a mix of shallow sea grasses and deeper (but still only perhaps 5 feet deep) sandy channels. There were scores of small fishes schooling and numerous young barracuda. As we approached the mangrove, we began to see checkered puffers (Spphoeroides testudineus) alone or in small groups.

From the well-lit shallows, it was a sudden transition at the edge of the mangroves. Fishes swam amongst the mangrove roots and young lobsters clustered in great numbers. There were also clusters of anemones, which may prove difficult to identify.

Though it could often be said, the photos truly do no this locale no justice. In the nearby area, we saw several very speedy crabs and a small fish that rests vertically, but turns on its side to swim. Perhaps it likes to keep one eye on the lookout for predators from above.

After exploring the mangroves, we swam through the bay and out to a small island that was separated from the shore by very shallow water. In just a few hundred yards, we had traversed several types of sea grass beds, sandy banks, stony shoals and mangroves. Truly an extraordinary site for Extreme Shallow Snorkeling that deserves more attention!

Yesterday I headed to The Butterfly Farm (which I will post about separately), but my travels actually took me quite a bit beyond there to the town of Oyster Pond at the French/Dutch border. My route was down the airport road, past Cul de Sac and Orient Bay to The Butterfly Farm, then around the seaward side of the Étang aux Poissons and then around the coastline to Oyster Pond. On the way back, I returned along the coastline, then on the inside of Étang aux Poissons to French Quarter, where I took a bus back to Grand Case.

En route I saw many interesting things. Since the morning was cloudy, I was able to get a couple close shots of the local anole lizards, including one that shows the orange neck-flap, although it is not fully extended. I was also able to get my first decent shot of the large sulfur butterfly. In the marsh across from The Butterfly Farm I was lucky enough to witness the large white butterfly laying its yellow eggs. There was also an egret/heron type bird that was at least twice as big as the other ones I’ve seen around here.

After traversing the seaward side of the fish pond, I found a shallow bay where the mangroves extend to the ocean. Perhaps this is the best (or only) place to snorkel the mangroves in uncontaminated water. Not wanting to head back the way I came, I was forced to ford the inlet through chest-high water with my shoes and camera gear hoisted above my head. Perhaps not the smartest thing I have done with my camera, but at least I did have the presence of mind to test my route without my camera first.

The area past this bay was quite lovely, a scrub-land that reminded me a bit of the American southwest. Returning past the mangroves, I found a couple jellyfish that seemed to be trapped and an interesting duck.

I’m not sure how one defines epic in regard to walks, but today I walked for six hours from Grand Case past Cul de Sac to a nature walk in the preserve that ends up at Anse Marcel and then back to Grand Case. Now I will recount some of what I saw.

Before reaching the nature reserve, as you will see in the photos below, I saw a very large tree, a cotton plant and a newly hatched monarch butterfly that I could photograph easily because it was not yet ready to fly. There were also numerous butterflies drinking from the mud that had retained the morning’s rain. I also saw lots of donkeys who came by hoping I had some food. Donkeys are really neat if you look at them up close.

The nature trail was very nice. According to the signage, it circumnavigates the last intact littoral forest in Saint Martin. The sign also claims that 182 species of flora and 25 species of vertebrates are present in the forested area. I cannot confirm this, but there were a lot of plants and at least a couple kinds of lizards. The unfortunate part about the trail is that it begins at a dump and ends abruptly at a sewage treatment plant. But in between is some gorgeous coastline, interesting terrain and plenty of nature to enjoy.

The trail begins on a shore made primarily of large chunks of coral skeleton. Interspersed are large pieces of layered rock, some of which also contain coral. Heading up from there, you enter a scrubby land that also features large jutting rock formations. If you look at the photo below with two hills in the background and two rocks in the foreground, you may notice that on the hill behind the right hand rock there is an exposed patch of layered rock at the exact same angle. Perhaps this indicates that some or all of the island was created by some type of seismic movement. Also, the underwater formations at the reef Aure found (now named Kusasa Reef) also seem to match the same angle and structure. This would indicate geological continuity between both underwater and above-water landscapes, which is pretty likely anyways, but still kind of neat.

I found what may be another species of little blue butterfly (like the furry one from a few posts ago) which is darker than the other one that I have seen. (In the photos it is the one that is gray with a little tail, but I remember referring to that family of butterflies as ‘blues’ in my childhood.) Also pictured are one of the big black bumblebees that are frequently seen, a spider tending its web and several pelicans that were fishing just offshore.

I have seen small black butterflies in various places, but have never been able to get a close look. To my great delight, in a semi-wooded part of the walk I was able to see many of them and photograph what I think are actually probably two different species of little black butterfly. There were also many land-dwelling hermit crabs. My favorite used its one large claw to block the door to its home.

On my way back, I stopped to rest near an abandoned concrete structure and found its underside covered in wasp nests made of mud. I also learned that there are almost always iguanas at the airport. More importantly, the one I saw today was half-way between the previous pair in both size and coloration. I think this is a pretty strong indication that they start bright green and then turn gray-brown as they age.

All in all, a very interesting exploration. I do feel that I pretty much reached the limit of my current capacity for walking up and down hills and such in tropical heat, but that is what I am here to do.

Some people have told me that they enjoy these posts about diving and snorkeling, but they are wondering if Madam J has found any interesting moths on our veranda. In fact, she has, and here it is!

This morning I went on two Dutch side wreck dives: The Gregory, which I mentioned yesterday and The Fusheng. The Fusheng was being used as a cargo vessel when it sank, and is the deepest regularly visited dive site in the area as far as I know. The seas were calmer and the visibility better than yesterday.

At 34 meters, the water is a very deep blue and the effects of nitrogen narcosis (Cousteau refers to it as “the rapture of the deep”) were noticeable. In addition to feeling very relaxed, I was easily lost in the beauty of the undersea world. When I would then remember to check my dive computer after long periods of quiet contemplation, I would find it had only been one or two minutes since I last checked it. In this manner, the 20 minutes I spent on the wreck seemed leisurely.

Notable creatures included the field of garden eels waving from the sand near the wreck, large schools of fish and a southern stingray.

At The Gregory I enjoyed taking pictures of the interior from outside and cruising the nearby reef in search of nurse sharks that often rest under debris. On our descent and ascent a number of great barracuda were keeping watch above the wreck.