If you write a book on the wildlife of Saint Martin and have it sold at the zoo gift shop, one bonus is that you get to visit the St. Maarten Zoo. When we went to drop off some books the manager, Joe, took us on a deluxe tour. Our favorite part was, of course, feeding the monkeys. It’s not a huge zoo, but they have tons of birds, many monkeys and lots of other animals. Definitely worth a visit.
Saint Martin has at least sixteen salt ponds, most of which are both heavily polluted and important wetland habitats. Often ringed with mangroves, they’re a great place to see a variety of birds as well as iguanas and invertebrates.
The first photos in this post are from Étang Chevrise near Orient Bay. In the late afternoon, there was a large flock of pelicans and a mysterious chicken egg on a rock in the water. I also found a number of interesting spiders.
At Étang Guichard, between Grand Case and Friars’ Bay, a family of common moorhens was out feeding. I am particularly fond of moorhen chicks because they are bald.
A few days after that, we also saw moorhen families at the Great Salt Pond, as well as some black-necked stilts and a green heron.
It had been a while since I’d been to the large bat cave, but when Patrick from Uncommon Caribbean was looking for unusual things to do on Saint Martin, it seemed like an obvious choice. We headed up in the afternoon a couple weeks ago and found things pretty much as they were before: lots of bats, lots of mosquitoes and plenty of smell. His terrific article about the bat caves, complete with video, is posted on the Uncommon Caribbean site. Below are a few photos I took while we were there.
An article about the bats and one of the bat caves featured in the guide, complete with some excellent video!
On-Site St. Martin: Communing with the Bats of La Grotte de Puits de Terres Basse
www.uncommoncaribbean.com
On my last two visits to St. Martin, I spent a lot of time on the beach. Whether it was whiling away my birthday in my birthday suit, taking in the sheer scale of Long Bay, or drinking rum infusions at Friar’s Bay, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I mean the […]