I just finished watching the lectures from Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, taught by Stephen Stearns at Yale. It’s available at Open Yale Courses as well as through iTunes U. The course includes 36 lectures, mostly about 45 minutes long and is an excellent introduction to these topics. It starts at microevolution and genetics, moves on to present macroevolution from several perspectives, leading into ecology and then a few lectures on behavior, including foraging, breeding and altruism.

It seems that many introductory biology courses available online are geared more towards pre-med students, with a focus on biochemistry and disease, while this course really is an overview of life on earth, how it evolved and how it interacts within species, across species and within the physical environment. I downloaded the lower-resolution videos through iTunes, and definitely could not read the slides. This wasn’t a problem, as it would work almost as well as an audio course, and I could still see more or less what was going on in the charts. There is a higher resolution version available at the Yale site, along with transcripts of the lectures and other materials.

Since returning to St. Martin, I’ve been out twice surveying the beaches at Grandes Cayes and Petites Cayes for sea turtle tracks and nests. We still haven’t seen any at these beaches, but another volunteer did see a hawksbill turtle on a local beach, so our luck may change soon.

I did get a few bird photos, mostly from the area near Eastern Point. This area is popular with the American kestrel, probably because the low vegetation allows it to hover above and see prey easily. Laughing gulls and magnificent frigatebirds are also often there as well, frequenting the nearby shallows and intertidal area. I believe the frigatebird in the photos may be a young male in the process of changing into its adult plumage. The juvenile has a white head and neck, while the adult male is a very dark brown or black.

There are three ponds in Grand Case, but on most maps they are not given names. However, I was able to find a set of maps that names them. The large pond that surrounds the airport is apparently Salines de l’aéroport. The small pond by the cemetery is, not surprisingly, Étang Cimitière. The third pond is relatively hidden, to the right side of the road when approaching Grand Case from Marigot, and is called Étang de Grand Case.

Étang de Grand Case is actually quite interesting. While it has some mangroves, much of the shoreline is flat and grassy, allowing the pond to expand and contract quite a bit depending on the water level. There are many birds on the pond, including pretty large numbers of coot, white-cheeked pintail and common moorhen. The common iguana is very common in many parts of the shoreline as well. It’s a bit of a hidden treasure that’s easy to get to and well worth visiting.

I have a variety of photos from a couple micro-excursions where I didn’t really leave Grand Case. The first bunch are some photos I did to see if a circular polarizer helped reduce flash glare on shiny insects. It doesn’t really, although apparently if you have polarizing film on your flashes and a polarizing filter on the lens, you can markedly reduce glare by doing cross-polarization. Maybe something to try in the future.

I also made a little trip up the hill to the cashew tree (known as a cherry bush in the Caribbean). It wasn’t cashew time, but there were a few interesting things to see anyway. It’s also a great place to get a nice view of Grand Case.

If there is one festival that is more unique and captivating than the annual Arrowroot Jollification, it is surely I Love my Ram Day. The 11th annual event was completed on July 10th after being rained out the previous weekend. It is a celebration of animal husbandry on the island, and the competition is broken out by breed – Creole, Nubian and Boer – as well as a special “young generation” category for young goats.

Although goats are certainly damaging to the local environment, this competition highlights how important they are to the local culture, providing a thread linking today’s Saint Martin to the agricultural roots of the island as it was before it developed a large tourism industry. On the one hand, it is nice to see some hillsides that have become significantly reforested over the last fifty years as the interest in livestock has waned, on the other hand, it would definitely be a shame to see that part of the island’s culture disappear entirely.

Anyhow, back to the show. Goats were paraded down the road into Colombier in various states of willingness. They were taken on stage and judged on their size, cleanliness and demeanor. Many points were lost by goats relieving themselves on stage. Goat stew and curry were eaten in large amounts. Everyone who attended the previous week was grateful for the sunshine. Goats won trophies. One goat won a cell phone. A local tradition was celebrated and a great time was had by all.

We hadn’t been diving on St. Martin for a while, so when founding team members Zackeau and Dr. Maillot arrived on the island for a visit, we headed out for a couple dives together. The sea was a bit rough, but we were able to make it out to the wreck of the Carib Cargo, a container ship we had not visited for several years.

Recently, the wreck was damaged at least twice, possibly by an anchor or tow-line, and the cabin of the ship was torn off and deposited a good distance away from the wreck. This was really a shame, and seems totally avoidable since the wreck itself was marked by a mooring. As it turned out, though, the wreck was really a secondary attraction because a dolphin spent most of the dive following us around and showing off how much better it was at swimming than we are. With the fisheye lens on my camera, I wasn’t likely to get any good photos of it unless it got really close, so I opted to just enjoy the rare opportunity to watch it.

After leaving Drake Bay, we gradually made our way back home, first to Sierpe and then to Puerto Jimenez where we rejoined the other team members, did some Extreme Shallow Snorkeling and photographed a few butterflies.

After that, it was back to Pavones for a last night with the team, on to Golfito and overnight in Alajuela before flying back to St. Martin. At our hotel in Alajuela, Orquideas Inn, we opted to explore the on-site gardens where there were quite a few interesting critters including some orchard spiders, heliconid butterflies and some intriguing beetles. Although it was a bit sad, we left Costa Rica with plenty of other adventures left to bring us back.

We took a day trip by boat to the San Pedrillo Ranger Station, one of four access points to Corcovado Park. It was considerably less difficult than the 8-hour hike each way that our team members were making to access the park. Our guided trip through the jungle featured many monkey sightings, including the large howler monkeys, a great currasow and many other creatures. We also went up to a beautiful waterfall on a small river where we were able to do some Extreme Shallow Snorkeling just a short bit downstream from a crocodile. Near the ranger station we even got a quick glance at a coati.

It would be impossible to truly decide, but The Night Tour in Drake Bay may have been the most memorable experience of the expedition. I have certainly seen plenty of nocturnal critters, but the combination of the biodiversity of the Osa Peninsula and the knowledge of Tracie and Gian made it a revelatory experience.

In a nutshell, Tracie covered the invertebrates (largely spiders, but there were some fascinating insects as well) while Gian covered the vertebrates (many frogs, but also a snake and two kinds of sloth). They were very knowledgable about the local wildlife and explained plenty of other eccentricities of the natural world, like wasps controlling the minds of spiders biochemically. There was also plenty of danger, including the constant possibility that we would encounter the deadly fer-de-lance viper or get bitten by a wandering spider.

There were many highlights. Amongst the insects, the leaf-mimic katydid and enormous walking stick were standouts. The most interesting spiders were the trap door spider and burrowing tarantula. Here Tracie’s skill and knowledge was very valuable as it is almost impossible to find a trap door spider unless you already know where its door is. We also saw the smoky jungle frog (which I kept trying to call the misty mountain frog) and the red-eyed tree frog, which is probably the most photographed frog of all time, but deserves the honor.

It was a little bit sad when we had to give back the headlamps.

Drake Bay, named after Sir Francis Drake, who visited there long ago, is on the Pacific coast just past the mouth of the Sierpe River. On arrival, our small taxi boat turned to face the sea about 50 meters off the beach and the captain cut the engines. A short distance down the beach, another taxi boat was doing the same and two men disembarked in neck-deep water, one carrying a small backpack above his head. We were concerned. We had luggage.

After a few perplexed moments, however, the captain slowly backed towards the beach while a couple people held the boat against the waves in knee-deep water and we were able to disembark without incident. Although there is a road, Bahía Drake is inaccessible by land during the rainy season (thoughtfully referred to as the “green season”). Thankfully, the local technique for getting on and off boats works quite well.

Drake Bay is a wonderful place, remote and full of interesting life. For the next few days we would use it as our base as we explored Isla del Caño and Corcovado park as well as the forests of Drake Bay itself. Our base camp, the lovely Jinetes de Osa, was terrific. Also, we discovered that if you stop by the bar area for a beer in the afternoon they make nachos for you.