The last SXM Trails hike started in Concordia heading up Marigot Hill, I think, and circling around several hills in the St. Peters and Reward areas of the Dutch side of the island. Although none of the hills were very high, there was quite a bit of up and down, making it a pretty good workout. Included below is a photo of the tiny citrus-type fruit that grows in various places on the island. Apparently this is limeberry or mutton lemon and the tiny fruits are edible. Although it isn’t technically a citrus fruit, it is close enough to be a host plant for the checkered swallowtail caterpillar. This shrub is originally from southeast Asia and is considered a weed in some places and a potential crop in others. It’s also popular for bonzai, I guess because it has tiny fruit.

Last Saturday, Ronald Pieters led a bird walk around Salines d’Orient. We saw plenty of birds, many of which were in their breeding plumage. In addition to a number of species I had seen before, we saw a black-bellied plover, which is probably the largest plover in the area. I was also fascinated to see an immature little blue heron wearing mottled, intermediate plumage between the white plumage of its youth and the dark adult plumage. If you’re interested in birds, now is a great time to get out and see them on St. Martin.

This is also a good place for me to mention Observado.org, which is a site where you can post sightings of birds and other animals as well as photos if you have them. This is a great way for enthusiasts to help put together a picture of the wildlife on the island. Records of what species are here and where they live can also help us better understand what areas of the island are most in need of protection as important habitats.

I snapped a few more shots of the brown pelicans hanging out on Little Key from the Pinel ferry. I’ve been told the large flock (over forty birds at times) has been going back and forth between Little Key and Étang Chevrise. While we were passing, there weren’t too many, but there were still perhaps a dozen or more on the rocks and another dozen roosting in the trees and shrubs on the island.

While waiting to meet someone at the Pinel ferry dock, I had an unusual sighting of two Hudsonian whimbrels at the edge of Étang de la Barrière. The area is currently cordoned off to allow the mangroves to regrow undisturbed. Also present were egrets, a willet and a yellow-crowned night heron. It’s worth taking a look next time you’re headed over to Pinel.

There were no sea turtle tracks on my beaches when I visited May 6th, but that wasn’t too surprising, because last year there were very few at the beginning of the season. I did find a number of other animals on the way. On my way back through Cul de Sac, I also had the rare opportunity to photograph a syrphid fly that I’ve seen before, but rarely alights long enough to capture.

In early May, I made a quick trip back to the Grotte du Puits de Terres Basses with some gentlemen from the Réserve Naturelle, as it is surely a site of interest on the island that warrants observation and protection. Although it is fairly large, and just a few minutes’ walk from the road, it can be difficult to find if you don’t know exactly where to enter the dense scrub. Since I was just showing them the location of the cave, we didn’t spend much time there, but a few photos are below.

Below is a small gallery of insects and spiders seen near Friars’ Bay in late April. My favorite find was the very small leafhopper with patterned forewings that it held out in the air.

Once again falling behind on my posts, here are a variety of critters I found on Pic Paradis. Most are insects, including some picture-winged flies, a type of fly I have seen laying eggs inside flowers. I also found a number of cricket nymphs, and a nymph of the buck-toothed katydid. Other interesting finds included a tiny white and green spider and some as-yet-unidentified hemipterans.

The first book from Les Fruits de Mer is available on Saint Martin and via mail order. For more info, visit The Incomplete Guide to the Wildlife of Saint Martin in the guides section of this site.

Yesterday afternoon I went on a quick expedition to the lagoon area off the north beach of Pinel with Pauline from the Réserve Naturelle. Our goal was to check the elkhorn corals to see if there were broken pieces suitable for transplanting. Elkhorn corals are both prone to breakage and often do well when transplanted.

At the large elkhorn we located we found a very interesting scene. The main colony was large and healthy. There were a couple pieces I had wedged into the dead coral substrate on an earlier visit as well as a number of other pieces on the sea floor. While a few of these were loose, many of them had managed to affix themselves and were growing in the areas down-current from the main colony. Most surprising was one particularly large branch that had affixed itself upside-down with the broken part at the top.

It was encouraging to see how well the coral was colonizing naturally with the broken pieces, but we also planned to visit the site regularly. Even though many pieces had successfully reattached, it is unclear what the percentage of successful reattachment is. It is possible that the dozen successes are just a small subset of the total number of broken pieces. A bit more ominous was the presence of a fair amount of algae in the lagoon, perhaps indicating an excess of nutrients that could be problematic for corals. More news to come!