The day after the cleanup at Fresh Pond, I met with volunteers to plant trees near Little Bay Pond. A joint effort by the St. Maarten Pride Foundation, the Nature Foundation and EPIC, the event was well-attended, including many students. Volunteers planted a variety of trees between the pond and the roadside, as well as a number of red mangroves at the water line. Stones were collected to mark the newly-planted trees, and trash was collected from the area. We even saw a really nice rainbow!

With all the activity, it was also a good chance to see a few creatures, particularly when picking up rocks. Although I had to skip my SXM Trails hike to attend the planting, it was well worth it.

I recently participated in a clean-up of Fresh Pond that was organized by the Sint Maarten Pride Foundation, EPIC and Youth Link. The clean-up area centered around a bird watching hut built by EPIC which is currently home to a squatter. The amount of trash in the area was staggering, but we were able to do quite a bit of cleaning in the area. The incoming public health minister came by with his staff and didn’t hesitate to get into the muck to get the trash picked up.

There were also lots of spiders, which are apparently quite common around the ponds of the area because of the abundance of midges.

Fort Louis is always a nice stop for visitors to the island, so we took Jenn’s mom there before she left. Here are a few photos of the fort.

Even more exciting was the nearby museum. I’ve already visited it a couple times, so the displays were nothing new, but Christophe did show me a tiny hummingbird nest with two chicks inside. He was even nice enough to get me a ladder so I could take some photos. As you can see, baby hummingbirds are quite cute. These were the Antillean crested hummingbird, which is actually very small even for a hummingbird.

UPDATE: I’m adding a few photos that were sent to me by the Museum/Archeological Association photographer Hervé Baïs. If you like Saint Martin, you will surely enjoy his SXM photoblog.

On a recent visit to Friars’ Bay, I saw a number of birds. There were plenty of carib grackles, some of which seemed to be adolescents with sort of intermediate coloration. I also saw a duck I wasn’t familiar with and what seemed to be a small parrot. With no native parrots on the island, I would guess this one may have escaped from captivity, but I didn’t get a photo.

Finally, I’m wrapping up the posts for everything I did in January. This last post is a few of the insects I’ve seen (mostly) around our apartment. My favorite is actually the lace bug that I found near Supermarché Match in Marigot. Tiny, but ornate, it’s the kind of thing you only find when you’re waiting around for someone to do some “quick” shopping.

The guide is now available at the Museum in Marigot.

My most recent hike with SXM Trails was probably my favorite so far. Starting early in the morning from Concordia, we climbed Mont des Accords before traveling to the top of St. Peter’s Hill, Sentry Hill and a few unnamed hilltops before ending up on Arlet Peters Road between Philipsburg and Cole Bay. The views were amazing, and Jean Michel showed me several types of orchids along the way (none of which are in bloom at this time of year).

We took Jenn’s mom to Pinel last week, which was also a good opportunity to photograph some of the other snorkeling spots on the island. We started at the beach in the southeast of the island. There’s a little bay that is ringed with coral, including a number of coral heads in the sandy areas. Some areas are also covered in seagrass, where I saw a southern stingray. I would say overall it’s not as awesome as the north beach on Pinel, but it’s pretty nice.

Next I walked out on the rocky shore to access the Extreme Shallow Snorkeling drift zone that is just to the north. This very shallow area probably averages 12-24 inches in depth and has strong currents sweeping down towards the southeast beach. Here the coral fans are bent over like fir trees on a windy coastline or mountaintop. Even fighting against the current, it was a pretty quick ride back to the southeast beach.

Between the dock and the snorkel course is another extremely shallow shoal that can be fun to snorkel. The terrain is mostly covered by algae, but there are quite a lot of juvenile fish to be seen. If you look carefully, sea hares and nudibranchs can be seen here, too.

Our last stop was the designated snorkeling track. We saw a gigantic hermit crab and a bunch of sergeant majors that were behaving suspiciously like they are being fed in this area (immediately swarming around me). I think heavy traffic may have taken a toll on this area. In some ways, I suppose, this is good if it means that some of the more pristine reef areas around Pinel are disturbed less.

After taking Patrick from Uncommon Caribbean to the bat cave, I actually returned a few days later with Joe from the St. Maarten Zoo. The zoo actually has a bat house featuring one of the local species that is in the cave, so Joe wanted to see them in the wild.

After a little trouble, we were able to sort out permission to visit the cave. The security guard who wanted to make sure we weren’t camping in the cave apparently has neither seen nor smelt said cave. In addition to observing the bats, I spent a little more time trying to find invertebrates in the cave. Spiders, cockroaches, crickets and whip spiders were abundant. I can’t tell for sure, but I believe there are also many small parasites on the roof of the cave where the bats roost. They appear as small dots in a couple photos below that show bats on the white cave ceiling.

We waited until nightfall to see if the bats would all swarm out of the cave at once. They did not. Starting around dusk, they would fly out singly or in small groups. If there is a mass exodus, it must happen in complete darkness.

For more info on St. Martin and Caribbean bats, check out The Incomplete Guide and BatHead.

A couple Sundays ago, I left early in the morning to hike with the SXM Trails hiking association. The route was fairly long, starting at Grand Case and heading up Pic Paradis via Hope Estate. On our way back, we took the road through St. Louis before taking a trail down to Friars’ Bay and back to Grand Case. Although it was a bit tiring, there was plenty to see on the hike, and I got to travel a few places where I hadn’t been (the upper part of the track from Hope Estate, which I have always bypassed in favor of a ravine, and the route through Ft. Louis to Friars’ Bay). The group of hikers was also the biggest yet, and included some visitors from the US.

Some highlights included a beautiful, fat skipper caterpillar, a young dwarf gecko wandering out and about during the day and a fiery skipper, my first sighting of this butterfly on the island.