As rich and famous amateur naturalists are wont to do, I took a day trip to St. Barths with Jenn, our friends Marc and Laura, and Marc’s parents. After a bumpy, but reasonable, 45-minute ferry ride, we went out to the beach near St. Jean. While the others rested on the beach, I took a short hike in the nearby hills to check out the local fauna. In particular, I was interested in locating a species of iguana that is now extinct on St. Martin. After catching some nice views and taking an abandoned road to a small pond, I was able to find my iguana. Clearly differentiated from the green iguana by its lack of a subtympanic scale (i.e., a large round scale below the ear), it’s quite a gorgeous lizard.

The island itself is quite beautiful. The topography and vegetation is quite similar to St. Martin on a smaller scale. One of the most interesting things to note was the abundance of small islets surrounding the island. We were sad to depart so quickly, but determined to return.

It is pretty much impossible to get tired of watching and photographing pelicans. When we went to the marina at Pelican Key to catch the ferry to St. Barths, I had another perfect opportunity to do just that. I also happened to find some interesting leafhoppers on one of the trees.

After a busy January, I’ve finally been updating the blog with our latest adventures on Saint Martin. Bat caves, snorkeling spots and lots of wildlife!

Les Fruits de Mer – Extreme Shallow Snorkeling Team
www.lesfruitsdemer.org
The world’s premiere extreme shallow snorkeling team.

The old pier in Grand Case is a great snorkeling location, particularly for small creatures like decorator crabs, baby lobsters and blennies. The posts are covered with algae, tunicates and sponges. On previous visits, I’ve done only macro photography there, but a few weeks ago I took my fisheye lens to try to capture the feel of the pier.

My last attempt to climb Mont O’Reilly was the best so far. Although I didn’t have time to try for the top, I did find a very serviceable passage from the villas above La Savane to the dip between Mont O’Reilly and the unnamed peak to its southwest. The passage was clearly made some time ago and subsequently overgrown, but the going was pretty easy and there were lots of interesting insects. The passage ended in a field, which itself ended in a bit of forest, which ended at a stone wall that bordered a large pasture area that extends all the way to the slope of Pic Paradis across from the lookout point/beginning of the extreme zipline course. Really a terrific hike, and next time I’ll go earlier and see how close I can get to the top of Mont O’Reilly.

The book is now back in stock at At Book’s End in Simpson Bay. (And still available at the Philipsburg Museum and the Zoo gift shop.)

The last couple times I’ve been to Pinel and searched the little forest in the southeast for creatures, I have noticed something peculiar. Of the two dwarf geckos that I had seen in the area previously, I have only seen one. Sphaerodactylus sputator seems to be entirely absent now in an area where it was previously quite common. Perhaps it’s just chance that I haven’t seen any, only time will tell. I also happened to see a kingfisher, but didn’t get a photo of it. The American kestrel scanning the fields for prey was much more accommodating.

Nestled at the foot of the central mountains, Colombier is one of the prettiest towns on the island. I recently did a little cross-country hike from the entrance to Colombier, up to the “castle” and over to Morne Valois. I started at the little stream near the main road, where I found large crayfish and three species of freshwater fish. Later highlights included a color variation of Gasteracantha cancriformes that I hadn’t seen before and the very strange micropezid fly that I had seen previously on Pic Paradis. The last portion of my journey was a rather difficult scramble through dense brush leading to an abandoned water storage facility and, finally, through someone’s backyard back into civilization.

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.