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.

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.

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.

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 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.