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.

It had been a while since I’d been to the large bat cave, but when Patrick from Uncommon Caribbean was looking for unusual things to do on Saint Martin, it seemed like an obvious choice. We headed up in the afternoon a couple weeks ago and found things pretty much as they were before: lots of bats, lots of mosquitoes and plenty of smell. His terrific article about the bat caves, complete with video, is posted on the Uncommon Caribbean site. Below are a few photos I took while we were there.

Jenn, Michelle and I took a little hike on Pic Paradis which was quite enjoyable, heading up through the forest to Chewbaca Rock and then back down the edge of the forest. Going slowly, we managed to find a lot of small creatures including a gorgeous spider wasp and a coqui antillano hidden in a hollow tree branch.

When looking at the satellite imagery on Google Maps, Burgeaux Bay looks great. It’s a small bay between Maho and Simpson Bay that is surrounded by rocky areas. Underwater, we found what looked like it should be a fantastic snorkeling area with a mostly rock bottom that should be perfect for coral formation. Unfortunately, it was not very lively down there, with some algae and very few corals. For now, it’s a bit of a mystery to us why it isn’t the great snorkeling location it looks like it should be.

Still catching up, I have a few photos to post from two recent SXM Trails hikes. The hiking association hits the trail every Sunday morning at six am to hike different areas of the island and is a lot of fun.

My first hike of the year with them (after accidentally sleeping in on January 2nd) was a hike from Grand Case to Fort Louis via Friars’ Bay. It’s a walk I’ve made myself quite a few times, but it was nice to do it with the group. As a special bonus, my sister Michelle was visiting and came along for the hike!

The next week, we met at the food truck across from Hope Estate and went over Pea Tree Hill to Anse Marcel, then around the Pointe des Froussards, over the beach at Baie de Petites Cayes, along the coast of the wilderness area and back via Cul de Sac. On the rocky beach, I was delighted to find some isopods scampering on the coral rocks.

We headed from the north end of Baie aux Prunes around Pointe Prune without high expectations. There were scattered soft corals on a rocky bottom that seemed like it could have hosted more life. Things change, however, when we reached a natural arch just out of view of the beach. After swimming through the arch we found massive schools of a couple different kinds of fish. The smaller ones seemed to be herring, perhaps redear herring (Harengula humerali) and were present in the thousands. There were also schools of what looked like bonefish (Albula vulpes), which were much larger and present in the hundreds. Smaller groups of bar jack were hunting amidst the schools and several brown pelicans were diving down from above to fish in the shallow water.

Overall it turned out to be an amazing snorkel. Further out from the point there were a decent amount of tropical fish and small corals on the underwater rock formations, but the huge schools near the point were definitely the main attraction.

The small, offshore islet of Pinel is a well-known snorkeling area, but most of my favorite snorkeling spots on Pinel are outside the designated snorkel course. Earlier this month we visited three of the areas.

Since we were having lunch at Karibuni, the first one was around the coast just north of the restaurant. The sandy area around the restaurant’s pier gives way to seagrass, and then shallow rock formations covered in soft corals. Tropical fish were plentiful, and the area is relatively well-protected from waves.

Our next stop was the beach on the north shore of the island. It’s a beautiful beach that is generally quite quiet. Offshore, there is a large lagoon area that is protected from waves by coral formations that ring the beach with a few small breaks leading out to the ocean. Inside the lagoon the water is usually relatively calm and soft corals and fish abound. There are also numerous elkhorn corals, some of which reach over six feet in diameter.

We also took a few minutes to explore a series of shallow tide pools on the eastern side of the northern beach. Mostly less than a foot deep, they are populated primarily by juvenile fish.

On our next visit we’ll hopefully get a chance to explore the shallow drift zone and southern beach, two other great snorkeling spots at Pinel!

Despite less than ideal visibility, we headed to Pelican Key on January 4th with Laura to investigate the snorkeling. Even with relatively poor conditions, it was an interesting area. I found a small moray eel inside a large conch shell and an octopus. We departed from the point near the key and took a wide circle around it. Most of the undersea terrain is relatively shallow with rock formations that are host to small corals and sponges. Although it isn’t the best area we’ve seen, it’s definitely worth a visit, particularly if you’re nearby.

It’s been a busy month, but I’m finally going to try to catch up with some of the very interesting things I’ve seen above and below water this month. Right now, we’ve got creatures from both sides of the island from the beginning of this month.

Our first stop is Quartier de Orleans on the eastern side of the island. I overslept and missed the start of the SXM Trails hike, but went over anyways. I wasn’t able to locate the group, but I did take a nice walk near Mont Boeuf and saw a few interesting critters including a large hemipteran with loads of babies.

Later in the day we went to Christian’s house for some post-New Year’s relaxation and I found a few critters in his yard. Notables included a few caterpillars (one buckeye caterpillar and one I’m not familiar with), lots of gulf fritillaries, a gorgeous butterfly egg, and a variety of hemipterans. The most interesting find was some tetrio sphinx caterpillars that were on a tree beside a frangipani (their normal host plant). They were quite young and many were dead. Perhaps the mom goofed and laid them on an inedible tree by accident.

We made another quick stop at the three small islets by Baie de l’Embouchure on New Year’s Eve. We had a particularly great time walking out towards the southernmost islet in ankle-deep water, then letting the current push us back to Saint Martin at great speed through very shallow water.