Yann and Marie were doing construction at a house in Cul de Sac, and the unused swimming pool there had ten inches of water and thousands of frogs. Last Monday I went to check it out, but unfortunately they had already drained the pool. Luckily, Yann and Marie saved some frogs and tadpoles. I was particularly fond of the deformed frog you can see below. I also stopped at the nursery to see the Cuban treefrogs hiding in bromeliads again.
Between Wilderness in the northeast of the island and Pic Paradis in the central highlands, you can probably see most of the wildlife on the island. Below are a couple sets of photos, the first from Pic Paradise and the second from a hike starting at Pic Paradis and descending down near the Careta ravine towards Hope Estate.
The first set from Pic Paradis is mostly snails and insects, but there are a few spiders and a couple bearded anoles.
The second set is mostly snails and insects as well, including a checkered swallowtail with unusual coloration and a bearded anole that looks like an old man because he’s shedding his skin.
Below are a few photos of Bell Valley in mid-September. Lots of the trees were still missing leaves due to the salt spray from the hurricane, but were already starting to recover a little.
I’m way behind on my posting, but partially that’s because I’ve been updating my book, which is almost done. Anyhow, here are some animals from Friars’ Bay and Happy Bay earlier this month. The outlet that connects Étang Guichard to the sea in the middle of Friars’ Bay is actually one of the best places to see wading birds on the island.
Over the last week I’ve made an effort to get out more at night to check out the various nocturnal creatures which seem more plentiful now that the rains have made the island so lush. Below are some photos from a few recent night explorations. As usual, many small moths which I haven’t yet identified are represented.
A few days ago, we had the good fortune of being invited to head up to Tintamarre with the Petrelluzzi family and some friends. At Tintamarre, I had the chance to do a little exploration and take a couple photos of the Anguilla bank amieva, which is supposedly a different subspecies on Tintamarre from the population on St. Martin.
Next, we took a tour of the lagoon before picking up the kids from school and heading to the La Samanna end of Baie Longue, where the water was unbelievably clear and made for some great snorkeling. On our way back, we stopped near Happy Bay to see a brown pelican roosting area.
La Renée is a pretty large wreck sitting at about 40 meters deep off Baie aux Prunes. Going to that depth, one gets less than ten minutes of no decompression time at the bottom, but it’s still a very fun dive. We were also lucky to have numerous large jellyfish floating higher up in the water column. Some of them even had groups of small fish hanging out around them.
On Wednesday I made another trip out to Grandes Cayes and Petites Cayes to look for sea turtle tracks on the beach, but didn’t see any. I did manage to get some photos of a ghost crab that didn’t have a good getaway plan and just froze for a while. I also snapped a couple shots of the terrain at Wilderness and some examples of hills defoliated by grazing.
The other day I went on a longer than expected adventure through the Wilderness area of the island. I started off a little before seven to check my beaches for turtle tracks. Feeling pretty good after doing that, I decided to head cross-country up Red Rock, the mountain behind Petite Cayes. At first, progress up a dry gulch was quite good, although things started to get pretty dense once the slope leveled out near the top.
Rather than turn back, I decided to push through and descend down towards Cul de Sac. This took several hours longer than I anticipated, through thorny scrub and fields of the bromeliad that has serrated leaf edges like knives. For a time I had to stop taking photos because if I stopped moving I would be swarmed by dozens of mosquitoes. I also became quite thirsty in the hours after I ran out of water.
Eventually, though I made it to the top of the ridge overlooking Cul de Sac and merely had to climb all the way down on a field of boulders to get to civilization. At four o’clock, covered with scratches and dirt, and having a large hole in the butt of both my shorts and underwear, made it back to the road, stopped at the first place I found and drank a liter and a half of water and immediately got severe cramps. Was it worth it? It’s hard to say, but I’m not going to try it again in the near future.
Below are a few sets of photos from various excursions in search of wildlife. The first set is from the area near the Grand Case airport. There were quite a few creatures, but the mosquitoes were out in force, which made it hard to stop and take photos:
At the other end of town, I travelled from the cemetery area to Friar’s Bay and Happy Bay. Between the aforementioned bays I ran into a very curious cuckoo, the first one I’ve seen on the island.
Finally, here are a few stray shots from a visit to Pinel.
