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.

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.

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.

As I gradually close out my photo library for 2010, I have a few insects from around our apartment in December.

And, a few more photos of the sky.

I had a couple last excursions in December, one of which was the inauguration of a new trail around Pinel Islet. There were a variety of important folks there, like the prefect of French Saint Martin and the director of coastal areas for France, who had flown in to check out Saint Martin. Yann and Marie had made a fake boat with wildlife games for children that is now on the beach at the end of the new trail.

The other excursion was an SXM Trails hike from La Belle Creole to various parts of Terres Basses. En route we stopped by Le Trou de David and at the end of our walk we lucked out with a lovely rainbow.

Once again, here are some of Saint Martin’s tiniest residents from the Grand Case area. Of particular interest to me was the awesome spider in the first two photos. It also seems to be a good time of year for many true bugs (order Hemiptera). I feel like I see species I have not seen before almost every day.

Continuing my research on the new hairstreak, I recently took a quick jaunt, looping from Grand Case to Hope Estate and back via the airport road. Although the habitat on this trip was limited primarily to patches of grassland between developed areas, there was a large variety of invertebrate life on display, including several insect species I had not yet seen before.

After a lovely evening at Calmos celebrating my birthday, I managed to get up well before dawn to go meet up with the SXM Trails hiking club for a trek around my favorite local spot, Bell Point. The hike was lovely, of course, and there were a couple stretches through areas I had never walked through. It’s also the first time I’ve been serenaded with the happy birthday song on a hike! Next Sunday we are headed to La Belle Creole.

Hairstreak Alley is actually the dirt track continuing from Route du Millrum in Grand Case, but I figured I would call it that because that’s where I found the new hairstreak butterfly the other day. I was back today to do some research on it and the plants where it feeds because preliminary analysis by a stateside entomologist seems to indicate that this would be the most northerly sighting of this butterfly, and it also may in fact be a new subspecies.

At any rate, since I spent a long time in essentially the same spot today I saw many new things. One was a very interesting green cricket with a red and white back, and several were spiders I had never seen before, including one that has similarities in body and web to the Argiope orb weavers that are so common here. Plus, of course, there were plenty of old friends. I also realized while doing captions for the photos below that the easiest way to look up the proper names is doing so in my own book, which is kind of cool.

I recently found out about a hiking group (SXM Trails on Facebook) that has been doing walks at different spots around the island for about ten years. This morning was my first trip with them. They start early (5:45am), which meant I started even earlier to walk to the meeting point in Colombier. I left at 4:45 and headed the back way through Friars’ Bay, which was a bit eerie, and quite dark because the moon wasn’t out. I ran into a large pig rummaging around the Friars’ Bay Beach Cafe.

It was actually still quite dark at the meeting time, but by the time everyone arrived and found parking the sun was coming up behind the mountains. Our route led from Colombier down Rue Loterie to Loterie Farm where we took trails up to the top of Pic Paradis. The beginning of the trail was especially nice because it led alongside a small stream. Some remains of the Sucrerie Loterie, including a couple large cauldrons and a well, were beside the trail partway up.

For the first hour or so, it was still dark enough and cool enough in the forested areas that there weren’t a lot of animals out and about. I did manage to find a couple caterpillars I’d never seen before and a bunch of familiar creatures. I was fortunate to get a ride home from Jesus, who recently came two votes from winning a council seat in the Dutch side elections. It was his first try, so I think that’s a pretty good start. Next week the walk will be from Hope Estate through Grand Case, around Bell Point and into Anse Marcel. Quite handy, since I won’t have to hike to get to the hike.