The St. Louis Ravine runs down from the the north side of Pic Paradis and into Étang Guichard near Friars Bay. I intercepted the ravine in Rambaud, where the slopes are filled with banana trees. Amongst the banana trees I found thousands of moth flies (also known as shower flies, drain flies or filter flies). These small flies have furry bodies, fluffy antennae and hairy wings that give them a moth-like appearance. Although I’ve seen one or two in various places in the past, it was quite amazing to see so many in one spot.

With the recent rain, the bottom of the ravine was a decent-sized stream, not unlike the one that flows through the Colombier area to the sea at Anse des Peres. Upstream, the area is a mix of banana farm and forest, eventually opening out into the pastures that surround much of Étang Guichard. Along the stream, I was able to photograph some water striders, an aquatic insect larva and some flies that were sampling something from the mud. It was actually quite a nice walk, and I guess the next logical step is to head the other direction and explore the ravine further upstream.

Note: the last couple photos of birds were taken at Étang de Grand Case on my way back home.

Here are some photos from walks along the St. Martin coastline in Cul-de-Sac, Back Bay and Baie Lucas. The first set takes us from the beach at Baie de Grandes Cayes to the Pinel ferry dock. This walk requires quite a bit of walking in shallow water after you round the corner to Cul-de-Sac. There are plenty of things to see as you pass by coastal scrub areas to mangrove wetlands.

The walk from Pointe Blanche to the natural swimming pool at Back Bay is primarily grassland that seems to be maintained by goats. Cliffs and other striking rock formations make up most of the coastline including, of course, the natural swimming pool. There were also a few interesting insects, including a bright orange hemipteran that I don’t think I had seen before.

The last set of photos is takes us from Baie Lucas through Coralita and around Babit Point before returning via the small pond across from Coralita. Sightings included a pair of American oystercatchers, plenty of green iguanas, a gorgeous crab and a gray kingbird that was happy to pose for photos. The walk itself is a great mix between beach and rocky shoreline, and Babit Point is a miracle of somewhat undisturbed coastal scrub in an otherwise developed area.

Tintamarre is the largest satellite island of St. Martin, covering a little less than one square mile. It is also known as Flat Island, and has a fascinating history, including a King of Tintamarre and a now-abandoned landing strip that served as home base for the airline Compagnie Aérienne Antillaise. I was lucky enough to get the chance to visit earlier this month and spend a little bit of time on the island.

The island is primarily covered in scrub, with beaches and cliffs at the edges. It’s the best place in St. Martin to see tropicbirds, which nest in the cliffs. It is also home to a different subspecies of ground lizard (Ameiva plei) than St. Martin. While the subspecies analifera is found on mainland St. Martin, the lizards on Tintamarre are the same subspecies found on Anguilla and St. Barths. The differences are subtle, but noticeable.

I think it would be very exciting to do a wildlife survey of Tintamarre to get a better understanding of what animals are there and how they do or don’t differ from those on St. Martin.

On a recent walk from Grand Case to Marigot, I spent some time exploring La Batterie, an area between Friar’s Bay and Bienvenue/Pointe Arago. The area is mostly wooded, although the trees are generally small. Unlike many similar lowland areas, the ground cover is fairly sparse, and a maze of cow trails make it quite easy to navigate. One highlight is the stream that runs into the sea at Anse des Peres. Another was the gorgeous cockroach I found living under the bark of a dead tree branch, which was also home to large numbers of terrestrial isopods and a few house geckos.

It’s definitely an area worth exploring, in many ways similar to the hiking/mountain biking area of Bellevue. While attention is often focused on the highland forests, and many lowland areas are an impassable sea of thorny vines, these two lowland areas are well worth a visit.

On Sunday, SXM Trails had their annual Anguilla hike, and it was a blast. The day was mostly overcast, so I stuck with shooting insects and other small animals with my macro lens. Highlights included a gorgeous tiger beetle and a bright, metallic-green tortoise beetle that I’ve never seen on St. Martin. I guess it’s time to do a wildlife guide for Anguilla!

It’s been a while since I headed out with a flashlight to see what was crawling around at night, so I headed out for a couple hours to see. There were Anolis gingivinus in various states, from sleeping to hunting and the Clonistria walking sticks that I can now reliably find. Perhaps the most interesting thing was a katydid with a strange, gelatinous mass coming out of its posterior. I’m not sure what was going on with that, perhaps it was injured, since the mass didn’t look anything like katydid eggs to me. A mass of aquatic insect larvae in a tree hollow (the last photo), were both beautiful and somewhat disgusting.

Of all the animals on the island, I probably have the most photos of iguanas and pelicans. I guess they’re both big, easy-to-find and interesting-looking. So, here are a few more iguana photos, including my best attempt so far at getting a good photo of one jumping into a pond.

Continuing with the next selections from a couple recent walks around Grand Case and its ponds, here we have spiders and everything else.

The spiders alone are pretty fantastic. Near the ponds, the family Tetragnathidae is most visible, and they probably eat a lot of midges and other insects with aquatic larvae. In this family are the orchard spiders of the genus Leucauge and the long-jawed spiders, I think mostly from the genus Tetragnatha. In the Leucauge webs, there are also a number of different spiders from the genus Argyrodes, which are kleptoparasites which live in the webs of larger spiders and steal food from them. It’s possible this is at least a little bit symbiotic, in that they may clean the webs of prey that is too small to be of real interest to the web owner.

A bit away from the edge of the pond, I found another of what I think is Eriophora ravilla, a large, robust orb-weaver that I usually see hiding in the leaves at one corner of its web. This one has a strikingly different color than the last one I saw.

Finally, beneath some cardboard boxes, I found a number of small jumping spiders, a spitting spider and the wolf spider that was previously thought to be endemic to Saint Vincent. In all, more than a dozen species seen in just a few hours around town.

And of, course, there were lots of other things to see, including insects and lizards.

I’ve been out to Salines de l’Aéroport and Étang de Grand Case the last few days, and there are many things to see. In particular, I’ve encountered many birds, even more spiders and a bit of everything else. First, the birds.

The first eight photos are from the canal that leads from Salines de l’Aéroport to Grand Case Bay. This little strip of water has hosted many birds lately, even though it is right beside the road. Common gallinules are nesting there again, even though the last generation of chicks is not yet adult. The snowy egret and green heron have been fishing from the shore, and large groups of carib grackles seem to be eating spiders that were in turn fattened up by midges. In the photo below, I think you can actually see bits of spiderweb on the grackle’s head.

Next door, at Étang de Grand Case, there are loads of ducks, mostly blue teals and white-cheeked pintails. Apparently, there are many words for a group of ducks, including a brace, team or badling. A group of ducks on water may be called a raft or paddling, and in flight they are a flock. Regardless of the name, they tend to congregate in the corner of the pond furthest from human activity, and take flight when approached.

Besides the ducks, there are yellowlegs, American coots with chicks, pied-billed grebes and black-necked stilts, along with assorted egrets, herons and sandpipers. Nearby, there are also muscovy ducks in a pen.

On the top of Mont Fortune, it seemed almost obligatory to take some photos of the view and stitch them into a panorama. I didn’t do a great job, but it does give an idea of the amazing view (click to see a bigger version):

I also did a couple smaller panoramas. Here are the central mountains seen from between Orient Bay and Le Galion:

And Caye Verte:

Of course, the full-size versions are much bigger. If anyone is interested, I used some software called hugin to make the panoramas. It’s free and has lots of options, although I’ve found it a bit finicky so far.