I had a great time at the Montessori School book sale on Wednesday! I got to answer the question “And what is this one?” about 200 times. I learned that there are a lot of tarantulas in Pointe Blanche, and “at least seven” were seen in one house. I also learned that there is a funnel web spider in Australia […]

I made a little handout featuring some of the birds that are endemic to our area and can be seen on the walk to Happy Bay that we are doing on Saturday. Most of them are species that are endemic to the Caribbean or Lesser Antilles, and some are found in more places, but the subspecies found on St. Martin […]

This Saturday at 9am, I will be doing a bird walk on behalf of Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) as part of the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival. Endemic means being unique to a specific place. Although there are no birds that are found only on St. Martin, the island is home to a number of species and subspecies that […]

Some insects, like crickets and their relatives, undergo what is known as incomplete metamorphosis. The immature insects are known as nymphs, and they typically look somewhat similar to adults, but often without functional wings. In order to grow, they need to shed their exoskeleton periodically, a process known as molting. This bush cricket is molting for the last time. It […]

I’ve been stung by the Jack Spaniard wasp more times than I can count. When they are just flying around, they are peaceful, but if you get too close to a nest, they become quite aggressive. Usually it is a nest that I don’t notice until they are stinging me. I have noticed one exception: if there’s only one wasp […]

The 11th annual St. Martin Book Fair is coming up soon: May 30 – June 1. The book fair is one of my favorite events on the island and I’m sure this year will be better than ever. This year’s theme is Drum Beats, and on June 1st I will be conducting a workshop as part of the fair. In […]

I found this mantidfly at a friend’s house yesterday and took it home to photograph because it was much, much smaller than any that I’ve seen before. Looking at it this morning, it looks the same as others I’ve seen, just smaller. I went looking online today to see if males and females are different sizes, but I don’t think […]

I’m glad I took a few photos yesterday of how dry the island was. From what I know, this spring was particularly dry on St. Martin. Most of the ponds had very low water levels, often exposing large areas of mudflat. The hills were as dry as I have ever seen them. Every year, the seasonal change between wet and […]

I never realized how much black-necked stilt chicks look like black-necked stilt eggs until I saw a nest today with a chick and an unhatched egg together. They have basically the same coloration and pattern, which makes sense, because both the chick and the egg rely on camouflage as a defense mechanism.

I’ve been drafting some updated slideshow presentations on a variety of St. Martin wildlife topics. It’s fun because there are so many ways to look at wildlife on St. Martin. The Lesser Antilles are like a series of little experiments showing how animals adapt to slightly different conditions and different mixes of native and introduced species. I’ve added a page […]