Check out this little guy. He is a spiny-backed orbweaver. Typically the females of this species are much more noticeable. On St. Martin, they are some combination red, black, white and yellow and have four spines coming out of their abdomen (in North America, this species has six spines). They build large webs, with extra silk used to create a […]

Do you have an old camera you don’t use anymore? During the September program with with youth from the I Can and Ujima Homes, one of the sessions will be learning wildlife photography. The plan is to teach them wildlife photography techniques while also studying the animals living in scrub habitats. Many kids have a camera on their phone or […]

Our wetlands are getting busier as we speak with fall migrants and overwintering birds coming to join our year-round resident species. Here are a few photos I took yesterday at Salines d’Orient near Le Galion. This salt pond, with its large areas of mudflat, provides plenty of food for shorebirds, including fiddler crabs and snails. This set of photos includes […]

Here’s a short-billed dowitcher, which probably just flew down from North America. The fall migrants and overwintering shorebirds are arriving now, I will post some additional photos tomorrow. If this is the short-billed dowitcher, can you imagine the bill on the long-billed dowitcher? (Actually, you probably can because they look almost identical. Apparently their call is the best way to […]

What wildlife do you have in your house? The short-bodied cellar spider is a common species in our apartment. You may also call them “daddy long-legs” although that gets a little confusing because that name is also used for harvestmen, which are closely related to, but not spiders. Cellar spiders build tangled, irregular webs, but their silk is not sticky. […]

I had a fantastic hike yesterday with Juan Pablo Piscione and the hiking guides from Tri-Sport. We took the trail from Guana Bay to Pointe Blanche—one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline on the island—and we all learned a lot about wildlife and how to tell the story of the island in an entertaining and memorable way. They’ve been […]

Here’s another short wildlife article I did for SXMInfo.fr about everyone’s favorite kleptoparasites: Tiny Thieves: Spiders Stealing from Spiders.

The whimbrel is a gorgeous shorebird that breeds up in the arctic and then spends its winters in the south, including St. Martin. These birds will often return to the exact same locations each year, so the ones we see on St. Martin each winter may be coming back over and over, just like many of the tourists who visit […]

Ground lizards and dwarf geckos typically sleep on the ground, and the turnip-tailed geckos often sleep under tamarind bark. Anoles and iguanas typically sleep on bushes and trees, where they are safer from predators. Here are a few out of literally dozens that I saw last night at a barbecue on Pic Paradis.

Lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale) is perhaps the most beautiful tree you will ever see. Known as Gaïac in French, the tree is native to the Caribbean but is currently listed as an endangered species. It is a slow-growing tree that was over-harvested for its incredibly strong and dense wood. The wood was used extensively in ship-building, where its strength and […]