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Monthly Archives: September 2013

On the Trail at the Migratory Bird Festival

We’ve got a ton of great photos of the Migratory Bird Festival from Olivia Roudon. We’ll be sharing them in a few sets, this first one showcases the mangrove discovery trail and folks enjoying the guided tours as well as just exploring the trail on their own. We were incredibly excited to have about 200 people visiting this beautiful site […]

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Short-billed Dowitcher Feeding

Here’s a short-billed dowitcher feeding at Étang de la Barrière. Despite its name, it has a very long bill that it uses to probe in mud or sand to find crabs, snails and other small animals to eat. For shorebirds in general, the longer their bill, the more likely they are to feed in this way, using their bill to […]

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Belted Kingfisher Looking Sinister

There was a belted kingfisher this morning at Étang de la Barrière, the site of the upcoming Migratory Bird Festival. Hopefully we’ll see him on Sunday. On the one hand, they are shy, but on the other hand, once they find a good spot they tend to stay there, and there was one at this site all winter last year. […]

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Meeting Governor Holiday

I had a great meeting with Governor Eugene Holiday earlier this month, and I hope he is enjoying the wildlife book. As a resident of St. Martin, I care deeply about the island. As an American citizen, I have the luxury of being completely removed from local politics. I am happy to work with anyone on the island to promote […]

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Festival des oiseaux migrateurs!

Le 29 septembre 2013 de 8h00 à 11h00 à Cul de Sac, les amoureux de la Nature de tous âges sont invités à participer à l’édition saint-martinoise de la journée internationale de la migration d’oiseaux (IMBD en anglais ; 23 septembre). L’événement aura lieu sur le sentier de découverte de la mangrove de l’Etang de la Barrière, à proximité directe […]

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Heading to Statia

I’m headed to Statia tomorrow for the Statia Sustainable Conference to give a talk about water, wildlife and sustainable tourism development. I’m really looking forward to it, and I have heard only great things about the conference. Hopefully I’ll be sharing a few wildlife photos here in a couple days featuring species that are present on Statia, but not on […]

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Livestock Pond

There were many birds this morning at the small pond created for livestock on the way to Cul-de-Sac, but I wasn’t the only one there early in the morning to see the birds. Cats and dogs can be wonderful pets, but they can also be very dangerous for local wildlife. Like the mongoose, they are predators that are not native, […]

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Photography Workshop

This afternoon was my last session with the Be the Change/Nature Foundation wildlife education and ranger program (Tadzio is still leading sessions for the underwater portion through the end of the month). Today we were doing wildlife photography, mostly macro (close-up) photography, but it’s hard to pass up the chance to take shots of nesting guinea fowl or geese doing, […]

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Jumper vs. Backswimmer

Both are predators, but the gray wall jumper clearly has the edge over the backswimmer on our balcony. Since the backswimmer is aquatic, perhaps the tables would be turned if this encounter took place underwater.

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Bird Festival in Bird Watch SXM

The Daily Herald Bird Watch SXM column for this week explains a little bit more about the upcoming Migratory Bird Festival, why these birds are worth celebrating and the site where the festival will be held: http://www.thedailyherald.com/index.php/supplements/weekender/42702-migratory-birds-deserve-celebration.html Join the event and invite your friends and family here: https://www.facebook.com/events/518285941588370/

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