Volunteering to survey a beach for sea turtle tracks and nests is a great excuse to get out to a beach early in the morning once a week. Even if I don’t see turtle tracks, I inevitably see something. Yesterday it was this osprey. It’s not unusual to see them, particularly during the winter, but they aren’t common, either. I’m […]

Here’s a classic clip of my sister and I as young bug collectors. As it turns out, my method of identifying insects has remained largely unchanged over the years.

I posted a strange-looking insect larva a few days ago, thinking it could be a sawfly larva. Since then it has pupated, and I have to revise my opinion because the pupa looks like it will be some kind of beetle. Or perhaps a model for a terrifying creature in an upcoming alien movie. With over a million known species, […]

In this photo, things are pretty crowded. It is a maternity colony of Lesser Antillean Fruit Bats, as seen in the Grotte du Puits de Terres Basses in the Lowlands. In this cave, maternity colonies can be seen seasonally in the round depressions in the ceiling of the cave. I believe these depressions are caused naturally by erosion from water […]

I know this isn’t really related to St. Martin wildlife, but I thought it would be useful to share a few things from my past so people can understand why I spend all my time hiking the hills looking for insects, and why I want to give the kids of St. Martin a chance to learn more about the wildlife […]

Along the trail that leads from Cul-de-sac to Anse Marcel, you can often see American Kestrels sitting on the rocks or columnar cacti near Eastern Point. Their diet is mostly grasshoppers and lizards, and the grassy area near the point is a great place for them to spot potential prey. To take a photo like this one, find a kestrel […]

I take lots of wildlife photos, but I don’t do nearly as good a job documenting education and outreach work. Here are a few photos showcasing that part of what I do. Over the next few months there should be plenty more. We are working on a program to bring books to schools, libraries and other public institutions and conduct […]

I believe this is a sawfly larva. They usually look and act like caterpillars, although this one looks like a really ugly caterpillar. In fact, they are wasps. Their ancestors may be one of the most primitive groups of wasps, which later gave rise to many of the bees, wasps and ants of today. A big thank you to our […]

‎”I saw him living in a tiny shack in the Amazon giving his life to insects,” says his mother. “Now maybe he’ll be a middle-class person. I never thought he would be, but he might.” As it turns out, I live in a tiny apartment in St. Martin giving my life to insects. Maybe not middle-class, but thanks to many […]

The house gecko is native to Africa, but is now found in almost all the warm parts of the Americas, including the Caribbean. It is generally assumed that they were inadvertently introduced to the Americas by people, but it is also possible that came by natural means. They definitely seem to benefit from the presence of humans, in particular artificial […]