Here are a few photos of the ruddy turnstone, a common shorebird on St. Martin’s salt ponds and beaches, particularly during the winter. While the spotted sandpiper isn’t spotted during the winter months and the black-bellied plover doesn’t have a black belly most of the time it is here, the ruddy turnstone does, in fact, turn stones. Here you can […]

The oleander aphid is tiny, but very interesting. They are primarily found on oleander and various types of milkweed, like the apple of sodom. Although they live all over the world today, they probably came from the Mediterranean and spread with the oleander plant. As far as we know, the species is parthenogenetic, and all of these aphids are females. […]

Thank you to everyone who completed the short survey about our Migratory Bird Festival. We had a lot of great feedback, as well as great suggestions for future events. This feedback is very important to us and we will be using it to make our next event even better. If you attended the Migratory Bird Festival and haven’t had a […]

I can admit it, I have a fly problem. There are probably a quarter million species in the world and probably more than half have never even been described. On St. Martin, there are probably a couple hundred different species. Here is just a small selection of my unidentified fly photos, feel free to tell me what they are. I […]

Development for tourism on St. Martin has often been associated with the environmental decline on the island. I think this is a pretty reasonable view, and without the development of a robust tourism industry the island would be much poorer, have a much smaller population and be much less developed, causing less environmental stress. In the future, however, tourism has […]

When running errands in Philipsburg, I almost always take a walk by the Great Salt Pond to see who’s hanging out there. These photos are from Monday, and as usual there are plenty of birds there, particularly migrants foraging along the shore. Also, of course, plenty of trash (snowy egret disapproves!), waters of unnatural color and dead fish. It is […]

The common gallinule, sometimes called the water chicken, is a common sight on St. Martin’s ponds. They seem to be quite successful at breeding on the island, and it is not uncommon to see parents with new chicks and almost-grown juveniles from their last brood at the same time. Most of all, I love the bald chicks.

Pseudoscorpions are tiny arachnids that look a bit like scorpions, but don’t have a stinger. They’re harmless and typically eat tiny insects and other invertebrates like mites. These photos were taken on Statia, at their volcanic peak, the Quill. Are there pseudoscorpions on St. Martin? Almost surely, although they are easily overlooked. The adults seen here are approximately 1/2 cm […]

Here’s a third set of photos from the festival, with guests checking in and getting their bird checklists, chatting about birds and a few shots of the beach where the tour wrapped up (and where Kristin and Marc were able to pick up lots of trash, big and small). Thanks again to everyone who came to the festival!

We had a ton of kids at the Migratory Bird Festival and did a lot of bird-related art, including coloring, drawing and clay sculpture. Les Fruits de Mer member Stephen was the ringleader of the kids area and Tumay from Art Summer Camp Sxm brought clay and helped the kids make some amazing bird sculptures. Art supplies were sponsored by […]