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 […]

I was out looking for frogs the other day and ended up taking some photos of snails, partly inspired by a gorgeous book about Cuban terrestrial mollusks that I lucked into. This one is, as best I can tell, the Garden Zachrysia, a relatively large native species. Snails are both difficult and easy to photography. On the one hand, they […]

The Incomplete Guide to the Wildlife of St. Martin is portable, always on and requires no additional hardware or wireless connectivity. Where are you learning about wildlife? Tip: if you share the book with a kid, be prepared to answer the question “And what is this one?” about 500 times in a row.

Here is an announcement that I encourage folks to share. Yesterday I delivered five copies of the new guide to the Jubilee Library in Philipsburg, so please go check them out! I also let them know that if all the copies are checked out at once, I will bring them more, and I would love to see that happen. The […]

If you want to know more about what happened at the meeting of The Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds, check out this article from today’s Daily Herald.

If being able to fly isn’t enough, many birds are also pretty incredible when it comes to balancing in precarious spots. This female Carib Grackle was hanging out on the bare branches of a tree near the cemetery pond in Grand Case. Like about half of bird species, the grackle is a passerine, a group which includes most of the […]

(Continuing with the theme from the last post.) What is the unique aspect of St. Martin’s heritage that makes it not just another sunny island, but a story that visitors will remember and recount to their friends and family? I don’t think it is wildlife, or at least, I don’t think it is just wildlife. Promoting the real St. Martin […]

Roughly fifty years ago, St. Martin pivoted towards tourism as a new economic engine for the island. Although it seems like an obvious choice in retrospect, I think at the time it took remarkable foresight. The leaders at the time took a chance, and when cheaper air travel and increased cruise ship tourism became a reality, the island was ready […]

This white cockroach is not an albino, I just happened to find it shortly after molting. Because insects have a hard exoskeleton on the outside, they need to shed that exoskeleton to grow. The process is called molting, and when they emerge from their old exoskeleton they are soft until the new exoskeleton has time to expand and harden. (They […]

I’m going to be doing short wildlife articles for SXMInfo.fr. The first one is online now, about one of my favorite lizards that only lives on St. Martin. You can read it here.