I had some time to kill near Philipsburg yesterday and I didn’t want to bring too much camera gear, so I decided to do some macro photography using natural light. Normally when I take photos of very small things, I use a flash, because the depth of field (the part of the photo which is in focus) is very small […]

Lately I have been seeing quite a few Least Terns fishing in Grand Case Bay and then flying inland. Perhaps they are nesting in the Salines de l’Aéroport. With a large area of mudflat, this pond offers plenty of good nesting areas for terns and a variety of shore birds as well. If there is a nesting colony of least […]

We have big plans to do events with school classes this fall: presentations, nature walks and hands-on workshops. You can help us by sponsoring a school visit. Your contribution of $50 will cover transportation, expenses and a copy of The Incomplete Guide to the Wildlife of Saint Martin for the class. To find out more and sponsor a class visit, […]

If you find a butterfly chrysalis, you can take it home and wait until it hatches into a beautiful butterfly. But not always. There are a variety of wasps and flies that parasitize caterpillars and chrysalids, so sometimes that chrysalis may hatch into a bunch of tiny parasitic wasps or flies. The top photo below is a chrysalis of the […]

Yesterday I was invited to join the Sister Regina School on an excursion to Pinel. After arriving by ferry, we took a hike around the island and discussed a number of interesting things, like why mongooses don’t live on Pinel, what hermit crabs eat, how vegetation grows back after a brushfire, what a natural reserve is and why it is […]

I’m headed to Pinel today with a class from Sister Regina Primary School. Below is a photo of the first tropical house gecko ever documented on Pinel. The data about which reptiles are living on the various smaller islands and offshore rocks in the Caribbean is still incomplete. I have personally found a few species on various rocks and islets […]

Here is a photo of some baby chicks from a nest that was inadvertently moved from a light fixture with them inside it. Because the parents did not return, one of the friends of this page is trying to raise them. They are probably Bananaquit or Lesser Antillean Bullfinch chicks. So far, we’ve gotten some good advice from local experts […]

Some of the generous backers who helped finance the printing of the new edition of the book have posted photos after receiving their rewards. With their permission, I am posting them here. If you are a backer and would like to have your photo featured, send one in!

The mangrove cuckoo is one of my favorite birds on the island. S.J. Kruythoff referred to it as the Cat Bird in his 1938 book, and I’m not sure why. There are various birds known as catbirds, but they don’t seem similar to this cuckoo. If anyone has an idea, let me know. In other news, I am heading to […]

Here are a pair of Wilson’s plovers who were hanging out at Salines d’Orient a couple weeks ago. I saw them on a couple visits in a row, near the same spot. They also exhibited behaviors that made me think they were nesting, although I never saw the nest. Like many shorebirds, these plovers nest on the ground, and the […]