I never realized how much black-necked stilt chicks look like black-necked stilt eggs until I saw a nest today with a chick and an unhatched egg together. They have basically the same coloration and pattern, which makes sense, because both the chick and the egg rely on camouflage as a defense mechanism.

I’ve been drafting some updated slideshow presentations on a variety of St. Martin wildlife topics. It’s fun because there are so many ways to look at wildlife on St. Martin. The Lesser Antilles are like a series of little experiments showing how animals adapt to slightly different conditions and different mixes of native and introduced species. I’ve added a page […]

Large tamarind trees are often found in pasture areas, where they provide shade for livestock during the heat of the day. The loose bark of these trees also provides shelter for a number of different animals, including geckos, spiders, scorpions and beetles. Many of the animals that shelter under the bark of the tamarind during the day are nocturnal, emerging […]

Here’s a planthopper (Ormenoides venusta) we saw on the field trip with the Montessori students. These tiny insects are very common on St. Martin. Like all members of the order Hemiptera, they have straw-like mouthparts and drink their food. In this case, this planthopper feeds on many different plants. I don’t take a lot of photos when doing a field […]

It’s nesting season for a number of bird species that nest on the ground, including killdeer, least terns and black-necked stilts. These nests are most common on mudflats around our salt ponds. Because the nests are unprotected, camouflage is the primary defense mechanism. Many of the nests are just a small depression in the sand or mud, with hard-to-see eggs. […]

The Anguilla Bank anole is found throughout the Anguilla Bank: Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Barts and most of the smaller islets in the area. Why? Because during the last ice age, all these islands were connected. During the height of the last glacial period, about 12,000 years ago, the sea level was about 120 meters lower than it is today. […]

Here’s another test photo with the ring flash adapter, and probably better as a test. It can be very difficult to get enough light on shiny insects without having a harsh reflection of the flash. In this case, there is some reflection down the middle of the back, but it isn’t too bad. The insect itself looks like a nymph […]

After a mishap involving salt water that killed one of my little macro flashes, I got an inexpensive adapter that takes light from a big flash and makes it into a ring flash, essentially a ring of light around the camera lens. It’s awkward and cheap, but it does create a very soft, even lighting as you can see here. […]

If you live on St. Martin, surely you recognize the gray kingbird, but why? Out of over 100 birds that live on St. Martin, perhaps only a handful are as familiar as the gray kingbird. One reason is that they are relatively common, and another is that they seem to be pretty comfortable in urban areas where most people spend […]

My friend Chloe Petrelluzzi found a very nice ten-spotted longhorn (Eburia decemmaculata) at her house yesterday and I borrowed it to take a couple photos. This family of beetles is known as the longhorn beetles because most species have long antennae. Many of them live inside trees and eat wood as larvae, so they can also be known as wood-boring […]