EAST BRUNSWICK
NATURE NOTES
— St. Thomas
and St. John —United States Virgin Islands
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EAST BRUNSWICK
NATURE NOTES
— St. Thomas
and St. John —United States Virgin Islands |
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In mid-October of 2006, my
wife Gail and I had the opportunity to travel to St. John and St.
Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nine months earlier, we had been to
St. Croix with our daughter and had a wonderful time. This was reason
enough to return and explore this beautiful part of the world. Gail had visited St. Thomas and St. John over 30 years ago, before we met, and was anxious for me to see what she had thoroughly enjoyed and thought I would just love. Perhaps the major error in planning this trip was to split our time between the two islands. In effect, it didn't allow us enough time to really explore either. But, this will be rectified in the future. As usual, my intention on such trips was to take advantage of what were expected to be wonderful birding and photographic opportunities. To some extent, I was able to do just this. But, while there were abundant photographic opportunities, birding was a bit of a disappointment. We couldn't be sure if it was just the time of year (transition between seasons) or that we just weren't very lucky. To be sure, we did have some very good birding, but not nearly to the extent to which I had been told. However, a bad day birding in the Virgin Islands is simply NOT a bad day in total. I had fully expected to be able to upgrade my camera equipment for this trip, but it was not to be. The Canon EOS 20D that I used in St. Croix proved to be a wonderful camera. Armed with the 17-85mm lens I could manage some really good shots (but how could you miss in such a beautiful place?). Once again, with this limited zoom lens, I could not get really close to most birds or other wildlife. The 8.2 MP resolution allows for some fairly high quality, cropped enlargements but really can't replace a true telephoto lens. I have selected a wonderful Canon 100-400mm zoom lens (with image stabilization) for my next equipment addition and hope to have it before the next major trip. Enjoy our trip to St. John and St. Thomas. And, of course, if anyone has questions about these places, please feel free to contact me. Thanks, Rich Wolfert (November, 2006) |
| Click here to see 3 pages of photos
from this trip. Don't forget to use the "Start Slideshow" button near
the top right of the page to make your viewing more enjoyable. |
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We have returned…from St. John and St. Thomas in the
U.S. Virgin Islands. Gail noted that we visited all 3 of the islands in
the same year (including St. Croix last January). I hadn’t thought of
that but it’s nice. We flew out of Newark last Saturday, the 14th of October. Boarding was easy but we spent about an hour on the ground before we finally took off just after 10:30 AM. (Verrry long line of planes ahead of us, nothing more.) Easy flight at 35,000 feet. We landed just before 2 PM with very light rain at the airport in St. Thomas. Temperature was 82° and it felt nice. While at the airport we saw a Snowy Egret and House Sparrows flying through and just outside the terminal. As we were forced to wait so long for take-off, we missed the 2:45 ferry to St. John and had to wait around by the ferry dock until 4:45 PM. The unusual thing was that there were no more than 6 scattered chairs for about 50 of us. You would think that someone would put several rows of benches out for waiting passengers. The ride to St. John was nice and pleasantly rough. While I commented to Gail about the lack of coastal birds (gulls and terns, etc.), the ferry was joined by about 30 Brown Boobies (a lifebird), adults and sub-adults) after about 5 minutes out. They stayed with us for about 10 or 15 minutes. We sat on the top (open) deck to get a better view of the harbor, and it WAS beautiful, scottgw@optonline.netbut we were rained on nicely for about several minutes. About 10 minutes before docking, I noticed a rainbow to the northeast. Nice! Upon arriving at St. John, there was a single Little Blue Heron on the beach. 
  First view of the Westin Resort from the ferry. During the remainder of the day we saw numerous geckos, and at night I noticed snails, mostly moving slowly along the curbs on the sides of the pathways throughout the resort. The sounds of crickets and tree  frogs
was beautiful, but during the entire trip, we couldn’t find a single
frog. They hide too well. At one point, I pulled a shrub branch toward
me and knew that there was a frog on it somewhere. Still couldn’t find
it. A flashlight would probably have made it much easier. Skies this
night were very clear but the overwhelming light from the resort made
it difficult to see much. However, the milky way did just slightly
stand out. Sunday the 15th was partly cloudy most of the day. Several geckos were seen throughout the day. Saw the first Zenaida Doves this morning, and a large iguana.  We took a taxi to Trunk Bay for the beach and snorkeling. While the beach is really beautiful (and not crowded at all), the equipment was not great. The mask didn’t fit very well and the fins were too small but the woman at the counter didn’t seem too interested in accommodating us. There was a lifeguard there but not much more. When I got to the water, Gail realized that we didn’t have vests (for her, not me, I like to dive deep) and wouldn’t go in. We also had the issue of the safety of my camera gear and binoculars. While this was most likely a non-issue here, Gail wouldn’t have gone into the water at the same time. I spent about 30 minutes snorkeling and following an underwater trail through a coral reef. Lots of nice fish…at least 5 or more species that I could be certain of. I was able to dive repeatedly to about 12 or 15 feet to take photos with the inexpensive and disposable, underwater camera that we got for Heather for the St. Croix trip. I think I shot all 27 exposures. Can’t wait to see what comes out. 
 Brain
Coral
Sergeant Major Fish and Yellow Snapper
While on shore I spotted 2 Ospreys circling high above. Also, Gail saw
2 Semi-Palmated Plovers that I finally tracked down after walking the
entire length of the beach. Additionally, saw Brown Pelican and
Pearly-eyed Thrasher there.  Click the diver to see all of the underwater shots.  Later, at the hotel pool (pretty nice) I observed an Antillean-crested Hummingbird around the palms in a peninsula garden section of the pool. While there wasn’t good lighting (I was facing toward the setting sun), the crest was very clearly visible. Second lifer of the trip. There was also a PE Thrasher there. The frogs this night were very loud. Monday the 16th was cloudy. Finally saw a Bananaquit today, along with Magnificent Frigatebirds, Zenaida Doves and a Brown Pelican. There seemed to be lots of Monarch Butterflies migrating through here, too, but we did see several other kinds including a frenetic light yellow butterfly that never sat still long enough to see well, and a seemingly black and yellow stripped (wider than long) butterfly. 
Today we rented a car (alas, a poorly maintained Jeep Grand Cherokee)
and took off to explore the island, and to bird. Our objective was Mary
Point Pond and wherever else might be productive for birding. While the
pond is well marked on the Raffaele book, it wasn’t that easy to find.
And, there is only one good spot to observe the large pond, a small
boardwalk that extends about 20 feet into the pond from shore. So much
was overgrown and not maintained, that access to the pond was very
restricted. Definitely not what it must have been in past years (the
book IS nearly 20 years old). Here, we saw Black-faced Grassquit,
Spotted Sandpiper, a Mongoose, Northern Waterthrush, White-cheeked
Pintails (the only ones while in the islands on this trip [they seemed
so common on St. Croix in January] ), Black-necked Stilt, Common
Moorhen, Little Blue Heron (mostly blue with some white feathers
sprinkled throughout), Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Common Ground Dove,
and Pearly-eyed Thrasher. We continued our exploration to the nearby Annaberg Sugar Plantation Ruins (situated on the north of St. John), a wonderful place to see, particularly after reading its amazing history. Here we did see a Gray Kingbird, the only one during this vacation. This is interesting  as they were
so common on St. Croix in January. At the plantation, we learned of the
large windmill that used to
crush sugar cane to produce sugar and rum. (The windmill is missing its
cap and the sail that powered it.) This site was also powered by the
slaves that the Danes kept. Gail kept shaking her head knowing that the
very trails on which we were walking, and the buildings who’s walls
still stood all around us, were the very same ones that were used by
those slaves. 
Upon leaving the sugar plantation, we met a couple who was walking back
to the packing area, apparently returning from a hike along the bay.
They mentioned that they had just seen sea turtles and sting rays
easily but couldn’t describe exactly how far down
the trail, just saying that it might have been about a mile
along the coast. So, off we went. I’m certain that we walked
considerably more than a mile along the “Old Danish Road”, which was a
horse cart wide for about 1/3 of a mile before narrowing to just 1
person wide for the rest of the way. The road had been used long ago to
transport raw materials and finished goods between the production area
of the plantation and warehouses. While there were very few birds
(something I wondered about during this entire trip), the views were
spectacular. From here, you could easily see the British Virgin Islands
(Tortola in particular) quite clearly. I can see that will be a future
trip. This bay is said to be home of 4 species of sea turtles including
Leatherback,
Green, Hawksbill and Loggerhead turtles. View
of the British Virgin Islands: In the center is Great Thatch island and
Tortola is on the right.
Too bad we didn’t have more time to explore. There was so much island to see but the day was growing late and we returned to the hotel. As we approached our room, we did see a Kestrel atop one of the hotel units. Tuesday, the 17th opened with a fairly good rain and dark gray skies. When returning our rental car I did spot two Scaly-napped Pigeons, and later in the morning Great-blue Heron, Osprey and Northern Mockingbird. This was the day to take the short ferry hop to Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, where we would spend the rest of our vacation. From the ferry we saw two Brown Boobys and on shore a Sanderling and Rock Doves. When we reached the Marriott, we were surprised that in this much more urbanized environment, that they at least tried to maintain a more natural appearing landscape. Here we noticed Black-faced Grassquits and a Pearly-eyed Thrasher, acting as some sparrows or finches do at home, that is scavenging for food on a restaurant’s outside terrace. The 18th (Wednesday) seemed to forecast prolonged rainy periods as the day opened very overcast. Birds for the day were Black-faced Grassquits, Bananaquits, Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Great Egret and a beautiful Green-throated Carib Hummingbird, which must have been feasting on tiny insects as there were no flowers in the tree where it was hanging out. Oh yes, Pearly-eyed Thrashers are fond of Half-and-half. There are pictures of one raiding a small pitcher on a breakfast table in the slideshow. Today, we were going to check out a site suggested by A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Herbert Raffaele, 1989). The book strongly recommended visiting Mangrove Lagoon, about 15 minutes east of our hotel. Sounded promising. The taxi driver had a hard time locating the road we wanted but finally, through some trial and error did get us (nearly) there. It seems (as the book mentioned) that you must navigate an unimproved road through a car dump and the island landfill. My wife was not too happy with the situation and even the driver suggested that we NOT do this. (Later, others said it was much better that we didn’t walk the 2 miles or so along this road to reach the water. So, we doubled back a little and tried to see if we could bird a bit by the local kayak center run by Ecotours near the town of Nadir. The young lady there was more than willing to be helpful in our quest to find birds, and after a little while, we decided to rent a kayak and get out into the lagoon ourselves. We opted out of the full Ecotour trip ($75 per person for 3 hours with an experienced guide and snorkeling included off of an empty small island/sand bar) because we hadn’t prepared for doing all this. It would have been a bargain from what we heard. People said this was really an excellent value for what you get to see and learn. 
Getting out into the water with no specific agenda is a wonderful thing
to do at times. You can literally go wherever you wish and stay as long
as you want…a very good thing for us. This turned out to be the most
productive part of our trip (at least for me with my interests in
birding and photography). The water varied from nearly calm to 1 foot
waves. This isn’t much but this IS a kayak and not as stable as a
larger boat, and I did have photo gear, binoculars and a field guide
with me. Birds encountered during this trip included:Spotted Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Clapper Rail (great, long looks) Common Moorhen Tri-colored Heron (who put on an amazing show for us, dancing much as a Reddish Egret would when feeding)  Yellow-crowned
Night HeronLeast Sandpiper Great Egret Black-bellied Plover Sora (likely but needed another field mark to be certain) Osprey Brown Pelican After about 2 hours, it began to rain. (We had been watching very dark clouds approaching from the southeast for an hour or so). We ignored the sparse, very light rain for a while, but once we saw lightening, we cut our 3 hours short by about 45 minutes and landed the kayak. Shorter than we would have liked but very much worth it. What a good day! 
 On
Thursday, October 19th,
(our 26th anniversary), we awoke to dark clouds, the remnants of a
heavy overnight rain. Today, we were going to Charlotte Amalie to look
around and (just maybe) do some shopping. We had Black-faced Grassquit
at the hotel and Brown Boobies on the ferry ride into town. The town is
interesting, nicely tropical with an abundance of color everywhere
(including the buildings), and with people trying to get you into their
shops and restaurants at every turn. This is a town that seems to
consist primarily of jewelry shops (running the gamut from inexpensive
to extremely high-end). After all was said and done, we didn’t purchase
anything but enjoyed the experience. (I did experiment with some camera
equipment I hope to have before the next trip.) While in Charlotte
Amalie, we did spot Rock  Dove,
Sanderling (on the dock), Magnificent Frigatebird (they were all over
the island) and Brown Pelican. Friday, the 20th was cloudy again much of the day but it never became less than partly cloudy. From a south-facing terrace at pool-side, we did watch a storm line come directly toward us from the south. While it was still about 2 miles away, and apparently raining fairly strongly over the water, it was slightly sunny at the hotel. I found it interesting to note how the rain was calming the water noticeably and the rain/no rain line was very distinctly marked. So, there was fairly choppy water where it hadn’t yet begun to rain, and, what appeared to be perhaps 20 feet away where it was raining, much calmer water. About 15 minutes later that line reached us and everyone who was pool-side came in for shelter very quickly. It was all over in just about 40 minutes and we returned to the pool. Our last (part) day on St. Thomas, Saturday, Oct 21st. With a 2:30 PM flight out, we couldn’t go anywhere and just hung around the hotel and read books. Only saw the usual bird suspects today along with geckos and very large iguanas foraging on the lawns and high up in trees. (You really should see a 3 foot iguana jump [or is drop a better term] from one branch to another. Really moves the tree! You can’t miss the commotion.) 
 Some
random observations are warranted here to fill in what appear to be
blank spaces about this vacation. The people on St. John and St. Thomas
are really quite nice. This is also what we observed on St. Croix 9
months earlier. The roads on both these islands are in much better
shape than those in St. Croix. The government of the U.S. Virgin
Islands seems to spend more to maintain the infrastructure of St. John
and St. Thomas and it shows. There is just about no litter and no
graffiti to be seen anywhere; a very welcome thing to notice.  And,
while many who live on these islands have some fairly large vehicles
(SUVs, jeep-type cars, and trucks are very common) there are people
walking all the time…everywhere. Taxis run from the usual car-cab to
the more common van or open cab. This is a truck with benches and an
open roof that can be entered either from the back or from one side.
With the weather usually perfectly comfortable, this is just fine. An interesting thing to note is that unlike in the states, the land dictates where and how roads run. There is no apparent leveling of hills or filling in of low areas to make a road flatter or less curvy. The roads follow the natural contours and this often means very steep rises and declines, and very sharp curves, sometimes with both at the same time. Engineers seem to have willingly conceded to nature. This takes a bit of getting used to, as does driving on the left. I watched carefully for 2 days (as I did in St. Croix in 
 Brown
Pelican flight sequence.
January) so I would be ready to handle driving there. As it turned out, it wasn’t difficult at all and, after a short time, it seemed very natural. Just keep your left shoulder to the left shoulder of the road at all times. Virgin Islanders say that this makes it very easy to just stop by the side of the road and chat…and they do. Drivers are  Brown Pelican diving for fish. Note the wings about to disappear beneath the surface of Mangrove Lagoon.  Charlotte Amalie harbor
One thing I noticed on these two islands (as with St. Croix) was that there doesn’t seem to be much desire to decorate with lots of flowers or much color with houses. Aruba (3 years ago) was different. Everyone there liked to dress their home up with color, and it made everything look even more cheerful and festive. 
 Typical style in St. Thomas. One of many pretty walkways. A primary shopping street St. John is 2/3 National Park and this will forever positively affect the nature of the island. The built-up parts, just as with St. Thomas, are not very pretty at times and where allowed, there is construction nearly everywhere you look. But the areas that are (and will remain) undeveloped, are just beautiful. In St. Thomas (and this is without traveling much of the island), it almost appears as if everyone has conceded the fight to developers and much of the island either has or will fall to development. I believe the figure was that St. Thomas was only 38% undeveloped or able to be protected. This is discouraging to say the least. With reference to the two resorts at which we stayed, it’s easy to make comparisons. The grounds at the Westin on St. John are just beautifully kept and lush. Unfortunately, we couldn’t volunteer the same accolades for the quality of service and maintenance of the large resort. No need to go into specifics (you can always contact me privately by e-mail if it’s important) but it just ‘seems’ that the  management
at the Westin either doesn’t have its act together
or doesn’t (or can’t) attain the level of quality that other Westin
resorts can and do. I should point out that my wife and daughter took a
mother/daughter vacation during the early spring at a Westin Resort in
Puerto Rico, and the hotel and service there were the antithesis of
what we encountered in St. John. We don’t like to be fawned over at
all, but common courtesies and attempts to maintain your facility
should be expected. With the exception of the grounds, they weren’t.
Very disappointing. One-legged
Sanderling at the dock in Charlotte Amalie.
The Marriott, in comparison, surprised me nicely. Gail had told me how built up the island is (she was there years before we met and it was built up even then). I was very pleased at how the management has tried to make the very best of the location by adding lots of attractive landscaping to soften it, and it works. People  Seaplane taking off from Charlotte Amalie
harbor for St. Croix.
there
were just wonderful. They always smiled and seemed to genuinely enjoy
working there. That’s a tough thing to fake. This made our stay very
enjoyable. It’s a shame that such quality couldn’t be at the Westin
Resort on St. John, which, from a naturalist’s point-of-view, has it
all over St. Thomas. All in all, it was a very nice vacation. I’m only sorry we didn’t plan better to take more advantage of the seemingly limited birding opportunities we had. And, we’ll know better, next time, than to plan to visit 2 places within just a week. You need time to explore and to relax. We traveled too much and saw too little. Just something to consider when planning our next vacation. Now that’s something nice to work on. 
 Our transportation to the harbor. One of the many villas on St. Thomas.   Beautiful on a patio terrace. Clearing after rain. 
 Approaching line of heavy rain. One of many iguanas.  St. Croix (the very small, light gray bump to the left of the dark hill) is visible 45 miles to the south. There is similar to the photograph of St. Thomas taken from St. Croix (January, 2006) that is on the St. Croix Page.  Click here to view all 3 slideshows:
Two of St. John and St. Thomas, and one of my underwater adventure. These slideshows include all the images on this page plus many more.
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Nature Notes –
St. Croix-United States Virgin Islands © 2004-2006 - Richard Wolfert - (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) |
