Wildlife

See Ya Sunscreen, Hello Swim Suits! May is melanoma and skin cancer awareness month. And if you haven’t heard, the sunscreen that doctors have been advising us to wear is harming the coral [...]

Snorkeling my favorite bay and hanging with a couple beautiful green sea turtles, I found myself wondering how they sleep. Where do they go? Do they float near the top for air, or take a big deep [...]

Being one with nature stops short at living with land crabs Land crabs just might be the most hideous things on earth. Beyond spiders and other crawly critters, an adult land crab shuffling along [...]

Donkey Don – Being neighborly to the island’s beloved asses. Originally brought to St. John as work animals, donkeys today freely roam the island, choosing to stop on their own for a [...]

Sign of the Seagull On St. John the seagulls visit from late spring to early fall. Over the years they’ve been quite punctual, much like the whales. This year my first seagull sighting came [...]

Cactus Snack While everyone knows you should bring plenty of water on a hike, during the hot months on St. John, you can’t carry enough. One secret salvation awaiting hikers of the arid trails [...]

Mango Madness Mango trees are popping around St. John and anyone with a fruitful tree is now enjoying, cooking, selling and gifting mangoes. With hundreds of varieties, each tree produces a [...]

Sargassum Sittings Visitors to St. John stopped me yesterday and inquired about “the brown stuff” floating in the water. It’s not something visitors from a few years ago would have seen, [...]

Festive Crabs As a simple island observer I can tell you that the hermit crabs have returned from wherever they’ve been the last few months. Recently the visits have dramatically increased in [...]

Pelican Punchline I figure pelicans have a dry sense of humor.  I would not expect a pelican to guffaw loudly at a joke. Perhaps he would snicker slowly, but only if it was really good.  They [...]