Trip Report – May/June – Part 3 – Encounters with Critters
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:10 pm
Part 1
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/v ... =1&t=28416
Part 2
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/v ... =1&t=28426
We enjoy seeing wildlife, both on land, in the air and underwater. We had a few unusual encounters on this trip, so I wanted to share them with you. I’d love to hear about other people’s critter experiences.
One day, we packed our lunch and went to Francis. We hadn’t snorkeled there the last few trips due to low visibility or swarms of mosquitoes. It’s always so nice and calm, so we wanted to give it another try. We snorkeled to the right out towards the point and it was great. Notable sights were big turtles, pork fish (love the brilliant yellow and black markings), and a bright green anemone. We were sitting in our chairs enjoying chicken sandwiches and veggies, when we were approached by 2 good-sized iguanas. One was about 18” and one about 2”. We’ve never been approached by iguanas that seemed so fearless, so we were very surprised. We jumped up and got behind our chairs. They kept coming at us, so we pushed the chairs towards them, hoping to scare them away. They were totally unafraid. I’m guessing someone has fed them on the beach and they were eyeing our sandwiches. We finally kicked sand at them and they slowly ambled down the beach.
After lunch, we snorkeled to the left, over to Little Maho. Very nice fish and coral in this area. Three huge tarpon cruised by several times and gave me quite a start. I know they don’t normally attack humans, but they make me nervous. They were so huge and they eyed us as they slowly swam by. We also saw octopus, a small queen angel and a large French angel. Later in the trip, we snorkeled at Maho and saw 3 tarpon again, so the Maho area must be their territory.
The next encounter was at Waterlemon where we snorkeled the beach area instead of going out to the Cay. My husband has a camera in a case and was slowly swimming along the shallow area on the way back to the beach. He saw a small barracuda, so he pointed the camera to take a picture. It disappeared from his view of the camera screen, so he glanced up to spot it again. In a split second, the barracuda swam towards him and bumped hard into his mask. Fortunately, it hit the mask and not his forehead, so he wasn’t injured. It was pretty freaky and unnerving. He often photographs barracudas and has never had one come at him. Perhaps the sunlight glinting off the camera when he held it up caused the attack?
Bugs…yes, I know there are lots of them in the tropics. I do wish the birds and lizards would eat the ones in the vicinity of the villa. We encountered 3, yes 3, scorpions on this trip. Yuck! We’ve never seen one on any of our previous StJ trips. The first one was in the pool. My husband spotted it at the bottom and removed it. It was dead, but I was not happy to see it. Then on 2 separate occasions, I had a scorpion on the wall of the outside shower. This served to underscore my dislike of outdoor showers. One was on the wall above the door – the only way to get out of the shower area. Yikes – those things are scary because they can inflict a painful sting! Hubby came to the rescue with our bug whacker and took care of them. I’ve only seen a scorpion one other time (at Cooper Island), so I hope I’ve now had my lifetime share.
The other encounters were pleasant and not unusual. We saw 7 deer on the trip, including a fawn. There were some big cows hanging around the grassy area near the clinic, so we referred to them as the “clinic cows” when we saw them each day. I guess they don’t need to cut the grass there. We had the treat of seeing a yellow warbler, green heron and an egret. These may be common on StJ, but we don’t see them often. Almost every day at Hummingbird Hill villa, we saw a beautiful Kestral sitting on top of a tall pole near our deck. Most days, he (I think it was a male) would swoop down and catch a lizard. Then he flew back to the pole where he devoured his “meal”. I declined to watch, but my husband enjoyed watching it.
Thanks for reading and comments. Looking forward to our next StJ adventure!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/v ... =1&t=28416
Part 2
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/v ... =1&t=28426
We enjoy seeing wildlife, both on land, in the air and underwater. We had a few unusual encounters on this trip, so I wanted to share them with you. I’d love to hear about other people’s critter experiences.
One day, we packed our lunch and went to Francis. We hadn’t snorkeled there the last few trips due to low visibility or swarms of mosquitoes. It’s always so nice and calm, so we wanted to give it another try. We snorkeled to the right out towards the point and it was great. Notable sights were big turtles, pork fish (love the brilliant yellow and black markings), and a bright green anemone. We were sitting in our chairs enjoying chicken sandwiches and veggies, when we were approached by 2 good-sized iguanas. One was about 18” and one about 2”. We’ve never been approached by iguanas that seemed so fearless, so we were very surprised. We jumped up and got behind our chairs. They kept coming at us, so we pushed the chairs towards them, hoping to scare them away. They were totally unafraid. I’m guessing someone has fed them on the beach and they were eyeing our sandwiches. We finally kicked sand at them and they slowly ambled down the beach.
After lunch, we snorkeled to the left, over to Little Maho. Very nice fish and coral in this area. Three huge tarpon cruised by several times and gave me quite a start. I know they don’t normally attack humans, but they make me nervous. They were so huge and they eyed us as they slowly swam by. We also saw octopus, a small queen angel and a large French angel. Later in the trip, we snorkeled at Maho and saw 3 tarpon again, so the Maho area must be their territory.
The next encounter was at Waterlemon where we snorkeled the beach area instead of going out to the Cay. My husband has a camera in a case and was slowly swimming along the shallow area on the way back to the beach. He saw a small barracuda, so he pointed the camera to take a picture. It disappeared from his view of the camera screen, so he glanced up to spot it again. In a split second, the barracuda swam towards him and bumped hard into his mask. Fortunately, it hit the mask and not his forehead, so he wasn’t injured. It was pretty freaky and unnerving. He often photographs barracudas and has never had one come at him. Perhaps the sunlight glinting off the camera when he held it up caused the attack?
Bugs…yes, I know there are lots of them in the tropics. I do wish the birds and lizards would eat the ones in the vicinity of the villa. We encountered 3, yes 3, scorpions on this trip. Yuck! We’ve never seen one on any of our previous StJ trips. The first one was in the pool. My husband spotted it at the bottom and removed it. It was dead, but I was not happy to see it. Then on 2 separate occasions, I had a scorpion on the wall of the outside shower. This served to underscore my dislike of outdoor showers. One was on the wall above the door – the only way to get out of the shower area. Yikes – those things are scary because they can inflict a painful sting! Hubby came to the rescue with our bug whacker and took care of them. I’ve only seen a scorpion one other time (at Cooper Island), so I hope I’ve now had my lifetime share.
The other encounters were pleasant and not unusual. We saw 7 deer on the trip, including a fawn. There were some big cows hanging around the grassy area near the clinic, so we referred to them as the “clinic cows” when we saw them each day. I guess they don’t need to cut the grass there. We had the treat of seeing a yellow warbler, green heron and an egret. These may be common on StJ, but we don’t see them often. Almost every day at Hummingbird Hill villa, we saw a beautiful Kestral sitting on top of a tall pole near our deck. Most days, he (I think it was a male) would swoop down and catch a lizard. Then he flew back to the pole where he devoured his “meal”. I declined to watch, but my husband enjoyed watching it.
Thanks for reading and comments. Looking forward to our next StJ adventure!