Birding in Sint Maarten

 

Near the end of February Marilyn and I took a break from hockey and went on a 10 day Eastern Caribbean cruise to the Leeward Islands. Most of you know that whenever and where ever we travel I always set up birding guides ahead of time to take us birding.

It’s a great way to learn about the area on a way more personal level and to see a lot of the island’s habitats that the vast majority of tourists never get to.

Sint Maarten, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is a country on the southern part of a Caribbean island shared with Saint Martin, a French overseas collectivity. The population is around 60,000 and the 13 square miles features lagoons, beaches and salt pans.

The capital, Philipsburg, has cobblestone streets and colorful, colonial-style buildings. There is no border between Sint Maarten in the south and Saint Martin in the north and our trip spanned both countries.

Just to add some context, we have previously birded on many of the Caribbean Islands, 13 of the Lesser Antilles, and 6 of the Greater Antilles, plus numerous trips to Costa Rica, Panama, and Cuba, so when researching about Sint Maarten I knew that discovering a lifer was probably not going to happen. It was certainly interesting observing all the birds however the best bird was perhaps the Green-Throated Carib.

On our last visit to Sint Maarten, we went sailing for the day on America Stars and Stripes, where I actually got to helm the ship, so this time I arranged a birding tour through Seagrape Birding Tours and our guide was Nascha.

During our trip we visited salt water ponds, fresh water ponds plus some coastal habitats.

All in we only observed 33 species on our trip but it was a great relaxed way to see and learn about the island.

Nascha is a very good tour guide and I would recommend her as a birding guide, especially if you are newer to birding or are looking for a tour of the island on a more personal relaxed trip.            https://seagrapetours.com        Email: Seagrapetours@gmail.com

Killbear Provincial Park

After my recent post about Killbear Provincial Park it was great to talk to a number of birders and friends about their Killbear experience. This was our 44th year camping at Kilbear, sometimes for only a week, and other times when the kids were little we would stay for 6 weeks. There have been many, many changes to Killbear through the years, some for the better, however most for the worse.

I wish I could say that the scenery hasn’t changed but that isn’t true. Once completely isolated campsites are now totally wide open. Cut through paths are now everywhere. And although the same basic geological features are still there, time waits for no man or tree. The most famous tree on Georgian Bay is now barren and held in place by braces. Most images you see of this famous tree are either sunset or bright sunny days. This was my take because it shows what actually helped shape the trees life.

Bringing electricity to Killbear was in my opinion the worst mistake over the years. In fact, I wrote many letters trying to stop electricity however to no avail. Electricity brought a different breed of camper with larger and larger trailers and now motor homes.

When we first started at Killbear most campers were in tents with a basic tent trailer considered a luxury. Toilets were outdoor pits, basically a toilet seat mounted on a sheet of plywood, and yes, we washed our hair in the lake.

In the early years we would get into Beaver Dams campground the last week of August and the park would close Beaver Dams the Labour Day weekend and we would camp in Beaver Dams all by ourselves for the first two weeks of September. Really cool indeed.

Beaver were plentiful then, having a lodge in Killcoursie Bay near Twin Points, and we would take the kids down on the beach at night and watch them come ashore and chop down trees.

Lots of wildlife in those days. Black Bear were very common, Moose, Deer, Porcupine were everywhere, Mink, Red Fox, and Fisher could all be seen in and around the campground. I’ve even witnessed Otter in one of the beaver ponds.

Massasauga Rattlesnakes and Eastern Foxsnakes were very prevalent in those days, often found right in your campsite. Nowadays we have to go snake hunting off the beaten path to hopefully find them. Northern Watersnakes are still very common tough.

We’ve also been through many different booking systems. In the early years it was only first come first served and since we got to know a number of fellow campers, we were always able to move onto a water site. As long as the present camper signed the back of their permit to you then you were able to move onto the site when they left.

Next came the line up at the sub office system but that was easily avoided with a small bribe to the young junior rangers. After that, the eleven month system came into effect which worked wonders for us. People would come by and see us in the same water site every year and swear they were going to get it next year, all the while the kids knew that we already had it booked eleven months in advance before we left that year. It wasn’t a fair system but worked really well for those that planned ahead.

Next came six months advance however you could roll the reservation over on the last day of your time thus slowly moving the reservation ahead until the summer time that you actually wanted.

Soon the park became way, way to busy for us in July and August and we haven’t been in the summer months in years now, preferring June and September.

Although Black Bear often roamed through the campground, I remember that campers regularly visited the dump just outside the park in the evenings to watch the many bears.

In the years following the reintroduction of Red Fox to control the chipmunk population Red Fox were plentiful. I would hike to a familiar spot, totally covered head to toe, and bug juiced up, to sit and watch young pups playfully bounce all around me like I was never there.

Fisher was introduced to control the Porcupine population and were much harder to photograph. It took many early morning sessions to finally capture an image.

Many bird species nest in Killbear and call it home and it even has its own Great Blue Heron rookery, although not advertised and not easily found. 

There are also many, many Barred Owls in the park, often heard hooting as you sit at the campfire. I’ve often taken grand kids on owl prowls with 14 owls being the high count.

If you are lucky enough to camp near the shoreline on a quiet evening, first the tree frogs start croaking, then the loons crying on the bay, collimating with Barred Owls calling back and forth. A perfect campfire.

We have also immensely enjoyed canoeing and kayaking around the many islands in the Killbear area. We have paddled out to the Pancakes and around Franklin Island, sometimes gone for the whole day, not returning till dark. Cooking supper somewhere out on crown land out in the bay.

Killbear is also where I took up sailing. Almost forty years ago I took a photograph of a man and his son sailing a catamaran, colourful sails, up on one pontoon, his kid hanging out. I made an enlarged print of the image and gave it to him the next summer. He asked if I wanted to go for a spin and that was all I needed. I spent the summer racing around the bay against other sailors on Hobie Cats, Darts, Wayfares, etc..

The next summer I had my own Laser and never looked back. In 2000 I bought a new Laser that I still sail today.

It was also seeing the sailboats anchored out overnight in Killcousie Bay that inspired us to buy a sailboat that we could sail to the North Channel and visit places where we had previously canoe tripped, like Killarney. We still enjoy sailing Ripple every chance we get.

So, my kids all grew up at Killbear and some still have friends that they made during their summer vacations. As a family we still manage to get to Killbear for a week or two in June each year and most of the family still manages to attend. Good times indeed.

Killbear 2025

Here are some of my favourite images from this years annual camping trip to Killbear Provincial Park with family every spring.

I'm up by 5:30 every morning and take off on my bike birding but you never know what you will run into, or get run over by. It was a close call when the Killbear welcome committee suddenly crossed the road in front of me out near the main gate.

Red Fox, not as common as in past years, are occasionally seen early morning. Other mammals around Killbear include Fisher, Black Bear, Porcupine, Mink and White Tail Deer.

Rattlesnake and Eastern Foxsnake are also fairly common and can be easily found with a little effort. This particular Rattler was heard before I seen him only a few feet away.

Always cool to observe and hear calling are the numerous Barred Owls that call Killbear home. The most we have ever observed on an evening owl prowl was fourteen.

I've got some really cool campfire videos featuring Barred Owls that I will have to upload sometime.

Some of the many birds observed early morning around Killbear. It is fairly easy in the spring to reach a morning eBird list around 60-70 species.