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.
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
