Coloring the Birds of St. John…

It may be St. Patrick ’s Day today, but on my morning walk I didn’t spy anything green.  The little creek that runs down the hill in our neighborhood still has a skim coat of ice on it but I could see movement below the ice.  Here in New England, we are entering what some people call Mud Season and I agree that that’s an apt name for the transition time between winter and spring here when the main colors that greet the eye are the dirty white of the leftover snow and the brown of the ground peeping out from under it.  It’s not my favorite time of the year.  I love color.  Whether it is the blue, whites and greys of winter or the brights of summer, I long for color.  And that dirty brown just doesn't cut it.

So today I am going back down to St. John in the US Virgin Islands to show you a few birds we saw while we were down there.

My favorite bird on St. John is the Bananaquit.  These frenetic little yellow fellows are all over the island and people feed them by leaving out bowls of sugar.  Their love of sugar makes them a bit like a hummingbird, but they can’t hover and must be perched to eat.  They are pretty tame and don’t mind if you get somewhat close to them to take their photo.  Here is a couple I took:

That little, photo-bombing dude in the right-hand corner looks like he's sticking his tongue out at his brother.

They don't mind sharing.

Here’s a video that gives a whole new meaning to the term the birds and the bees.  I took this at one of our favorite places to eat in Coral Bay, The Tourist Trap.  Larry, the owner, dumps a half a pound of sugar in this bowl at a time.  Can you say sugar high?

Our friend Bob was charged with feeding these birds the first year we stayed at the villa Reef Madness and it seems like around the same time in the afternoon, the little ones would begin perching in the trees around the feeder waiting for Bob to get that sugar out.  One afternoon, after the initial influx of birds died down, I looked over at the feeder and saw an unusual tail sticking out.  A lizard invited himself to the feast.  Apparently, lizards can get hooked on sugar too.  He looked a little dazed when he finally poked his head out of the feeder.

Another bird we see a lot there is the Pearly-eyed Thrasher.  This bird is only found on some islands in the Caribbean and seems pretty common on St. John.  One day while we were sitting on the beach, I looked behind my chair and saw a couple of them feasting away on a piece of fruit sitting on the ground.  They were more interested in the fruit than they were in me so I managed to get some decent shots of them.  I wasn’t able to determine exactly why they are different colors.  The lighter one may be a juvenile.

One afternoon after we were out of the pool, I managed to catch this Thrasher admiring himself in the reflections of the pool.  The Wiki on the Pearly-eyed Thrasher calls him "an aggressive, opportunistic omnivore.”  Apparently, he’s a little narcissistic as well.  I know some people like that.

One thing we find interesting down there are the lack of seagulls.  I am not sure why they don’t frequent the area, but there are pelicans, whose beaks can hold more than their bellies can.  Yes, I think of this little limerick by Dixon Lanier Merritt every time I see one of those birds:

A funny old bird is a pelican.

His beak can hold more than his bellican.

Food for a week

He can hold in his beak,

But I don't know how the hellican.

This isn’t a bird, but I think it is always interesting to see someone walking their pig down the beach.  I mean, I can’t remember the last time I saw that before we were on St. John.

Home!

We returned from St. John, USVI on Monday night.  It seems like we were away for a long time, although in reality it was only eight days.  Now I am trying to catch up with this and that, including checking out what my blogging friends have been up to.

  I have been working on gathering my thoughts about the trip, but so far they are still far flung, maybe they are back on the beach watching the waves wash in.  I guess that’s what happens when you have a truly relaxing vacation.

  So what I have decided to do today is just put out a few photos from our trip.  I’m hoping that later this week, I might have something bright to say about the whole thing…or something to say about something else maybe.  Who knows?  But right now, I’m just trying to come in for a landing.

This is a sunset view from Reef Madness, the villa we stayed in.  Somehow, this view never gets old.

Fifty Shades of Blue...much preferable to Fifty Shades of Grey.

My faithful hat kept my nose from turning red.  Thanks, hat!

Greg daydreams in the pool.

Feeling like a winner…

It was an exciting weekend here in this household.  We were glued to the television watching the NCAA Basketball Championship games.   For me, it was the game last night that had me on the edge of my seat because, I graduated from the University of Cincinnati way too many years ago.  Well, that game against Florida State University was a nail-biter but UC prevailed and the Bearcats are going to the Sweet Sixteen.

For those of you who don’t live in the United States (and some of you who do), the NCAA Basketball Championship is a contest of sixty-eight of the best college basketball teams in the country.  It goes on during the month of March each year and has been given the name “March Madness.”  If your team manages to get to this point called the “Sweet Sixteen,” they have accomplished something.  

   I never expected that the Bearcats would make this mark.  Silly me!

But the other thing that is exciting about this year for people who grew up in the state of Ohio, like Greg and me, is that there are four surviving teams from that state, UC of course, Xavier University (UC’s arch rival also from the Cincinnati area), The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) and Ohio University (Athens, Ohio), Greg’s Alma Mater.  This is the first time that a single state has had this many teams reach this point.  That’s cool!

The next step for my team is that they get to play The Ohio State University Buckeyes so it will be the battle of the two largest schools in Ohio.  It might get ugly.  But it will also be fun.

So I have had enough excitement for a while until next weekend.  I have decided to comb through my remaining St. John photos and post a few relaxing shots to calm down and  prepare for the week ahead.

Table art and other St. John funkiness…

When in St. John, one must go over to Coral Bay and eat at Skinny Legs.  You can get one heck of a hamburger there served amidst chickens and stray dogs...and all kinds of people.  It’s a fun place.  Their motto is “same day service”, but we’ve rarely had to wait for too long.  In any case, they keep the rum runners and VI beers coming at a steady pace so you can’t really find too much to complain about.

Good advice any day of the week!

I think Melissa may have had too many Rum Runners...

Our other favorite lunch place is called “The Tourist Trap.”  The first time we spied this place we were a bit on the skeptical side, but now we wouldn’t miss it for anything.  They serve terrific Bloody Marys and even better pulled pork sandwiches.  My friend Dona and I fell for the Trap Dog, a spicy hotdog served on a New England style bun (the owner is from New Hampshire) with pulled pork and spicy slaw and we both got it the two times we managed to get over to the Trap on this last trip.  Now, the décor in this place is truly funky and you eat under a tarp that flaps so hard sometimes in the island wind that it’s hard to hear yourself think.  But then, who wants to think, man…we’re on vacation.

Hi from The Tourist Trap

When I first saw this, I didn't get it.  But then I realized it was a high-top table and since I am on the short side, I could read it without actually being "under the table."  

The Tourist Trap has truly unique decor.

Building a better money trap...

Foraging for St. John Fauna…

A few creatures we came across on our trip to St. John, USVI.

Glad I don't have to buy shoes for this guy.  Anybody know what it is?

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

A Perfect Day for Bananaquit…

Every afternoon around 4:00 at Reef Madness, the bananaquits started gathering in the trees next to the pool where we were relaxing.  That was Bob’s cue to go in the house and fill the little bowl in their feeder with sugar.  Once the bowl was full, it was no problem snapping away at them.  They were totally immersed in the sugar.  Cute little birdies, aren’t they?

They seemed like cheery little dudes, but I think they kind of look like angry birds.

The sugar was flung all around.

No worries...

One of the things we truly love about St. John, USVI, and especially the Coral Bay side of the island, is that it isn’t crowded.  I think that there are three reasons for this.

One is that unless you are on a relatively small boat, you can’t get there directly.  If you want to go there, you have to fly to St. Thomas and take a ferry over.  It’s not really a big deal but for people who don’t want to wait to start their vacations, it might be an issue.

 

The second reason is that large cruise ships can’t dock there as there is no deep water harbor available.  On this trip, we noticed that some smaller cruise ships are stopping by and tendering their passengers onto the beaches and sugar plantation ruins and you can certainly buy excursions from St. Thomas to St. John if you are a cruise ship passenger, but Royal Princess’s Behemoth of the Oceans isn’t going to be docking at St. John and letting off thousands of people seeking good beaches and cheap rum drinks.  I certainly have nothing against cruising or cruisers per se, but it is nice that they have to “work” to get to St. John.

 

The third and probably most important reason that St. John is not crowded is that Laurence Rockefeller purchased a lot of land on St. John and in 1956, he donated most of that land to the United States National Parks Service.  That means that about 60% of the island is national park and will not be developed further than it already is.   This also serves to help protect much of the coral reef that is included in that park.  Thanks, Mr. Rockefeller.  You did a truly good thing there.

But beware if you are planning a vacation to Coral Bay.  The driving on the island is not for the faint of heart.  I mentioned yesterday that it takes seven switchbacks to get us up to Reef Madness.  We like that the road is paved.  At our last villa, it was not.  It made it kind of exciting to get home especially after dark.   And, well, all that driving is on the wrong side of the road…sorry, I mean on the left side of the road.  We’re just lucky that Greg has yet to meet a driving challenge that he won’t take on and we are more than happy to leave all the driving to him.  And while there may not be much traffic, you do run into (not literally, I hope) donkeys and goats moseying along and the occasional iguana or mongoose.

Things such as food and gas are expensive there.  It’s an island after all and most stuff needs to be shipped to the location.  And water is at a premium so it has to be used sparingly.  Sure St. John is surrounded by water but it’s not so good to drink.  Water is caught in cisterns on the roofs of the buildings from rainfall and filtered for human use.  Conservation is a good thing.  Something we need to consider even in this wet climate.

And don’t get hung up if a chicken, lizard, cat or dog wanders into the restaurant where you are enjoying a nice island lunch.  That’s just the way it is, mon.

 

Here’s the payoff:

Looking down on Trunk Bay.  This is often considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
Good for snorkelers.

View unobstructed by sunbathers and other living things.  Can you spell r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g?

Goats in the road.  No worries...

Home from the Madness…

Every other year or so for the last six or seven years, Greg and I have gotten together with our travel buddies Dona and Bob and we’ve taken a nice winter vacation to St. John, USVI.  The first time we went, we stayed at a beautiful villa overlooking Coral Bay on the island.  The second time we went, that particular villa wasn’t available on the dates we needed.  So we searched and searched and searched some more.

  We finally landed on a villa called “Reef Madness.”

 

And that is where we stayed this time and, most likely, that is where we will stay the next time if we go back.  Why mess with perfection??  I think you will understand what I mean when you look at my pics.  It doesn't even bother us that we have to maneuver seven switchbacks and one more gentle curve to get up there because a few days at Reef Madness is well worth it.

As usual, our time at the Madness came and went with remarkable speed.  But it was a wonderful, relaxing time away with good friends.

  Still, I am glad to be back because I missed all of you out in Blogland.

Our view in the morning of Coral Bay.  Who wouldn't want to wake up to this??

Morning reflections in the infinity pool.

Greg and Bob spend a relaxing afternoon on the veranda.

A view of Reef Madness taken from Bordeaux Mountain.