[Music] [Music] it's where the capital of the U.S Virgin Islands reside and where you can find the hustle and bustle of Main Street the island of Saint Thomas is about 31 square miles in size about 11 square miles larger than his sister island of Saint John and a little over a third of the size of the Big Island Saint Croix and like both Saint Croix and xinjiang there is plenty to do see and ReDiscover on St Thomas hello everyone I'm Denisha John and welcome to this episode of ReDiscover St Thomas now for the past few weeks we've had an amazing time exploring the beautiful island of Saint John but right now it's time to move on to the third major island of the U.S Virgin Islands beautiful Saint Thomas [Music] and I can't think of a better way to start our new adventure than with kayaking So today we're going to join Virgin Islands ecotour and go on a kayaking Adventure through a mangrove heaven but first let me change into my kayaking gear so I'll meet you on the water foreign Tino owner of VI equal tours and Scott beagley will lead us on a kayaking and Hiking Adventure a Virgin Islands Eco tourist was started 15 years ago by Franny Newbold and Joyce Daly two women that live here in the Virgin Islands I purchased a company from them eight years ago and have been loving it ever since I visited the Galapagos Islands in South America and they have a lot of interpretive tours snorkeling tours and Mangrove tours and I was so impressed by it and I came back here and I started something very similar with inflatable boats and I brought the boats here to Cass key and wanted to show that we have many of the same creatures Wildlife marine life that they actually have in the Galapagos you don't have to fly all the way there you just have to come here and see it right now we're kayaking through a mangrove Lagoon located in the southeast part of Saint Thomas this Mangrove Heaven is actually part of the Caskey Mangrove Lagoon St James and Compass Point Marine and Wildlife Sanctuary it's also the base area for Vi Eco tour we get people from all with all different levels of experience we have people that have never kayaked before and end up enjoying it you're with a group of people and some some guides that'll give you pointers to make sure you do get out here and it's a nice leisurely stroll but it's also a great spot for expert kayakers as well because it is a great spot to check out the scenes and enjoy paddling through the mangroves now every day VI equal tours offer half and full day tours and visitors from all over come here to experience and learn about the mangroves in the sanctuary but on either tour you're going to be kayaking about a mile out to Cascade I will do it maybe a crab race check out some of the critters the hermit crabs that are around here enjoy the island walk down to the far end called red point which is a gorgeous spot we'll come back to our boats we'll get our snorkel gear make sure we give an orientation to make sure everybody feels safe and comfortable in the water I will enjoy all the wildlife that's below us we'll come back to our boats relax enjoy the Sun and we'll kayak back to the dock today Scott will be our own private guide I came down here with a degree in biology I was also a teacher in North Carolina so I kind of fit right in with what they were looking for being able to enjoy the environment and teach people about the importance of the environment out here especially this being a sanctuary whenever I come out here it's more of a feeling of Serenity it's so quiet kind of off the mainland St Thomas you get the gorgeous views so we're kayaking on this pretty calm water and there's just so many mangroves around I'm like amazed I had no clue that there were so many mangroves here on St Thomas so I'm enjoying what I'm seeing I hope you are too we've been kayaking for about 12 to 15 minutes and have reached the halfway point to Cascade I must admit my arms are getting a little tired so we've decided to take a short break to catch our breaths and hear from Scott about the beautiful Mangrove Lagoon so Scott I must have seen so many mangroves tell us a little bit about where we are and what we're seeing uh we're right in the heart of the mangrove Lagoon we're in the middle of about 255 Acres of sanctuary one of the last protected areas of St Thomas and it's a great spot for all different kinds of wildlife because it is a sanctuary there's a lot of less Predators for them and a lot less human activity out here to allow them to be protected now what type of what type of wildlife are you talking about all different kinds we have just thousands of fish below us we got a lot of different birds in the trees hiding out here again free from predators they don't have to worry about anything getting eaten alive by any lizards or snakes nothing's going to eat the bird eggs but there's also just a lot of different smaller Critters a lot of different crab that are hiding out in there and a lot of conch as well down at the bottom as for the mangroves what are some of the things that you teach to the tourists that come on your tour guides just the importance of the mangroves they do a lot of good stuff for us both economically and ecologically playing a very important role as a hurricane buffer zone protecting our boat side there's a this is a one of the hurricane holes on St Thomas so boats are allowed to come in here even though it is a sanctuary right right before a storm to allow them to be safe as well as protecting our Shoreline this is a very stable tree salt water tolerant tree so it protects all the shorelines from the bigger waves making sure that they dissipate the energy so it doesn't cause any erosion to our beaches okay could you tell us a little bit more about the marine life out here yes there's a lot of different species of fish and most of them are spending their life right by the mangrove Roots since there's not a lot of land associated with the roots of the trees the smaller fish can hide out free from predators so they're able to thrive and grow as almost like a little nursery for the fish and they'll be able to start the whole fish cycle all over again so they spend most of their time hiding out by the road starting deep inside if any bigger fish come around okay now besides the wildlife what do you appreciate the most about out here the mangroves just the the gorgeous scenes just being a more relaxed kind of a a different spot than most of St Thomas out here very different environment so you get a lot of different scenes a lot of different ecosystems and just the quietness and the beauty of the nature out here I agree I'm enjoying the serenity so where are we going next next we're heading out to Caskey our uninhabited Island we'll check out what's going on today today [Music] foreign [Music] as you can see many of the kayakers have beached their kayaks and have entered the water to enjoy some snorkeling [Music] we won't be joining these snorkelers but we will Beach on Cass key and explore the island now Koski is a 15 acre uninhabited Wildlife Preserve approaching the key you immediately notice the many mangroves that line the beach The Mangrove also appears to have moved Inland as well we've got four different types of mangroves the three main varieties are the red mangroves which you can see right here they have these little propagules that that are these pencil-like things that drop down in the water and you can see the little Roots right here and the little trees there and they can float for a year and when they settle in shallow water they grow and they have these prop roots that grow right out of the salt water and they filter fresh water from the salt water and then Inland you have the white Mangrove which has little tear ducts at the base of the leaf and the salt comes out of there that's how it fills the salt filters the salt water out and then you go a little further back and you have the black mangroves and those leaves grow straight up and you can see on a dry day they have salt crystals all over the leaf you can lick it off and they have little snorkel roots that come up so if the water is sitting on the land it won't drown those mangroves and the final associate Mangrove is a Buttonwood Mangrove has a little button type flowers on it and folklore says that it's used for high blood pressure I don't recommend anyone to go out and make tea from it but four beautiful mangrove trees so we just beached our tags here on Caskey an uninhabited key on the south Southeast side of Saint Thomas now in just a few Scott is going to take us on a hike now Scott where are we going and what are we about to see on this hike we are heading out to what we call Red Point gets his name from the red color in the Rock so it came up with a lot of iron ore High concentration of iron in there just gorgeous Rock structures you get the Caribbean Sea splashing against the Rocks we got some tidal pools where we'll be able to check out some of the critters from sea urchins different species of urchins as well as any slugs or sea stars that we might see there but along the way the red point is the original part of the island of old volcanic activity and the part we're walking on was originally red mangroves like we were like we saw it on the boats but the red point is the original part of the island dating back about 150 million years coming up with a lot of magma and a lot of high concentration of iron ore and along the hike before we get to Red point this part of the island is made from the old mangroves the The Roots allowed all the debris to get caught inside the roots making this land that we're able to walk on okay and about how long is the hike itself that we're going on I think it's roughly a mile round trip very very laid back not too strenuous we're just walking over some broken Coral some old shells but nothing that we're hiking over nothing that we have to be too concerned about about being too tired at the end of the hike okay well I'm excited and I'm ready to go you ready to go I'm ready to go oh the hike to Red point is fairly easy it's a level Sandy walk between mangroves foreign key that Scott said was formed by Mangrove Roots catching soil and sediment about halfway through the hike you come across this amazing Coral barrier they call this false entrance it's very hard for boats to come in it's never totally submerged by the water even at high tide or during the winter but it goes from very deep to very shallow and every time there's a major storm it'll bring up some of the old Coral the old debris creating this natural barrier and cutting off the actual Caribbean Sea from from the Lagoon itself so it kind of helped form the Lagoon making the water very calm as opposed to all the waves in the current in the Caribbean it's mostly different species of coral different kinds of rocks we actually found some pumice coming from Montserrat that erupted in February so I started to wash up on our beaches here foreign once again this area has been given the name false entrance and as you can tell by the debris it lives up to its name many boats have been wrecked because operators weren't too careful when they were coming to the island from here we can now see red point which marks the end of our hike once there you immediately realize the reason for its name as Scott mentioned earlier this is the original part of Caskey that was formed by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago the red volcanic Cliffs still hold the lava Pathways to the Sea so you can see the the rocky Clips you got a lot of intrusion in there all the veins in the Rock the sheets of rusted metal is all oxidized iron it's all rusted iron that was brought up with the magma plug panic rock this is so cool [Music] in addition to the scenic Clips there is also some cool Wildlife to see here like this sea star [Music] and of course there is the famous blowhole but for some reason it doesn't seem to be working today [Music] it's been a great experience exploring Caskey but the day is far from over I want to thank Sybil and Scott for their time and for giving us an amazing experience for now we'll say goodbye to Caskey and the mangrove Lagoon dry off and find us a good pair of binoculars up next we're going bird watching dried off and rested We Begin our bird watching here at this Bridge located about a mile west of the mangrove Lagoon we just left as I said earlier we are still in the southeast part of Saint Thomas the NADA bridge that we're on provides an excellent viewing area for bird watchers even with all of the hustle and bustle of vehicular and pedestrian traffic that exists just meters away from the bridge many bird species still come to this area to feed and rest now what we're looking at is a tri-colored Heron one of the many birds that come to Saint Thomas to rest nest and feed now with just a few moments we're going to be joined by Mr Mario Francis the president of the Saint Thomas Audubon Society who's going to take us on a bird watching Adventure a lot about society today we have a good membership of maybe about what uh 25 active members in a group that comes out when I finished College I was going to college in Ohio when I got through I worked for the U.S forest Service and I was out in the woods marking Timber with a crew and being deep in the woods I saw this velvet blue thing flick past my eye and you know flick in between the trees I want to track truck and I finally meet up with it I saw the most beautiful bird I've ever seen in the world I never knew a creature could be that beautiful and I found out it was the indigo bunting and the indigo bunting has been one of my main state birds as one of my favorite so that word kind of turned me on I start finding out about it and I was about 1995 I decided to form a little group you know and start to get him involved into it and let them know they magnificent beauty of studying these birds I'm great I'm really excited today about the bird watching okay I just started looking but I know you're gonna show me a lot more what are we going to be looking at today uh we'll be watching a few Birds right now we're here at the bridge what they call the bridge of nowhere the bridge to nowhere but the other one Society gives it the name the Audubon Bridge so it's your Bridge yeah so this is one of our board watching porches okay uh presently what you'll be seeing below your hair is what you call the common Mohan yes and that's a waterfall they swim building nest right on top of the water get some of the brush building this right on top of the water and a little egg which is a little bluish pinkish eggs now these birds are they commonly found here in St Thomas and in the Virgin Islands uh yes the common Mohan and some of the uh herons the tricolor visits but we got the common one search of the little blue heron and egrets that are you know residents to the island so Mr Francis I know we're here looking at the tri-colored Heron could you tell us a little bit more about the bird okay they try color hair and it's in the heaven family which of uh water birds that fish with weird in ponds uh got us streams on a long Shoreline uh they have a long big long legs so they can really dip down and pick out their fish the where we got Keen Eye and they're very sharp fishes uh the common blue heron or a little blue heron it's normally the one that we normally see in our areas but this is one of our favorite Birds because you know it waits I use some of the text that you can find that distinguish the many herons and stuff that we have here you got to try color Heron and many of the herons sometimes look closely alike but there's certain specifics that you look at what you call identify identifying marks this has a blue stomach blue belly uh slit blue back you know and and neck and there's a white little Crest on the back of it especially when they are mature I have usually when they're oh so this is the amateur stage in mature stage yes where it's a little brown brown or red yes and strict okay out front uh this particular one which is a mature one also what the beak has a two color so I see the blue on the top the blue on the top onto the tip of it is black as you can see in this one you know so certain identification Mark that you use to distinguish the difference that's important I guess to watch it yes and then next to it there you see you have a common Moorhead the more hand yes that's that's a waterfall no I did I was watching it and I assumed there was a duck yeah you know yeah the typical person probably would would probably say something like that yes yeah because most of them when they see they come on Mohan it's already swimming in the water so they don't see its feet the feet distinguishes different notice when he raised his feet it looks like a chicken it sure does you see whereas a duck has webbed feet okay so that's the difference you see so he'll be more or less on the coastline in Grass swamp you know and that's how he feeds so how would you classify the birds yes this would this fall in the family with the chicken you know yes it should be more like in the chicken family what they call the jungle fowl this will be more or less in that in that class so is it also easy eating fish yes eat fish but mostly from grass and stuff like that they feed on that here's an interesting fact about the more hens on a global scale the species population is very healthy however smaller populations in specific areas such as Hawaii and Palau and island nation in the Pacific Ocean are threatened now what we normally found the birds just here in this type of water setting we have this is with fresh water yes come on and this is what it runs from up on the Watershed come through the guttaways along the road and you know travels all along here goes all out to the Lagoon and also all the hair has fish has a lot of wildlife uh Turtles um tap ons fishes and that's what the other ones are said is about not just Birds but birds and other Wildlife that we care about and we try to encourage some of our community residents to come on out and enjoy Nature's Beauty because I mean we people drive past this area I don't even know no you don't even know and that's our aim we have a tally that we go out and at the end of the day I go home I tell you what we are seeing this one is the old one wow from in uh Sunday October the 8th 2006. from 2006. you know that you identified a lot a lot of birds see and here I said it was 28 species for a total of 167 Birds we counted that day and is this in a three-hour time three hours plan that's the average time that I normally go out and do a uh our office now do you is there anything in particular that you think these birds find here in the original is that they don't find anywhere else well uh being that some of them do migrate hair is used as a resting spot okay okay and after flying overseas for days what better place through what better what better place to rest you know to come to find enough food to build up their energy Give Them Enough fat that they can Journey on you know so here's a it's a popular restaurant spot and of course you know the boys are winter whatnot come down here you know to do their thing you see some feed some uh nests and raise their young and then go back up north [Music] the Audubon Bridge as Mr Francis has renamed it is just one area where he and his members go to watch Birds another popular location for the Audubon Society is the compass point Pond hey this sounds familiar compass point Pond is part of the wildlife sanctuary we kayak through earlier it was once cut off from the Sea by the construction of a road however in 1992 it was designated as a protected area and was reopened to the Sea today many Wildlife species call it home foreign [Music] due to what is called development we're losing more habitats for birds and other wildlife and right now we have a great decrease in of the population of birds simply because the habitat of being destroyed and that is so important that we try to resolve certain areas of our Island for our wildlife and the birds that's something we have to put as a priority on our list and that's why with our program the society we try to have these uh boardwatch and excursions so people can better appreciate and you know love for birds and wanting to Advocate to preserve their habitats yes but um you know we didn't see as many of It kind of far yeah this one this is a big pond and therefore of what uh annealing get to catch was some uh The Clapper reels their father's over and I know you won't be able to pick them up so much with this camera right above us and now you're gonna hear uh banana quit sure thing that sounds good for recording here but we're going to go to another spot right now because let's treacherous than we just passed where the birds are going to be real close and there's abundance of burrows and then that we're going to be seeing the white chick pintail Ducks okay we're going to be seeing uh the black chrome Night Heron and uh we'll be seeing some more more hands uh uh pelicans and a few other varieties okay sounds like we're gonna see a lot so oh yeah let's go okay our third and last stop on this bird watching trip takes us north of Benner Bay to a popular Hotel and Resort [Music] we're here at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Hotel and as you can see they keep a well-maintained habitat for Birds what we've been seeing is a lot of common more hens and white chick pintails yeah these are the white chick pintails so okay white cheese White Chicks see the cheeks are white and they got a pointy a tail we're going to Pinter they're beautiful they're beautiful beautiful birds are those native birds no uh no not really no they do come and go but normally migrate over but there's a set that stays there all year round and simply because they're fed every day you know from the hotel and stuff so they said hey well you must go flying any place while we got food at 24 7. you know that's smart yeah they do so you got at least about 50 of them that are 50 wow yeah but stays here you know and uh the little squawking noise we're hearing it's a common more hand that is nested inside the mangrove so like we what we thought earlier yeah now if you remember at the NADA Bridge Francis mentioned that the common moorhead's feet were not webbed here you can see clearly why the more hens are not part of the duck family [Music] it's not Mr Francis it seems like today our report shows that we saw the tri-colored Heron that's right the common more hen The Blue Heron the black naked still yes the genita white wing Dove the white chick pintail yes and the gray king bird yeah and mostly we had a successful day oh yes so much fun I learned a lot oh thank you so much oh it's our pleasure hopefully we come back and get to it hopefully you gotta come back all right you gotta come back thank you you're welcome foreign it's been a wonderful day of rediscovery and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did so until next time cherish your home this beautiful island and most of all cherish each other foreign