29 June to 16 July 2013

Transcription

1 29 June to 16 July 2013 Madagascar is a fantastic destination and an amazing adventure! Very important to see it as an adventure and to be open-minded as routes might change and times might move. However, the experience is worthwhile and always more than expected. View from our hotel of the upper town, Antananarivo

2 A few Malagasy Phrases Salama Greetings Mora mora Take it easy, (doing things at Malagasy speed, which is rather slow even for us Africans from the main-land) Malaky Fast (get going mate, speed it up... generally doing things at double speed/time in Madagascar which is basically unknown to the lovely and friendly Malagasy people) Zebu Malagasy beef Vorona Bird Misaotra (Misoocha) Thank you Azafady Please Enjana (Enzaan) Professional Vaza Tourist *** Group participants Neil MacLeod (Safariwise tour leader) John Razafindrakoto (Local Madagasy guide) Frances Owens Ian & Sally Hunter Sally Jane Armstrong Wendy Hare Elaina Williams (Moppy) Paul & Carol Brown ***

3 Saturday, 29 June 2013 We all meet at the Palissandre Hotel and Spa for dinner. Most of the group are already at the hotel by the time I arrive just after midday. Sunday, 30 June 2013 Breakfast at 7h00 and we depart the hotel just before 08h00. We do a short city tour and visit the Queen's palace, which is situated on the highest point of Antananarivo. We continue our drive and have lunch in Moramange. We visit the exotic park Marosevo, en route and have our first close encounters with several reptile species. Arrive at our overnight accommodation in the late afternoon. We still have time to do a short walk. Birds seen today include: Great egret, Dimorphic egret, Striated heron, Hamerkop, Red billed teal, Madagascar buzzard, Madagascar kestrel, Peregrine falcon, Rock dove, Lesser vasa parrot, Alpine swift, Madagascar kingfisher, Mascarene martin, Madagascar wagtail, Malagasy stonechat, Madagascar paradise flycatcher, Madagascar white-eye, Common myna, Madagascar fody, Forest fody, Madagascar Mannikin and Yellow billed kite. Monday, 1 July 2013 Breakfast at 07h00 and we depart to Mantadia Primary Forest before 08h00. We see Frances's Goshawk, Madagascar coucal, Greater vasa parrot, Madagascar brush warbler, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar crested drongo along the way to the parking area which took us at least an hour to drive to. We hike into the forest to look for indri, but only hear them from a distance. We do manage to see Red bellied lemurs and Grey mouse lemurs. We also see: Eastern grey bamboo lemur, Common brown lemur, Red fronted brown lemur, Black and white ruffed lemur. A lowland streaked tenrec was also seen. Birds seen include: Great egret, Madagascar harrier hawk, Madagascar kestrel, Greater and Lesser vasa parrots, Red fronted coua, Blue coua, Madagascar coucal, Madagascar kingfisher, Madagascar wagtail, Spectacled tetraka, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar brush warbler, Madagascar stonechat, Ward's vanga, Madagascar paradise flycatcher, Stripe throated jery, Souimanga sunbird, Madagascar green sunbird, Madagascar whiteeye, White headed vanga, Madagascar blue vanga, Tylas, Nuthatch vanga, Crested Drongo and Madagascar red fody. We do our checklist and have a wonderful dinner before retiring to our very comfortable rooms. Tuesday, 2 July 2013 Breakfast is served at 07h00 and we depart to the Andasibe National Park at 07h45. We start with our five and a half hour walk into the rainforest at around 08h00. A very close

4 encounter with some Indri was the highlight of our walk as we ended up just below two when they were calling. Their very different and loud territorial call is somewhat eerie. We also manage to see Common brown lemur, Grey mouse lemur, Diademed sifaka, Eastern woolly lemur and a quick glimpse of a Red forest rat. Birds seen: Dimorphic egret, Striated heron, Madagascar kestrel, White throated rail, Rock dove, Madagascar turtle dove, Lesser vasa parrot, Blue coua, Collared nightjar, Madagascar kingfisher, Madagascar bee-eater, Madagascar wagtail, Long-billed tetraka, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar brush warbler, Common newtonia, Madagascar magpie robin, Madagascar stonechat, Ward's vanga, White throated oxylabes, Red tailed vanga, Chabert vanga, Madagascar blue vanga, Tylas, Nuthatch vanga, Nelicourvi weaver. We return for a late lunch at 14h00 and meet again at 16h00 for a brief village visit. We do a night walk from 18h15 to 20h00 and return to the lodge for dinner. Black and white ruffed lemur Wednesday, 3 July 2013 We have the usual breakfast at 07h00 and depart our lodge just after 08h00 after searching for some lost laundry that was never found. We drive to Antsirabe and arrive at our lodge at 17h00. We all check into our rooms and meet again to do the very short

5 checklist and to have dinner at 18h30. New birds seen today were Malagasy pond heron and Squacco heron. A real Malagasy phrase "this may happen tomorrow" was used by our guide John, whilst explaining our programme for the next day and little did the group know that this phrase was going to get full usage over the next couple of days! (Mora Mora).. Thursday, 4 July 2013 Independence Day for the USA and also Carol's birthday! We have breakfast at the usual time and depart around 8h00. We do a short tour into town and the local craft markets before we depart on our long journey to Ranamofana. We do banking, shopping for t-shirts, hats, water, picnic lunch, post cards, ice cream, table cloths, etc. and depart town at 10h30. Whilst in town we see Madagascar mannikin, Madagascar bee-eater, Madagascar bulbul, Common myna, Cattle egret and Madagascar red fody. Birds seen along the road include: Yellow billed kite, Madagascar kestrel, Cattle egret, Dimorphic egret, Black heron, Hammerkop, Malagasy stonechat, Pied crow, Mascarene martin, Common moorhen, Madagascar kingfisher, Great egret, Madagascar green sunbird, Madagascar red fody, Madagascar buzzard. We stop along the road and have a picnic lunch. Several photographic stops are made along the way. Arrival time at our lodge is just before 18h00 and we check into our rooms and meet again in the dining area to do the checklist and have dinner at 19h00. Friday, 5 July 2013 Breakfast and departure at the usual times and we set off for our first visit to Ranamofana National Park. We do a walk for almost three hours before returning to the lodge for lunch and see the following: Black and white (Edward's) Sifaka, Blue coua, red tailed vanga, Blue vanga, Madagascar crested drongo, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar buzzard, Madagascar paradise flycatcher, Madagascar magpie robin, Common Newtonian, Madagascar green sunbird, Souimanga sunbird, Madagascar brush warbler, Madagascar cuckooshrike, Common jery, Madagascar black swift, African palm swift, Madagascar spine-tailed swift, Alpine swift. After lunch we visit the research station and walk back to our lodge. We meet again at 17h30 for a night activity/walk and return to base just after 19h00 after seeing very good views of 4 different chameleon species as well as two Brown mouse lemurs. We have dinner and do our checklist. Saturday, 6 July 2013 Breakfast is at 07h00 and we depart from the lodge and start our walk from the entrance to Ranamafana National Park around 08h00. Before the walk we manage to

6 add Madagascar cuckoo roller to our list. We see black and white Sifaka, Common brown and Red bellied lemurs on the walk. We do a eight and a half hour trek through the forests, both secondary and primary forest and see: Pitta-like ground-roller, Madagascar wood rail, Helmeted guineafowl, Madagascar kestrel, Madagascar buzzard, Madagascar blue pigeon, Lesser vasa parrot, Blue coua, Madagascar kingfisher, Madagascar bee-eater, Mascerene martin, Madagascar wagtail, Spectacled tetraka, Madagascar brush warbler, Common newtonia, Madagascar magpie robin, Ward's vanga, Common jerry, Stripe throated jerry, White throated oxylabes, Madagascar white eye, Pollen's vanga, Chabert s vanga, Tylas, Madagascar crested Drongo, Nelicourvi weaver. We meet up with the rest of the group who did not do the long trek at the Ranamofana village and do some local shopping before returning to the lodge at 17h00. We do the checklist and have dinner at 18:30. Sunday, 7 July 2013 We have a slightly earlier breakfast at 06h30 and depart the lodge just before 07h30 heading towards our next stop, Isalo National Park. We have a quick stop at the Ranamofana park entrance for a photo opportunity of the park entrance and a quick feed of a couple of local dogs that had become used to our group feeding them some bread in the mornings over the last three days. We continue our drive and have lunch before we proceed to Anja Park and see our first Ring-tailed lemurs. We also see Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar buzzard, Hammerkop, Red billed teal, Madagascar kingfisher, Madagascar hoopoe, Grey headed lovebird, Madagascar cisticola, Pied crows and Yellow billed kite. We depart the park at 14:00 and continue on our journey south. We see Madagascar lark, Madagascar bee eaters, Pied crows, Yellow billed kites and several Madagascar kestrels as well as Peregrine falcon. Just before arriving at the lodge we have a rather good sighting of an African marsh owl. We arrive at our accommodation just after 18h00 and meet again to do our checklist and have dinner at 19h20. A great, long, scenic day and a really great lodge and excellent food and service. Monday, 8 July 2013 We have breakfast and then do a short drive to Isalo National Park. We do a walk to one of the viewpoints before we drive again to a different position and then do another short walk to see the Ring-tailed and Common red breasted lemurs.

7 We see: Black kite, Grey headed lovebirds Cattle egret, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar green sunbird, Souimanga sunbird, Madagascar kestrel, Yellow-billed kite, Pied crow, White headed vanga, Madagascar paradise flycatcher, Madagascar wagtail, Madagascar white-eye. We return to the lodge for lunch at 13h30 and take the afternoon at a relaxed pace to enjoy the surroundings of this wonderful lodge. We meet again at 17h00 for a short walk and a sundowner. Dinner is served at 19h00. Madagascar scops owl is seen by Paul and Carol as they walk back to their rooms after dinner. Ring-tailed lemur at Isalo National Park Tuesday, 9 July 2013 We do a pre-breakfast walk at 06h30 and see Forest rock-thrush, Black kite, Pied crow, Madagascar green sunbird, Madagascar mannikin, Madagascar cisticola, Little grebe, Madagascar swamp warbler, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar coucal, White-faced whistling duck, Madagascar kestrel. We have breakfast at 07h00 and are ready for departure at 07h45. En route to Tulear we see: Black and Yellow billed kites, Pied crow, Madagascar kestrel, Madagascar cuckoo roller, Madagascar stonechat, Grey headed lovebird, Madagascar crested Drongo, Lesser vasa parrot, Namaqua dove, Hammerkop. We also see and photograph our first Baobab trees.

8 Arrive in Tulear just before 12h00 and do some shopping, post office and banks before lunch. A great lunch consisting of different pizzas and we have 7 huge ones between us. After lunch we proceed to our lodge and see Three-banded plover and Black winged stilts that are new for our list. We book into our rooms that overlook the Mozambique channel and we have the constant breaking of the waves on our doorstep. We do a short bird walk from the lodge and see Subdesert Tetraka and Sakalava weaver, which are new for our list. We have a presentation of sea mammals by a student from France and have a lovely dinner afterwards. Wednesday, 10 July 2013 We meet at 05h30 for coffee and tea and depart the lodge at 06h00 to visit the Reniala reserve. The drive is approximately half an hour from our lodge and we start walking just before 06h00. We see Long-tailed ground roller, Sub-desert mesite, Sickle-billed vanga, Chabart s vanga, Green-capped coua, Crested coua, Lafresnaye s vanga, Souimanga sunbird, Madagascar green sunbird, Common jerry, Common newtonia, Subdesert tetraka, Madagascar bee eater, Namaqua dove, Madagascar kestrel, Pied crow. We return to the lodge and have a late breakfast just before 10h00. We leave the lodge at 11h00 to search for Madagascar plover and to visit a local school. We search the salt pans nearby the school extensively, but do not see any Madagascar Plover. We do see Madagascar lark and Kittlitz s plover. Return to the lodge just before 13h00 and have some light lunch and John's birthday cake. The afternoon is at ease. We get together to do the checklist at 18h30 and have dinner shortly after. Thursday, 11 July 2013 We have breakfast at 06h30 and depart the lodge shortly before 07h30 on our way to Tuleur, where we have a boat transfer to Anakao beach lodge and spa at 09h00. En route we see Madagascar coucal, Madagascar kingfisher, Three-banded plover, Kittlitz s plover, Grey heron, Madagascar lark, Madagascar cisticola. We arrive at our lodge after a rather bumpy boat ride and check in to our rooms before we do another short boat trip to Nosy Ve island. We see Madagascar gull, Red-tailed tropic birds, Marsh owl, Grey heron, Dimorphic egrets, Kittlitz s plover and Caspian tern. On the way back the tide is too low to beach the boat at the lodge so we end up having to do a 15 minute beach walk and see very good views of Madagascar plovers. We have lunch on the veranda of this very nice lodge overlooking the Mozambique channel. Lunch is freshly caught seafood and consists of a prawn starter followed by fresh fish with vegetables and the house special of pancakes topped with orange syrup. The afternoon is at leisure. We meet again at 18h30 to do our checklist, which is followed

9 by dinner and an early night as we are informed that our Air Madagascar flights are now at 08h15 and not at 10h15 the next day. Red-tailed tropicbird Friday, 12 July 2013 We have a rather early breakfast at 05h00 and depart our lodge at 05h45 for the boat transfer to Tuleur where we then transfer to the airport for our flight to Fort Dauphin. The boat transfer proves to be a bit bumpy and we reach Tuleur an hour later and see our first Common whimbrel as we reach the harbour. We are checked in and waiting before 08h00. We are waiting for our plane which still needs to appear on the runway and say our farewell to John our Malagasy guide and friend. Our plane arrives and we depart Tulear at 09h15 for the one hour flight to Fort Dauphin. We meet our new guide, Roland, and drive via town to buy a picnic lunch. En route to Berenty we see Madagascar bee eater, Madagascar kingfisher, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar buzzard, Madagascar kestrel, Madagascar red fody, Dimorphic egret, Cattle egret, Great egret, Hammerkop, Crested coua, Madagascar turtle dove, Namaqua dove.

10 Rare waders We arrive at Berenty just before 15h00 and check into our rooms and relax until we meet again at 17h30 to do our night walk. The night walk continues for almost an hour and we see: White footed sportive lemur, Grey-brown mouse lemur, Grey mouse lemur, White-browed owl. Saturday, 13 July 2013 We meet for early morning coffee and tea at 06h00 and depart the lodge for a very short drive at 06h35 to look for Madagascar sandgrouse. We see three different birds as well as Madagascar red fody, Madagascar white eye, Madagascar lark, Madagascar cisticola, Common jery, Pied crow, Grey headed lovebird, Yellow billed kite and return to the lodge for breakfast at 07h30. We meet again at 08h30 and drive to the spiny forest for a short walk before we go to yet another spiny forest location for a two hour walk. We see Ring tailed lemur, Verraux's sifaka, White footed sportive lemur, Spider tortoise, Crested coua, Madagascar coucal, Madagascar cuckooshrike, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar scops owl, Madagascar nightjar, Common quail, Sakalava weaver, Madagascar bee eater, Madagascar paradise flycatcher. We return for lunch at 12h30 and are joined by a group of Verraux's sifaka, dancing, leaping outside the restaurant. We meet at 15h00 for a walk through the gallery forest. A lovely walk and we see Giant coua, Madagascar turtle dove, Madagascar white eye, Common and Stripe throated

11 jery, Madagascar buttonquail, Common brown lemur, Ring tailed lemur, Verraux's sifaka, White footed sportive lemur, Madagascar flying fox. We return to the lodge at 17h30. Some people in the group opt to go for a night walk. We have dinner and do the list at 19h00. Grey-brown mouse-lemur Sunday, 14 July 2013 Breakfast at 07h00 and we do a drive to a new piece of spiny forest. We see Madagascar green pigeon, Madagascar sandgrouse, Madagascar turtle dove, Madagascar bulbul, Hook billed and Lafresnaye's vanga, Common and Stripe throated jerry, Madagascar bee eater, Archbold's newtonia before we return to our lodge to finish packing. We do a very quick visit to the local museum, which turns out to be very interesting. We return for lunch and head towards Fort Dauphin just after 12h45.

12 The four hour drive seems much shorter than two days ago and the 90 Km's are soon behind us. We reach our hotel just before 16h00 and meet again to do our checklist at 18h30. We have a great dinner and retire to our rooms after being informed that our Air Mad (Madagascar) flight had yet again been changed from 10h00 to a much earlier 08h15 departure. Monday, 15 July 2013 Breakfast at 06h00 as we need to be at the airport for our flight to "Tana" just after 07h00. The bus is on time and we are at the airport just after 07h00. Our plane lands at 08h50, which is surprisingly early. We are hoping that take-off is within the hour and are well relieved. Birds seen at the airport include Madagascar cisticola, Madagascar white eye, Souimanga sunbird, Common myna, Pied crow, Madagascar red fody. Our other news is that the plane will first fly to Tulear before it continues to Antananarivo and not direct as we thought and booked the flight for. What a surprise! (Mora Mora) We take off less than an hour after landing and because it is a Boeing 737 the flight is much faster and shorter than our previous flight to the same destination. We land at Tana where we are met by John and driver and go straight to lunch before we visit the local "open market". We arrive at our hotel just before 16h00 and meet again at 18h00 for dinner. Tuesday, 16 July 2013 Our last day/half day in Tana. Wendy and Sally-Jane depart the hotel very early to do a northern extension. The rest of the group have a leisurely breakfast and visit the Tsarasaotra Park before they have lunch and return to the hotel to rest before their flight with Air France at midnight. Frances, Elaina and I meet at the airport at 12h00 for our flight with South African airways that departs to Johannesburg at 15h00. The birding group see: Black heron, Dimorphic egret, Squacco heron (ralloides), Cattle egret, Striated heron, Black-crowned night-heron, White-faced whistling duck, Comb duck, Meller s duck, Red-billed teal, Hottentot teal, Common moorhen, Rock dove, Madagascar coucal, Madagascar kingfisher, Madagascar bee-eater, Madagascar wagtail, Madagascar bulbul, Madagascar cisticola, Madagascar brush-warbler, Madagascar swamp-warbler, Stripe-throated jery, Souimanga sunbird, Madagascar white-eye, Common myna, Nelicourvi weaver, Madagascar red fody. Since returning from Madagascar I have found the latest bird guide, fully revised July 2013 to the Indian Ocean Islands (Ian Sinclair and Olivier Langrand) and the following is quite interesting:

13 The Greenbul s are now all a new family and are called Tetraka s, we therefore saw Long billed Tetraka and not Long billed Greenbul. Also, the Kelp gull is now Madagascar gull, Ward s flycatcher has become Ward s vanga, African stonechat is Madagascar Stonechat, Tylas vanga is just Tylas, Thamnornis warbler is now Subdesert tetraka. There are some more changes. Please feel free to contact me should you have any queries as regards to the birds seen and any complications in connection with the new names. Last dinner in Antananarivo Thank you for sharing this amazing adventure with us! Looking forward to hosting you on another SafariWise adventure in the near future. - Until next time. -