• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Madagascar 2010 – an island apart (1 Viewer)

edenwatcher

Well-known member
As the world’s 4th largest island and, despite its proximity to the coast of Africa, with a unique and varied fauna exhibiting a high degree of endemism, Madagascar is one of those places that must feature highly on any birder’s list of prospective destinations. Few countries offer such a high proportion of endemic bird species, add to that lemurs and some spectacular reptiles and you have a winning combination. I have wanted to visit Madagascar for some time and had hoped to do so in 2009, however the political turmoil and violence that engulfed Madagascar early in the year put paid to that idea, with many companies cancelling tours etc.
All of which brings us to 2010. Iain (ionemosia) and I last travelled together in 2006 when we visited southern Ecuador – a trip which is documented elsewhere on BF. Since that time we had not managed to coordinate our foreign trips but we were keen to do so again, particularly as there was a good chance that it would be the last big trip for each of us for some time to come. In my case, family holidays will become the main annual trip, whilst Iain is seeking early release from his job at Dounreay. In email discussions of places to visit Madagascar soon emerged as the favoured destination. When looking at organised tours it is very clear that some companies see a lot more than others (!), but it appeared that one commercial tour fulfilled our requirements very nicely. However on contacting them, the tour was already full with a substantial waiting list – back to square one. Not wishing to give up on the idea, I contacted Steve Bird of (the sadly now defunct) Birdseekers, as I knew he was planning a Madagascar tour. He had not been able to secure accommodation for a group for 2010, but offered to give me the contact details for his ground agent (also the long-standing Birdquest ground agent). It can’t hurt, was my immediate response, so I duly contacted Tiana Rakotoarimanana of Madagascar New Destination suggesting two outlines for a 2 week trip (one with Masoala, one without) at the end of September. Late September/early October is just before the peak season for birding tours and likely to have more settled weather being further from the wet season, which usually starts in December. With any luck it would be far enough into the breeding season for birds to be calling. I also contacted another respected ground agent, figuring that a second quote was a good idea. Both companies were very responsive and Tiana came up with a quote and itinerary for both options very quickly, nicely tied in to Air France flights and no more expensive than a group tour with UK leader. It was difficult to get a price out of the other company, and when they finally came up with one, it was significantly higher (albeit all-inclusive). It became clear that fitting Masoala into the itinerary would require 5 days to make allowances for possible disruption of flights to/from Maroantsetra. This would unbalance the rest of the trip and so, with regret, we abandoned this idea – helmet vanga would have to wait for another time …
Plans to book went on hold for a time due to Iain’s circumstances, but at the end of March it was all systems go. In view of Air France’s crazy so-called connections, we booked an evening flight from Edinburgh to Paris CDG and an overnight stay at the Hotel Ibis at the airport. I have used this hotel on a number of occasions with work and, whilst unexceptional, it does the job. Preparations continued through the summer including obtaining an mp3 player and speaker and loading the calls. Things then started to unravel a couple of weeks before departure when Sue’s mother was taken ill, requiring Sue to make several trips to Cheltenham, leaving me looking after Andrew who started school this year. On the Thursday morning before departure on Saturday I thought the trip was off! However Sue’s mum showed signs of improvement and a window of opportunity opened. Sue went down to Cheltenham again with Daniel, and I would drop Andrew off with friends on Saturday morning. Iain would then pick me up on his way from Thurso to the airport. Parting from Andrew was highly traumatic as he was very upset – I had to drive away and leave him before he would calm down, which was far from ideal. When Iain arrived I discovered that he had nearly had to cancel as well – his father had been admitted to hospital the previous day. All-in-all a rather inauspicious start to our trip …

Rob
 
Saturday 25th September
Iain, having allowed more time for roadworks than necessary, arrived as I was finishing my lunch. It seemed sensible to press on to the airport, so after some last minute packing we were off. Check-in proved unnecessarily complicated – all we wanted was to get boarding cards for both flights and check our bags as far as Paris! This seemed to cause great difficulty to the check-in staff. Eventually it was all sorted out. Air-side Iain got the reassuring news that his father’s condition was improving. The flight was uneventful and landed a few minutes early – less welcome was the board at the baggage carousel suggesting that it would take 45 minutes to deliver our bags! Fortunately this turned out to be untrue and we were soon on our way to the hotel after a lengthy trek to the CDGVAL. This was busier than normal as the RER was closed for engineering works and everyone was on their way to the bus station. Having settled into the room we went down for a bite to eat, and found that dithering meant that we kept missing out on items on the bar menu as they kept running out! Hunger pangs assuaged with a plate of penne (not a gourmet experience!), it was time to turn in.
Sunday 26th September
After a satisfactory breakfast at the hotel we returned to the airport to drop our bags off at Terminal 2C. The check-in zone displayed on the screens turned out to be incorrect as were directed elsewhere. The queue was slow-moving but eventually the bags were dropped off and we went through security. There followed the usual tedious waiting around before boarding, which happened on schedule. One consequence of the check-in hiatus in Edinburgh was that Iain and I were seated on opposite sides of the plane. I ended up sat next to a Malagasy gentleman who, how can I put this? – Ah yes … he would have benefitted from a wash! Still, it was only a 10 hour flight …
Take-off was delayed by about half an hour, apparently due to striking air traffic controllers (this was France after all!). At this point I feel I have to say how thankful I am that our travel plans were not disrupted by the French pensions dispute. Not much to say about the next 10 hours, Air France food is pretty good, in-flight entertainment adequate and we got to fly over interesting places like Libya and Darfur! We landed at Tana at 22:15 local time (GMT +3) and then the marathon began. Earlier this year Madagascar waived its visa fee for tourists which, given it used to be about $90, was nice. However it did mean that the queue for people entering Madagascar without having obtained a visa in advance was very long and slow moving. Iain managed some expert queue jumping – dirty looks from those around me kept me on the straight and narrow. In the end it didn’t matter as, despite queuing for over an hour, the bags had still not been delivered! Two texts from Sue indicated that communication with home was feasible, whilst Iain even managed to phone home. Finally the bags appeared and we emerged, to be met by Tiana. After changing money and acquiring a fistful of Ariary ($300 = 588000 Ariary!) we were on our way (well, once we managed to get out of the car park). It was well after midnight when we arrived at the Hotel Orchid, a modern Chinese-owned hotel near the airport. We were glad to crash out, Tiana having arranged to pick us up at 7:00 the next morning for the long drive (~12h) to Ranomafana.

Rob

PS The next report will contain birds ;)
 
Thanks chaps, things should pick up from now on. I hope the photos won't disappoint. Shame you can't do Bristol to Aepyornis Larry!

Monday 27th September
After a rather abbreviated night, since we had an east-facing room we were up and doing at 5:30. We had a nice balcony which gave a good view of a range of gardens, paddyfields and a distant lake – time to kick off our Madagascar lists. Species seen included Madagascar bulbul, red fody, Madagascar (African) stonechat (a recent IOC split), dimorphic egret, squacco heron and the pick of the bunch - a superb male Madagascar green sunbird in the top of a bottlebrush level with our balcony. We didn’t see many more during the trip and these turned out to be our best views.
At 6:30 we went down for breakfast and discovered that whilst the Orchid was a very comfortable hotel, speed of service in the restaurant is not its strong point! We were reduced to taking bread out with us to eat later, although as it turned out we need not have bothered as Tiana was held up in traffic and did not arrive until about 7:30. This was a slight cause for concern, but it turned out to be a one-off – Tiana’s timekeeping throughout the tour was absolutely exemplary. Our vehicle for the first week of the tour was a landcruiser, driven by Tiana’s brother Sisi. It was not in its first flush of youth, but perfectly adequate, and Sisi was an excellent careful driver. From the airport suburb of Ivato we skirted Tana to reach RN7, a road we would eventually follow all the way to Toliara (Tulear). On the way, birds encountered included Madagascar kestrel, Madagascar kingfisher and a party of 10 or so Madagascar black swifts. RN7 is metalled for its entire length but is not a fast road being quite narrow, twisty and undulating. An additional brake on speed is provided by frequent bullock carts and man-powered trolleys. Driving seemed to conform to the Indian model of “might is right”. Not long out of Tana, in addition to a stop to buy water, we had a brief birding halt overlooking a lake, which contained numerous red-billed teals, whilst we also had a fly-by Madagascar wagtail. The central plateau of Madagascar is not an inspiring place – forests long since cleared, the landscape is a mixture of grassland, scrub and non-native trees (mostly eucalyptus) with plenty of fields. The famous red soil is much in evidence and frequent smoke reveals the depressing continuing slash-and-burn agriculture. Needless to say in this environment interesting birds are at a premium, but included our first olive bee-eater, a hamerkop and a pair of Namaqua doves. The last of these is a species more characteristic of the drier west of the country.
Late morning we reached the town of Antsirabe, 3rd largest in Madagascar, characterised by a large number of rickshaws (pousse-pousse) further slowing the traffic. Here we purchased snacks for lunch at a filling station. Beyond Antsirabe the country tended to become more mountainous, with some interesting granite outcrops. A break for Sisi by an old bridge produced the excitement of adding little grebe to the list! Birding interest picked up a little as we got further south, with a nice pair of Madagascar kestrels at the roadside, another Madagascar kingfisher and a Madagascar turtle dove in the road.
Finally we left the RN7 in view of some spectacular cliffs, to follow the recently resurfaced (having been blessed by the EU money fairy) RN45 to Ranomafana. The new surface persisted as far as Vohiparara before the road descended through some good forest. We stopped to stretch our legs and see a few birds including Madagascar cuckoo (a bird seldom seen, but constantly heard in the eastern rainforests), common jery and Madagascar brush warbler. Pressing on we drove past the park entrance and a number of hotels before reaching ours – the Centrest – just as the sun was setting. Fortunately the journey had taken rather less than the 12 hours Tiana had suggested. Before going to the rooms, Tiana made sure we ordered dinner for 7 o’clock, breakfast for 5:30 next morning and a packed lunch (omelette sandwich – sounds odd, but hits the spot!). Our hotel at Ranomafana was the one instance where we changed the accommodation that Tiana came up with initially, and the Centrest turned out to be a nice place to stay. The rooms were spacious and clean with en-suite facilities and we had good, friendly service. Dinner was tasty and featured our first encounter with THB (Three Horses Beer), a pilsener which was to become a familiar source of rehydration on the trip! Quite why it has an English name, I have no idea. After dinner we were ready for sleep after more than 2 days travel, but excited at the prospect of our first day’s birding in the forests of Ranomafana …

Rob
 

Attachments

  • 001 Bridge.JPG
    001 Bridge.JPG
    299.8 KB · Views: 117
  • 002 Madagascar kestrel.JPG
    002 Madagascar kestrel.JPG
    199.5 KB · Views: 106
You are most welcome!
I seem to be being rather verbose so the main birding days will be divided into several parts.

Tuesday 28th September. Part 1
Refreshed after the best night’s sleep for some days we were all set for our first day in Ranomafana. Breakfast consisted of some baguette and jam and a banana – not substantial, but adequate. First new bird of a fine, clear morning was a Madagascar magpie robin. Ranomafana National Park lies on the eastern escarpment of the central plateau and covers 43500 hectares of mostly cloud forest and lowland rainforest. It was established in 1991, in part because of the discovery of the golden bamboo lemur, first described in 1987. We left the hotel shortly before 6:00 and on the drive up to the park entrance picked up our local guide, Fidi – a familiar name from birding trip reports and one of the top guides at Ranomafana. As he climbed into the vehicle there was a strong odour, distinctly redolent of my flambéed banana of the previous evening! This was something else I had read about guides in Ranomafana(!) though it has to be said that his performance was not significantly impaired. Also since we didn’t pay or tip him until the end of our stay, he sobered up nicely!
Climbing out of the vehicle, Fidi pointed out a singing Rand’s warbler and Madagascar starling sharing the same tall tree. From the car park we descended to cross the Namorona river via a sturdy bridge. Not far along the trail we had our first venture “off-piste”, something that was a feature of birding in Madagascar. This either took the form of venturing on to narrow, guide or researcher-made trails which often were just a path of least resistance through the forest or just getting stuck-in! This was one of the former – our objective a Crossley’s babbler on a nest. It took Fidi a while to locate it (perhaps his faculties were slightly impaired after all), but before long we had superb views of a male Crossley’s babbler (actually a vanga) sitting on its nest. Further up the trail, whilst Fidi made a short diversion on an (unsuccessful) hunt for bamboo lemurs, I located a male velvet asity which unfortunately did not linger. A steepish ascent to a ridge top and we began to encounter more birds. A pair of Pollen’s vangas was very responsive to playback and gave excellent views. This was a key Ranomafana species as it is the only site on most itineraries for this large vanga, one of a group of 3 members of the genus Xenopirostris of similar appearance but widely separate range and habitat. A feeding flock saw us add red-tailed vanga, common newtonia, green jery and blue vanga to the list and we were well and truly up and running.
Heading back along the ridge brown mesite called. Mesites are one of Madagascar’s endemic bird families and have uncertain affinities, being generally regarded as related to rails. All 3 species are classed as Vulnerable by Birdlife International. Playback certainly brought the bird(s) closer, but not close enough and they seemed to have lost interest. However Fidi set off downhill in pursuit and after a while we were invited to follow. This was true off-piste birding as we descended a steep slope, hanging on to trees to control our passage. Some way down and there was Fidi ushering a pair of brown mesites in our direction. Odd-looking birds with subtly attractive plumage, the gloom of the forest floor combined with our energetic descent did not make for successful photography! Then of course we had to climb back up again …

Rob
 

Attachments

  • 003 Crossleys babbler.JPG
    003 Crossleys babbler.JPG
    165.2 KB · Views: 122
  • 004 Pollens vanga.JPG
    004 Pollens vanga.JPG
    288.3 KB · Views: 109
  • 005 Red-tailed vanga.JPG
    005 Red-tailed vanga.JPG
    228.3 KB · Views: 94
  • 006 Blue vanga.JPG
    006 Blue vanga.JPG
    247.6 KB · Views: 94
Please keep up with the verbosity because it paints an exciting mental picture of Madagascar. Looking forward to more!

hear hear. :t:

Could you let us know what those weird birds in the photos are?

Having done this trip, what do you reckon an independent trip would be like Rob? Do you think a big proportion of the island's birds would be almost impossible/very hard without guides/tapes?

Can't wait for the next bit
 
Crossley's Babbler, Pollen's Vanga, Red-tailed Vanga and Blue Vanga... at least according to the file names

do those Vangas remind anyone else of Broadbills?
 
Will has spotted the file names! I thought it would be obvious;)
Would you prefer me to name them explicitly?
Larry, it would be quite challenging to do independently. I believe that you must have a guide of some sort to enter the national parks. Tapes certainly help for some species - the British Library CD is pretty comprehensive. I added a few more from Xeno-Canto when compiling my collection.

Rob
 
Tuesday 28th September. Part 2

Branching off on to another trail a rufous vanga was heard, then the piercing cries of a Henst’s goshawk echoed over the forest before the metronomic call of pitta-like ground-roller set the pulses racing (or was that just the steep trails!). Of all the bird families of Madagascar, the ground-rollers are the one that most captures the imagination. Five species, all beautifully marked and each, whilst structurally similar, highly distinctive. Ian Merrill, in his trip report on Surfbirds, describes them as possibly the best bird family in the world and I would happily go along with this. Moving closer, a bit of playback and a pitta-like ground-roller bounded into view on a low branch. We had plenty of opportunity to take in the gorgeous plumage and blast off a lot of photos (the low-light insurance policy!). As the commonest member of the family it often gets a bit taken for granted but my word what a stunner! Soon afterwards a party of blue couas provided an introduction to another key Malagasy group. Another steep climb, a narrow trail complete with fallen tree to scramble under and lots of rambling bamboo to trip over (a feature of Madagascan rainforests) and we were in the territory of Henst’s goshawk. Before too long one appeared, giving us flight views and, albeit briefly, nice perched views. We spent some time trying to improve on this, but although the bird called occasionally from an invisible perch it was clear that we were on a hiding to nothing. It took a while to convince Tiana and Fidi of this but in due course we moved off, having also seen our first dark newtonias. On the trek back we saw our first Madagascar paradise flycatcher and an obliging female velvet asity.
At Belle Vue viewpoint(!), where we admired the superb day gecko Phelsuma quadriocellata, a breakdown in communications emerged. Whilst Tiana had his and Fidi’s sandwiches, ours were still at the Centrest! Tightening our belts we descended towards the bridge, seeing spectacled tetraka (greenbul) and Madagascar white-eye, whilst white-throated oxylabes eluded me – as it was to do on a number of occasions, thankfully mostly after I had seen one. The bridge was adorned with some impressive webs, occupied by no less impressive spiders. On the climb up to the car park we were shown our first chameleon – one of the smaller species. It was gratifying to find that the Centrest had hung on to our sandwiches and soon we were munching away happily. As it was now after 2 o’clock this was not a mistake we intended to make a second time …

Rob
 

Attachments

  • 007 Pitta-like Ground-roller.JPG
    007 Pitta-like Ground-roller.JPG
    239.5 KB · Views: 121
  • 008 Velvet asity.JPG
    008 Velvet asity.JPG
    182.4 KB · Views: 103
  • 009 Phelsuma quadriocellata.JPG
    009 Phelsuma quadriocellata.JPG
    216.6 KB · Views: 74
  • 010 Spider.JPG
    010 Spider.JPG
    164.2 KB · Views: 67
  • 011 Chameleon.JPG
    011 Chameleon.JPG
    147.9 KB · Views: 78
Thanks Delia.

Tuesday 28th September. Part 3.

For the afternoon our focus shifted to higher altitudes, but not before a roadside stop which yielded a stunning male forest rock thrush, which tried to remain concealed in the dense vegetation (hardly a typical rock thrush trait). More on the confused taxonomy of Malagasy rock thrushes later. We turned off the main road at the village of Vohiparara heading for the start of another trail system. This climbed through poorer habitat (apparently mostly regenerating forest) past a rather incongruous looking viewing platform. We had our best views yet of olive bee-eater as we took the Akaka trail. Akaka is the local name for Meller’s duck, an endangered but otherwise uninspiring relative of mallard, whose female it resembles. The trail overlooks a V-shaped body of water, surrounded by trees, on which we could see a number of red-billed teal but none of the target species. We then descended to some swampy grassland in search of grey emutail, a skulking grassbird relative. Fidi waded in as a spotter and after a bit of effort we had some nice views of a bird song flighting. On the climb back up a Madagascar flufftail called from close to the path and, whilst responding to playback, would not come into view. Although this species has the reputation of being the easiest flufftail to see, this is of course a relative term. There were still no akakas visible and we walked back to the vehicle, encountering red-fronted coua and 2 fly-by lesser vasa parrots on the way. On the drive back to the main road we saw an adult Madagascar pond-heron in a rice paddy. Our final stop at dusk was at a roadside site teeming with guides and tourists (where had they been all day?). Here the main attraction was the cute brown mouse lemur, apparently lured by smearing banana on tree trunks. One individual showed beautifully – our first lemur of the trip, and we also encountered a number of frogs. Back at the Centrest it was time to order dinner, along with the next day’s breakfast and lunch, before a much-needed shower. It had been a tiring day with Ranomafana living up to its reputation for steep trails, but very rewarding. Another good meal featuring our first encounter with zebu also saw us add another mammal to the trip list: a house mouse skittered round the bar and shot off into the kitchen!

Rob
 

Attachments

  • 012 Forest rock thrush.JPG
    012 Forest rock thrush.JPG
    137.8 KB · Views: 93
  • 013 Brown mouse lemur.JPG
    013 Brown mouse lemur.JPG
    199.7 KB · Views: 96
  • 014 Frog.JPG
    014 Frog.JPG
    330.3 KB · Views: 87
Tuesday 28th September. Part 2

Excellent job with the report. Here's one of the Blue Couas
 

Attachments

  • 20100928-2549-01BF.jpg
    20100928-2549-01BF.jpg
    292.9 KB · Views: 108
Warning! This thread is more than 13 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top