This is the third and final post covering a return trip to Madagascar with Nick Preston. We'd visited the spiny forest of the South West and rainforest at Ranomafana and had now arrived at Perinet. It was the last area we were visiting and held the reason for our return, Scaly Ground Roller.
Saturday 13 October 2018 (continued). We
arrived at the Indri Lodge on the main road by the Perinet junction at about
14:00 where our guide Thierry was waiting for us. On our previous visit we had
been guided very ably by Thierry’s father Patrice and were hopeful that his
skill and knowledge had been passed onto the next generation. We were shown our
chalet, welcomed there by a large Madagascan Emperor Moth on the bathroom window, dumped our stuff and made a quick plan for tomorrow with Thierry as
he might need to obtain permits before the Park HQ closed at 16:00. Thierry was
keen to take us into the Iaroka forest the next day where a nesting Helmet
Vanga had been found. We impressed upon him that much as we’d like to see
Helmet Vanga, and hoped to do so later in our stay, our main target was Scaly
Ground Roller so he agreed to take us to Manatadia the next day. Driving to the
park we made two quick roadside stops, the first to be shown a pair of roosting
Rainforest Scops Owls about 50m form
the road. The second stop had us walking over 200m from the road to see a
roosting Madagascan (Long-eared) Owl
high in a conifer that Nick and I would have walked past. Another target seen.
We called in at the Park HQ for Manatadia permits and birded along the road and
a parallel tail seeing Madagascan
Starling and Madagascan Blue Pigeon
and hearing a White-throated Rail.
As we approached the old Hotel De La Gare in Perinet a Madagascan Flufftail ran across the road in front of us quickly
followed by two others. Thierry played a tape and the male appeared on the
roadside and ran back across. As the road was quite busy we left them alone and
joined Jermaine who was parked outside the old hotel. Finally somewhere at
Perinet that we recognised. With the sky darkening we postponed a night walk,
unnecessarily as it turned out, and returned to our hotel for a forgettable
meal. Hopefully Scaly Ground Roller tomorrow, the bird we had returned to
Madagascar to see, so no pressure.
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| Madagascan Emperor Moth outside our bathroom at Indri Lodge |
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| Rainforest Scops Owl at Perinet |
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| Crested Drongo at Perinet |
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| Madagascan Wagtail at the Park HQ |
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| Madagascan Girdled Lizard |
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| roosting Madagascan Long-eared Owl at Perinet |
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| Eastern Brown Lemur |
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| Madagascan Starling, the only one we saw |
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| Lesser Vasa Parrot |
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| as well as the Emperor Moth which seemed to be resident outside our bathroom this rather attractive Day Geko lived in our room |
Sunday 14 October 2018. We left Indri
Lodge at 05:30 after an early breakfast. Thierry was waiting for us by the road
in Perinet and we drove for just under an hour to Manatadia. Thierry told us he
knew of four places to see Scaly Ground
Roller which was encouraging, as too was us being the first out that
morning to look. At the first Jermaine parked beside the narrow track and we
followed Thierry along a small river for 0.5km when he heard one calling. We
continued towards to and soon even I could hear it calling. It was on the
hillside above us but scanning failed to locate it and it was not responsive to
playback. We started clambering up the hill but it stopped calling. We
continued and Thierry saw it on a low branch but it dropped off out of sight
when Nick joined him and I was a couple of paces behind. Bummer. We searched
the area for at least 30 minutes without further sight or sound of it and
decided to try Thierry’s second site. We were almost back at the road when a Pitta-like Ground Roller hoped out in
front of us, normally a very decent consolation but not right then. We
continued to the second site to find three other 4WDs parked there and Scaly
Ground Roller calls emanating from another group within. Not good. We did a
short walk in the opposite direction and saw a brilliant Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher, another good consolation that went
unappreciated. We returned to the car and Jermaine took us to Thierry’s third
site. Maurice (Thierry’s uncle) was there with a group and had apparently
flushed a Scaly Ground Roller
without his group seeing it. They were following it but Thierry suggested
heading for where it had been seen as he thought it might be disturbed back to
where it had been. We wandered around for a while until Thierry saw it
disappearing behind a tree trunk. Feeling very stressed by the whole experience
it was with great relief that it soon appeared on the other side of the tree
and we followed its progress for a couple of minutes as it gave good but always
obscured views. It flew across the river where it landed in full view by the
water on the opposite bank but I was unsighted and it flew before I could move.
No Photos but a brilliant bird and well worth returning to Madagascar for. We
continued up to a small lake where we had excellent views of a summer-plumaged Madagascan Grebe with three stripy
young - almost a new bird compared to the one in winter-plumage we had seen
previously. We returned to the Park HQ and had lunch on one of the handily
placed picnic tables. We were not the only visitors doing so although most
others appeared to be with general interest tour groups. For the first time for
more years than I care to remember we were not the oldest foreigners around. We
sat around for a bit before Thierry appeared and took us into the reserve and along
a series of forest trails to an area where a pair of Collared Nightjars roosted. It was a somewhat tense affair as
Collared Nightjar was now our most wanted species in Madagascar and we knew
they could move roost sites if disturbed or due to bad weather. We need not
have worried as the pair were in their expected place, on the darkest patch of ground
under a low lying tree. They were endearingly sat so close together they were
touching. Every so often one would briefly shuffle into the other which would
shuffle back. It may have been a way of keeping contact as surprisingly they
are thought to be completely silent as no vocalisation has ever been knowingly
heard. They were brilliant and we could have watched them all afternoon but a
somewhat noisy birding tour group arrived and we thought it best to move on.
The only other mild disappointment being that the light was dreadful for
photography. We continued along the trails seeing another pair of roosting Rainforest Scops Owls before returning
to the road. We waited until disk and commenced a night walk along the road
adding Greater Dwarf Lemur to the Indris, Eastern Woolly, Eastern Brown and
Black & White Ruffed Lemurs seen earlier. What a brilliant day, even my
teeth felt OKish.
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| Madagascan Magpie Robin at Indri Lodge |
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| Madagascan Kingfisher at Manatadia |
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| one of the world's best Kingfishers? |
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| Black & White Ruffed Lemur at Manatadia |
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| Eastern Brown Lemur |
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| Madagascan Grebe |
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with two of its three youngsters
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| Madagascan Wagtail |
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| Broad-billed Roller at Manatadia |
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| Eastern Woolly Lemur at Perinet |
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| the bizarre Giraffe-necked Weevil |
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| roosting Collared Nightjars at Perinet |
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| ideal camouflage when roosting amongsrt dead leaves |
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| Indri in the forest at Perinet |
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| a Rainforest Scops Owl that didn't appreciate the intrusion |
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| it soon went back into relaxed mode |
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| although still had an eye on us |
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| our Day Geko patrolling the veranda |
Monday 15 October 2018. After an early
breakfast we left the Indri Lodge at 05:30, Jermaine having collected Thierry
from Perinet. We were going for Helmet Vanga, an iconic species which until the
previous year was only realistically seen by visiting birders at Ambanizana on
the remote Masoala Peninsular. In 1995 we’d flown to Maranosetra and crossed rough
seas to the peninsular in a small boat but that was then. Now we drove for over
an hour into the Iaroka Forest along a rough and at times muddy track and
through two short flooded sections, picking up a Mr Kray, a local guide, on the
way. We stopped by a broken log bridge where we continued along the track on
foot for an hour before Mr Kray led us along a narrow trail deeper into the
forest. We were soon overtaken by Thierry’s dad Patrice with a small (younger!)
birding group and a couple of guides. A few minutes later one of their guides
reappeared having been sent back by Patrice to let us know they’d found a Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher. We soon
caught up with them and had excellent views of the kingfisher - a very nice
gesture even if we were ex clients of his. We continued for almost an hour
until we caught up with the other group at the Helmet Vanga area. They had just finished watching one on its nest.
It hadn’t been there when they arrived but had soon flown in. We had good views
of its head and back but it hardly moved during the time we were there. We
dragged ourselves away and continued on a long loop back to the track. On the
way we disturbed a photogenic Short-legged
Ground Roller which gave excellent views and completed the Ground Roller
set for the trip, something infrequently achieved at the time of our first
visit although pretty-much expected now. We continued seeing a pair of Nuthatch Vangas, our only ones of the
trip, to an area where Yellow-bellied Sunbird Asity might be nesting. We were
instructed to sit down in a more open area while Mr Kray wandered off. He
returned after about 15 minutes to say the nest was empty. Pity. Thierry went
back with him to try some playback while Nick and I had an early lunch. Mr Kray
returned and gestured for us to follow him, taking us to Thierry who had seen a
male Yellow-bellied Sunbird Asity come
in to tape. It was still about and we had a brief convincing view above our
heads before it flew up into the canopy. We soon saw it again high in the canopy
where it started adding to an almost built nest. It made several brief visits
to the nest but without giving decent views as the light in the canopy was
poor. Leaving the nest it always shot off out of sight. A female visited the
nest too but was largely ignored by us in our impatience for better views of
the male. They were not to be as neither showed well and the photos taken were
poor. When we did see the female she appeared a very dull bird not showing the expected
complete yellow underparts but the nest was high up, just below the canopy, and
the light poor. Our initial views of the male had been convincing (bright blue
above and bright yellow below) and we returned happy that we had seen the
species (our last main target), that is until checking books and reviewing
images on our return to the lodge. From what we’d seen our initial abiding
image of the male looked good, although images of it at the nest were less so.
The female looked decidedly like a Common
Sunbird-Asity which presented a problem. It was possible the initial male
wasn’t the male attending the nest but thaty seemed very unlikely as it had
flown that way. Our elation was cancelled. Perhaps not entirely unconnected I
felt really rough during the evening and couldn’t face eating anything. I went
to bed at 20:00 but was up being sick twice by midnight. Continuing stomach
pains and anxiety made for a long and disturbed night.
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| Chabert's Vanga at Iaroka |
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| Madagascan Kingfisher in the Iaroka Forest |
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| Helmet Vanga on nest in the Iaroka Forest |
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| outrageous bird |
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| this was as much of the bird as we saw, even then a third arm would have been useful to hang onto a tree-trunk with |
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| Short-legged Gropund Roller in the Iaroka Forest |
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| our final ground roller for the trip |
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| and another brilliant bird |
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| male Common Sunbird-Asity at nest, Iaroka Forest |
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| female Common Sunbird-Asity, the image that revealed that the yellow underparts were restricted to the flanks |
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| male and female at nest |
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| Madagascan Mannikin back at Indri Lodge |
Tuesday 16 October 2018. Still feeling
rough I had black tea and some rehydration salts for breakfast. I wasn’t sure I
wanted to be up but we’d agreed a return to Manatadia with Thierry and I didn’t
want to miss an opportunity to photograph Scaly
Ground Roller. Again we were the first group to arrive at Manatadia and
this time we went straight to the second site, walking in to the right where
we’d heard the group on our previous visit. Thierry played some calls and soon
heard a response although it was too quiet for my ears to pick up, not that I
would have known from which direction it came. Thierry did and we headed that
way, crossing a shallow river to approach it. By now I could hear it too and as
we neared Thierry saw the bird on the ground ahead. We spent the next 30
minutes watching the bird as it hopped a pace or two then stood motionless,
turned its head and then hopped again. An amazing bird, and despite poor light
I rattled off over 100 photographs of it (all five Ground Rollers seen, all
five photographed had been my hope for the trip even if poor light meant that
several were pushing my bridge camera beyond its limits). We would have watched
it for longer but it worked its way back towards the track and then, as another
group approached from that direction, flew into thick cover where we lost it. The
day was a bit of an anti-climax after this. We revisited the Madagascan Grebe lake seeing both
adults with their three youngsters but again no Meller’s Duck which were
sometimes there. We walked back through the forest following the river looking
unsuccessfully for Madagascan Ibis, being shown a couple of old nests. We saw a
Wedge-tailed Jery on the trail, new
for Nick and improving on my Ranomafana views, and a male Tylas Vanga back at the road. We encountered two large and
several small groups of visitors along the river so it shouldn’t have been too
much of a surprise, but it was, to count 18 4WDs along the dirt road at the
parking area! We returned to the Indri Lodge where I dozed/read to 15:45 when
Jermaine took us back out, picking up Thierry on the way to Varona (a posh
lodge/safari park on the road to Manatadia). Here we were told that Madagascan Rail used to be fairly easy
from the road but not since the water level had been lowered by Varona and the
birds had moved into a nearby marsh within the property. We spent an hour
playing tapes and sneaked in 100m to the edge of the marsh. We elicited a
response from two rails but neither moved, remaining hidden in the thickest
reeds. We had told Thierry of our concerns about the previous day’s
Sunbird-Asity and he thought we should return to Iaroka to revisit the nest. We
were not too keen on the idea as we didn’t think we could learn any more from
the birds wed seen preferring to try again for Madagascan Rail. I was still
feeling weak but the thought of food wasn’t off-putting and I had an evening
meal with no ill-effects.
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| Scaly Ground Roller at Manatadia |
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| showing its colourful tail |
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| an amazing bird |
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| impressive underwing suggesting distant Zoothera ancestry |
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| bird of the trip for me although all the other ground rollers provided stiff competition, as did Madagascan Kingfisher |
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| Tylas Vanga at Manatadia |
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| we were surprised not to see more |
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| Madagascan Blue Pigeon at Manatadia |
Wednesday 17 October 2018. We thought
we’d arranged for a 05:00 breakfast again but it hadn’t materialised by 05:15
so we left to meet Thierry and return to Verona. We walked in 100m and soon
heard the rails but were accosted by local workers and it soon became apparent
that we would have to buy a ticket even for a short visit to the reedbed 100m
from the road. The property had been bought by ex-pats who were running it as
an upmarket lodge and lemur safari park – some way out of range Ring-tailed Lemurs
sunning themselves in tree-tops were an indication of the latter. We visited
the lodge seeing Malagasy Kingfisher,
Wards’ Vanga and Madagascan Cuckoo-Shrike around the car
park while Thierry bought us permits. Despite his hopes they were non-negotiable.
We returned to the marsh and went in a bit further, 200m from the road, to a
small bridge by a slightly more open area. Here playback brought in two Madagascan Rails, close enough to be
visible, if very obscured, at the base of the reeds. We returned to Indri Lodge
for breakfast and left at 08:00 to drive to Maromizaha where Thierry had
occasionally seen Yellow-bellied Sunbird-Asity. We drove a few kms along the
main road before Jermaine took a rough track up towards a ridge, stopping in
what might have been a small quarry where the track became a trail. We walked
up onto the ridge and followed it until it started dropping steeply, Thierry
playing sunbird-asity calls almost continually. We were fortunate to see a
Brown Emutail along the ridge as they were usually most active earlier in the
day. We became concerned that we were dropping too low for the sunbird-asity
and retraced our steps rather than continuing on a loop. We stopped at a
viewpoint where two Italian lemur researchers were resting, it being the only
place in their study area with a phone signal. We had a good chat with them
before continuing on our way. After no more than 100m Thierry almost continual
Yellow-bellied Sunbird-Asity paid off as an immature male came into the trees
above us and zipped around before shooting off. I was too slow to get onto the
early views but saw the last one which was just enough for me to agree with the
ID. Relief to have seen it more than elation at so doing. We returned to Perinet
where we saw several bird guides (including Patrice, Maurice and a Rockjumper
leader) and asked them their opinion of my dodgy sunbird-asity photos from two
days before. Views were mixed but more favoured Common and I couldn’t help
thinking those unsure were more political. Thierry still thought we should
revisit Iaroka but we didn’t see any point. We had another look at the roosting
Long-eared Owl although it wasn’t showing as well as previously and soon after
dark did another night walk seeing Goodman’s Mouse Lemur, 2 Parson’s Chameleons
and a Giraffe Weevil. We had one full day left at Perinet and would have liked
to try a more distant area where there was a slim chance of Bernier’s Vanga,
now our only new bird in the area, but apparently the logistics involved in
going there made it impossible (too long a walk for ageing foreigners we
suspected). I was keen to revisit Maromizaha to try for better sunbird-asity
views but Nick wasn’t keen so we settled for the Community Forest Reserve
(VOI). I had a good evening meal but was up in the night with liquid insides.
Thursday 18 October 2018. I woke
feeling rough and Nick was worse. Perhaps a trip to the Community Forest
Reserve (VOI) was for the best. I managed tea, toast and a fried egg for
breakfast with no immediate ill effects. We met Thierry at the entrance to VOI
when it opened at 07:30 and walked around playing tapes until late morning. We
had excellent views of a White-throated
Rail but had also hoped to see Madagascan Ibis, Red-breasted Coua and
Crossley’s Vanga. Fortunately we’d seen them well on our previous visit. We
returned to the Indri at 12:00 and sat/lay around until 15:00 when we’d arranged
to go back out. It was just me this time as Nick wasn’t feeling up to it.
Thierry and I spent another hour or so walking around at VOI making no inroads
on the species we’d looked for earlier but I did see a Pitta-like Ground Roller as it hopped away. Perhaps not as blind as
I usually feel as Thierry had walked past it unseeingly. Along the trail we
encountered a Birdquest group led by Chris Kehoe, an old Liverpool friend Nick
hadn’t seen for years. Keith Turner who both Nick and I knew were also in the
group. I had a quick chat and learned they were staying in the Feon’ny Ala. Thierry
and I stopped for a last look at the roosting Rainforest Scops Owls but only one of the pair was on view. We
returned to the Indri and said a sad farewell to Thierry. We had expected a
final morning birding around Perinet before leaving for Antananarivo but
Jermaine was concerned about traffic given likely election propaganda in the
towns in between and we wanted to have a decent amount of time at Lake
Alarobia. I told Nick I’d seen Chris and that Keith was with Birdquest too so
we decided to visit them. If I’d been more alive to this possibility we could
have asked Jermaine to drop us off there when he took Thierry home, but it was
only 15 minutes walk. We arrived and soon found them in the bar which
overlooked the river. It was good to have a longer chat and it saved Nick and
Keith a single-room supplement as unknowingly they were both booked on
Birdquest’s 2019 SE China trip. We left just as the heavens opened and we were
thoroughly soaked on the walk back to the Indri, despite having taken umbrellas
and just about keeping them up in the gusty wind.
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| White-throated Rail at VOI |
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| dragonfly |
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| Diademed Sifaka at VOI |
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| Rainforest Scops Owl (again) |
Friday 19 October 2018. We woke feeling
somewhat better, packed, had breakfast and I walked up the hill opposite for an
hour. Nice views and a distant Indri calling but two Madagascan Bush Warblers and a male Madagascan Green Sunbird were the only bird of any note. We left
with Jermaine at 07:30 and drove to Antananarivo. We were held up for 20
minutes in the only town of any size on route and saw only two election
propaganda T-shirts during the whole journey, quite a contrast to seeing them
being handed out when we arrived. Traffic was very bad/slow in Tana but we
found our way through to Lake Alarobia, the last part through barriers closing
the road by the entrance. Lake Alarobia was an oasis of calm in the madness of
Antananarivo and we spent several hours there. There were hundreds of herons
nesting on the main island and Nick soon picked out our first Madagascan Pond Heron. Once our eye was
in we saw at least 15. They were outnumbered at least ten to one by Squacco Herons looking very elegant
with their plumes while on the smaller lake and then back on the main lake we
saw 16 Meller’s Duck amongst over
400 Red-billed Teal. The reeds held Madagascan Swamp Warbler and a pair of Madagascan Hoopoes, the only ones we
saw, appeared briefly on the perimeter track making it an excellent place to
finish the trip. Jermaine, who was wondering where we’d got to, appeared and
drove us to the Combava Hotel near Ivato airport. We sat on a bank opposite the
hotel overlooking paddyfields as the sun set. Hundreds of mainly Cattle Egrets flew over heading into
Tana while four Black Herons turned
into umbrellas as they fished in front of us. We had the use of the room until
the early hours to pack and freshen up.
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| Madagascan Hoopoe by Lake Alarobia |
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| paddyfields from the Antananarivo bypass |
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| back breaking work |
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| the field on the right doubling as a laundry |
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| Ivato paddyfields |
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| Black Heron at Ivato |
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| umbrellas at dusk |
Saturday 20 October 2018. Our lift to
the airport arrived at 00:15 and we were delighted to see it was Maurice, our original driver. We
drove to the airport but even in the middle of the night we encountered one
holdup. Otherwise the roads were clear and we arrived in plenty of time. We
checked in and the flight was on time although 03:30 is no time to catch a
flight. We arrived in Nairobi just before 07:00 and had just over two hours to
wait for our flight to Heathrow. From the airport lounge we saw Speckled Pigeon, Little and African Palm
Swift, Pied Crow and Rock Martin. We arrived on time and I
was soon on a tube to Victoria. There it seemed to be chaos as a result of
engineering works on the mainline to Brighton. My train to Shoreham-by-Sea went
via Littlehampton and took almost an hour longer than usual. Megan and Cookie
met me at the station, the only welcome home I wanted.
It had been a very enjoyable trip, the few health issues now distant memories. I'd like to thank Nick for pushing for a return to Madagascar, making arrangements with Tiana (well recommended by Mike Catsis) and being an excellent companion, as usual. Our trip was made much easier by having reliable and careful drivers (Maurice and Jermaine) who were easy to travel with. Our success in seeing our target species and many of the others was almost entirely due to our guides with Mosa in the South West even better than we remembered him being in 1995. Special mention too for Thierry who expertly arranged access to and guided us around the sites at Perinet, carrying on the family tradition we had been so impressed with when guided by his dad Patrice (who it was nice to see guiding again).
