Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Lac Amboromalandry

Because I failed to find Madagascar Jacana on Lac Ravelobe in Ankarafantsika national park I made a day trip with Gerard (see previous post) to Lac Amboromalandry, which is another known site for this species. We got to the lake by getting a lift from the Durrel Wildlife Trust from the national park and we got back by taxi-brousse (around 5.000 Ariary). Once in the Amboromalandry village you have to walk a couple of km to get to the well vegetated far side of the lake. There we spend a couple of hours searching in vian for this species. Other species observed included: Yellow-billed Stork, Hottentot Teal, Whiskered Tern and Black Kite (not a Yellow-billed Kite, but a genuine migrans). I don´t know if this site is really as reliable as it used to be or that January is just a very bad month to search for Madagascar Jacana or maybe I just searched in the wrong places. Either way, it was quite a drag to search on foot with a lot of mud and spiny plants and I would not recommend visiting this site unless sombody wants to see massive meadows of Mimosa´s.