Indian Ocean January 2013, Tamatave – Port Louis

The last days before our volunteering on Mauritius began were spent on the Indian Ocean. Instead of flying the Mauritius Shipping Corporation (http://www.mauritiusshipping.intnet.mu/) offers the possibility to go by boat. The crossing takes three days and is cheaper than a one-way ticket, however the Corporation offers only one crossing per month. We paid 250 euro for a one-way ticket in second class and I think it is absolutely worth it. The fare includes all meals (very decent meals) and it gives you the opportunity to see some seabirds. However make sure you don´t get sea sick, for the Indian Ocean is a rough sea. We tried Sea Bands (http://www.sea-band.com/), but we still felt dizzy and nauseous, especially when the ship encountered a tropical storm on the open sea.

We found the open sea between Madagascar and Reunion very, very empty and did not see much, just a single tubenose and some flying fish. This tubenose however deserves special attention. This species is one of the rarest sea birds in the world and breeds on La Réunion. Seeing the species at La Réunion is close to impossible, even though many people claim to have seen one. I´ve spoken a lot with the researchers who work on this species on La Reunion. One of them has worked on them for 11 years and has seen one at sea and had around 10 crashed individuals in his hand. The colony of this petrel is still unknown, but is most likely located in the south of the island. The only realistic, but slim chance of seeing a Mascarene Black Petrel is taking a boat to the sea, preferably between St. Pierre and St. Louis. The best time of the year to do this is between February and April. The researcher who saw a Mascarene Black Petrel here however needed 10 to 15 attempts to succeed. There are even sightings of Mauritius, but these are probably all misidentified dark morph Trindade Petrels (see Round Island). So it is obvious that this species is extremely rare. The only reason that people know that it still exists are the one or two juveniles that are rescued on la Réunion each year. The pictures below show a good candidate Mascarene Black Petrel, according to the scientists, but I´m defenitely not sure and will look into it further. The bird was flying very close to the water with slow, but three to four strong wing beats interspaced by gliding pauses. The bird was rather small and completely dark without any obvious plumage features. Unfortunately it stayed far from the boat and therefore the pictures are rather crappy.
After looking into it further and asking several tubenose specialists for help, it turns out that this bird is most likely a Jouanin´s Petrel. 

Jouanin´s Petrel (Bulweria fallax)

In the right time of the year encounters with whales in this stretch of the ocean are apparently not uncommon and the captain is even willing to stop the boat so the passengers can enjoy these giants for a while. The waters directly around Reunion proved to be more productive with 50 Barau´s Petrels, several hundreds of Tropical Shearwaters and 50 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. A long stop in the port of Reunion produced also some Mascarene Swiftlets.  Most tubenoses were observed at dusk around Reunion when the birds come back from the sea to the land.

Barau´s Petrel (Pterodroma baraui)

Barau´s Petrel (Pterodroma baraui)

Tropical Shearwater (Puffinus bailloni)

Tropical Shearwaters (Puffinus bailloni)

Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus) (pink-billed variant)

I can highly recommend doing this boat trip instead of flying, for it crosses an area rarely covered by birders and who knows what hangs around there. Indian Yellow-nosed and Salvin´s Albatross are definitely among the possibilities. Apart from that, we found our boat, the MS Trochetia, a very comfortable boat, especially compared to Malagasy taxi-brousses.

Open Ocean (picture made by Anna van der Kaaden)

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Lac Kinkony

Just like we started our two months in Madagascar with a bang (see post Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Bemanevika Lakes) I wanted to end the trip with a real cracker. A site in Madagascar to do this is Lac Kinkony. Normally the right time in the hear to visit this site is November or begin December, for the roads are still passable and the birds have started breeding. I however visited the lake in mid January and therefore the access was a bit difficult. From Mahajanga I took the boat the Katsepy (5.000 Ariary for a small speedboat or 3.000 Ariary for the large ferry). From there I took a taxi-brousse to Mitsinjo (10.000 - 15.000 Ariary). Be prepared for a very rough ride, for the roads are beyond bad (even worse than the Maroantsetra - Tamatave road). In Mitsinjo everything can be arranged: special permits at the police station (I don´t think they are necessary, but it prevents you from having to bribe police or army men) and guide and boat (the roads from Mitsinjo  to Makary are impassable in January) can be arranged at the Asity office. The right person to help you arrange all these things is Cesar. He also runs the only guesthouse in Mitsinjo. Just ask people in the taxi-brousse to drop you there, everybody knows him. The boat from Mitsinjo to Makary costs around 40.000 Ariary and the rowers deserve every single Ariary of it, for they row five hours straight in 40 degrees Celsius. The boat was a metal one and it is very, very hot inside. A hat, sunglasses and loads of sunscreen are highly recommended. It is possible to go to Makary and back in one day, staying overnight is recommended, for the birds are more active in early morning. For a stay overnight you have to camp out. There are very decent shelters where you can put up your tent (5.000 Ariary for the tent and 2.000 for a guard, but I don´t think that that was really necessary) In the morning I made a small pirogue trip to the lake which produced many lovely encounters includin two Madagascar Jacanas, Purple Gallinule, Little Bittern and the main prize: two adult Sakalava Rails feeding their two chicks!

Sakalava Rail (Amaurornis olivieri)chick

Sakalava Rail (Amaurornis olivieri)

Sakalava Rail (Amaurornis olivieri)

Madagascar Jacana (Actophilornis albinucha)

After the trip I returned to Mitsinjo by rowing boat again for the same fare as the first trip. The boat trips to and from Makary turned out to be very productive with sightings of Humblot´s Heron, Madagascar Pond Heron, Madagascar Sacred Ibis, African Spoonbill, Painted Stork, Comb Duck, Madagascar Pratincole, Caspian Tern, Madagascar Sandgrouse and Barn Owl (ssp. hypermetra).

Humblot´s Heron (Ardea humbloti)

The day I returned from Makary I took the overnight taxi-brousse back to Katsepy and this turned out to be the roughest ride of the entire trip so far. With the visit to this site our trip through Madagascar ended. I think I can say it was one of the most succesfull trips to Northern Madagascar ever, for we saw almost all seldom-seen species (Sakalava Rail, Bernier´s and Helmet Vanga, Amber Mountain Rock Thrush, Madagascar Serpent Eagle, Slender-billed Flufftail, Madagascar Red Owl and Madagascar Pochard). We missed the mythical Dusky Tetraka (despite intensive searching in Marojejy national park) and somehow managed to miss Cryptic Warbler. Unfortunately Scaly Ground Roller and Brown Mesite were only heard (despite seven days of very intensive searching for both species). The two months yielded 175 bird species in total and over 30 mammal species and I am highly content with this result. This island is a truly magical place and I am genuinely looking forward to my next visit to this country so I can complete my list of endemics.

Madagascar Swamp Warbler (Acrocephalus newtoni)

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Betsiboka Delta

In Ankarafantsika national park I got a phone number of a trustworthy boatman in Mahajanga. This made it possible for me to visit the Betsiboka Delta. This delta is The site for Bernier´s Teal and Madagscar Sacred Ibis. The boatman I used turned out to be really trustworthy (Iango, 0332551418 or 0325169149). The total prize of visiting the right area for the specialities in the delta is not cheap. I  paid close to 200.000 Ariary and that included fuel and motor oil. However, for this prize you get an entire day of searching with an experienced boatman who knows the area and the birds, but he speaks little english. We were quite unlucky with the ducks, for it took us very long (8 hours) to find them and we got stuck in a sandbank that surprised Iango.

In the end we saw four Bernier´s Teals, two Madagascar Sacred Ibisses, one Humblot´s Heron and many waders including 250 Crab Plovers. We also observed pleasing numbers of Saunder´s Terns who showed very well and I managed to actually identify some by their plumage and not just by range.

Part of a large group of Crab Plovers (Dromas ardeola)

Saunder´s Tern (Sternula saundersi) (look at those primairies!)

Madagascar Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis bernieri)

Bernier´s Teal (Anas bernieri)

For birders this place is a must, but a logistical pain in the ass due to tides, boats, boatmen etc. and the area itself is not that special, so for any non birder I would recommend not to spend the large sum of money to visit Madagascars biggest delta.

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.

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Ankarafanstika National Park

Ankarafantsika national park is the most excessible site for nearly all dry decidious forest species in Madagascar (only Western Tylas and Tsingy Wood Rail are not found here). It is very excessible and even with taxi-brousse it takes "only" ten hours (just ask to be dropped at the national park office). Even getting away from it towards Mahajanga is not that difficult, but going to Tana with taxi-brousse requires a bit more effort. The park provides perfectly fine accomodation (I camped out though), food and guides. Jacky is normally The bird guide in this park, but he is a bit pricey (120.000 Ariary) so I used Gerard (0328822461 or gerkely@gmail.com) who is a very young, amiable and already knowledgeable guide and he costs a quarter of what Jacky demands.

We birded for three days in Ankarafantsika with him and we found almost all key species including: Madagascar Fish Eagle (the resident pari on Lac Ravelobe), White-breasted Mesite (in Jardin Botanique A and B), Red-capped Coua, Coquerel's Coua, Schlegel's Asity (only in Jardin Botanique A), Torotoroka Scops Owl (only in Jardin Botanique B), Sickle-billed Vanga, Madagascar Pond Heron (on Lac Ravelobe), Humblot's Heron (on Lac Ravelobe) and Van Dam's Vanga (only Jardin Botanique B). I was there too late in the season to see the Madagascar Jacana's on Lac Ravelobe and dipped them even after 2,5 days of searching.

Madagascar Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus vociferoides)

Sooty Falcon (Falco concolor)

Coquerel's Coua (Coua coquereli)

Crested Coua (Coua cristata)

Sickle-billed Vanga (Falculea palliata)

Humblot's Heron (Ardea humbloti)

White-breasted Mesite (Mesitornis variegatus)

Schlegel's Asity male (Philepitta schlegeli)

Schlegel's Asity Male (Philepitta schlegeli)

Mammals recorded included: Coquerel's Sifaka, Mongoose Lemur (surprisingly easy, for the mango trees were fruiting and they were seen daily next to the office in the evening), Golden-brown Lemur, Milne-Edwards Sportive Lemur, Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur and Commerson's Leaf-nosed Bat. Reptiles included: Nile Crocodile, Madagascar Hog-nosed Snake and Furcifer rhinoceratus.

Coquerel's Sifaka (Propithecus coquereli)

Young Mongoose Lemur (Eulemur mongoz)

Milne-Edwards Sportive Lemur (Lepilemur edwardsi)

Madagascar Hog-nosed Snake (Leioheterodon madagascariensis)

Collared Iguana (Oplurus cuvieri)

Overall this park is amazing even though the office was a bit awkward  towards me. I think the one day, most tours spend here is by far not enough.

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Maromiza Forestry Reserve

Maromiza is the fourth and last of the Andasibe area parks we visited. Its elevation is the highest of all, which makes some species more common here than in other parks. It can be reached from the Andasibe main road, by going East, following the Antananarivo - Tamatave highway for four km. In the late afternoon this is quite a hot and tiring walk, but it is by far the cheapest way. Officially guides are mandatory and entree fee is apparently 35.000 Ariary but there is no entrance gate or office and me and Luc just bumped into a guy claiming to work for the reserve and demanding the pricey "entrance fee".

Luc and me had a fairly productive morning in the reserve with birds recorded including: Madagascar Flufftail, Rufous-headed Ground Roller (three different birds heard only), Velvet Asity, Forest Rock Thrush, Brown Emutail (terrific views!) and most notably two Pollen's Vangas in a mixed vanga flock. For this species Maromiza is a new site. This year a pair of Helmet Vangas was also discovered on the far end of the park (ten hour walk) and twitched by several birders. However I missed Cryptic Warbler, which strangely enough seemd completely absent from Maromiza and Mantadia, making it the only realistically possible malagasy rainforest I have missed on the entire trip apart from the heard only Brown Mesite and Scaly Ground Roller. Mammals recorded included Indri, Eastern Grey Bamboo Lemur and Diademed Sifaka. Other highlights included Brookesia superciliaris and the otherworldly Giraffe-necked Weevil (a genuine one, for there are many more common look-a-likes).

Male Madagascar Cuckooshrike (Coracina cinerea). This species often joins mixed Vanga flocks

I think, just as Mitsinjo Reserve, Maromiza forestry reserve deserves much more attention, especially considering the rare birds that have recently been found here. Luc even claimed to have seen a Madagascar Serpent Eagle here three years ago...

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Mitsinjo Reserve

Mitsinjo reserve is a forest reserve managed by the community the town of Andasibe and is located just opposite of Andasibe national park. It has no special interest for birders, unless you were really, really unlucky with Madagascar Long-eared Owl, but for mammal fanatics it sure has for it is the best place in the world to spot Hairy-eared Dwarf Lemur. It is a monospecific genus and actually very interesting. Therefore we joined a night walk in the reserve, which provided us with first class sights of Hairy-eared Dwarf Lemur, foraging just a few meters away. We also observed an Eastern Avahi, several Goodman's Mouse Lemur (can be easily observed along the main road) and a presumed Furry-eared Dwarf Lemur. The reptilian highlight of the nightwalk was a Uroplatus sikorea amongst several common chameleon species. Mitsinjo reserve is a very nice evening destination which, in my opinion, deserves much more attention, even with birders.

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Mantadia National Park

With Luc (see previous post) we organised a day trip to Mantadia national park, which encompromises better forests than Andasibe national park, for it is primairy rainforest instead of decent quality secondary forest. This means that several species are present here, that are absent or very difficult in Andasibe national park. A day trip to the Mantadia national park can be organised at the Andasibe national park office or the Mitsinjo special reserve office (see next post) and costs 90.000 Ariary, but we found a driver for 80.000 Ariary through Luc. Another option would be walking the more than 15 km, but for birders this is barely an option for the first hours of daylight would be missed.

We enjoyed fairly good birding at different sites in the national parks with different altitudes (another advantage over walking) and species observed included: Madagascar Crested Ibis, Henst's Goshawk, Frances' Sparrowhawk, Red-fronted Coua, Madagascar Long-eared Owl (finally!), Collared Nightjar, Rufous-headed Ground Roller, Pitta-like Ground Roller, Velvet Asity, Crossley's Babbler, Forest Rock Thrush, Wedge-tailed Jery, Tylas and Nuthatch Vanga. Frustratingly we did not see the much sought after Scaly Ground Roller, but we had to be content with just two calls responding to the tape. More frustratingly even because this is very unusual ground roller behaviour and we searched for the damned bird for two days in Marojejy and for four days in Masoala... Mammals recorded in Mantadia included: Indri, Diademed Sifaka (wild ones, not like the translocated ones in Andasibe National Park), Red-bellied Lemur and White-tailed Tree Rat.

Madagascar Wood Rail (Canirallus kioloides)

Rufous-headed Ground Roller (Atelornis crossleyi)

Madagascar Long-eared Owl (Asio madagascariensis)

Overall Mantadia is an addition worth considering to Andasibe national park, for the forest is amazing, but if all key birds were seen in Masoala, it is not necessary to do so. Unfortunately we were not that lucky with every species...

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Andasibe National Park

After a four day taxi-brousse ride we finally arrived in Madagascar's most visited national park: Andasibe. We stayed in the Andasibe area for five days and visited four different parks and for each I will write a separate post. We started with Andasibe national park, which is due to its number of visitors, the most expensive national park of the country. The most well-known and maybe the best guide of Madagascar is Patrice. We did not made use of him, but of his brother Luc, which we found very, very skillful and very amiable. He normally costs 120.000 Ariary, but we paid 90.000 for three full days. We stayed during the five days in hotel Feon'y'Ala, which is situated on an amazing hillside with beautiful views over the forests. Luc is very easy to locate from this hotel, as he lives on the other side of the street. He also offers accomodation.

The one day we spend with Luc inside the Andasibe national park and our occasional strolls along the main road produced a decent number of interesting birds: Grey-crowned Tetraka, Rand's Warbler, Tylas, Nuthatch Vanga, Madagascar Crested Ibis, Madagascar Sparrowhawk, Collared Nightjar, Ward's Flycatcher, Wedge-tailed Jery and Forest Fody. Spectacular mammals were observed as well including the absolutely breathtaking Indri, Diademed Sifaka, Common Brown Lemur and a presumed Furry-eared Dwarf Lemur. A herp highlight were two Madagascar Ground Boas.

Madagascar Sparrowhawk (Accipiter madagascariensis) juvenile (picture made by Anna van der Kaaden)

The breathtaking Collared Nightjar (Gactornis enarratus)

Diademed Sifakas (Propithecus diadema)

Indri (Indri indri)

The park has that many visitors for a reason and this has positive and negative effects. The area offers (very) good accommodation, good trails, knowledgeable guides, but it can be a bit crowded. However the sound of the Indri and the sight of two cryptically colored Collared Nightjars makes you forget the 50 school children kicking a Madagscar Ground Boa, how horrible it may be...

Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013 - Masoala National Park

Masoala is the place in The place in the world for several much sought after species in Madagascar, most note worthy : Bernier´s Vanga, Helmet Vanga, Scaly and Short-legged Ground Roller and Red-breasted Coua. The traditional way to reach this site and to stay here is very costly, but we took some measures to avoid spending to much: we took the plane from Sambava to Maroantsetra, which is the cheapest flight in the country (90 euro, instead of the 180 euro you pay for an one way flight from Tana), we travelled from Maroantsetra to Tamatave by taxi-brousse and we cooked our food ourselves on charcoal on the peninsula. The four nights we stayed here costed us still 300 euro without the plane ticket, so still rather costly.

As a guide we used Armand, which I can highly recommend, especially for finding Bernier´s Vanga. However we had to wait three days untill he was available. Other good and knowledgeable guides are Joseph and Nico, but both were not available during our stay. Our entire stay on the peninsula as well as the boat to get there was arranged by Olivier from Chez Arrol Ecolodge, whom I can also highly recommend for he is very flexible and highly familiar with the area. He can even arrange visits to the seldom visited and pristine Makira Forest! After a lot of organising (park entry permits, guide fees, boat, petrol, charcoal, food for four days, lodging in Chez Arrol etc.) we were finally able to start birding in Masoala.

During the four days a lot of good species including: Madagascar Wood Rail, White-throated Oxylabes, Short-legged Ground Roller, Velvet Asity, Helmet Vanga, Madagascar Pratincole, Bernier´s Vanga, White-browed Owl, Henst´s Goshawk, Madagascar Sparrowhawk, and Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher. Even though we saw so many good species, we were very unlucky with several other species. For instance four days of searching for Scaly Ground Roller, Brown Mesite and Crossley´s Babbler resulted in heard only records of the Mesite and the Babbler... However I am very still very content with the result.

Helmet Vanga (Euryceros prevostii), up to know my bird of the trip

Female Velvet Asity (Philepitta castanea)

Short-legged Ground Roller (Brachypteracias leptosomus)

Male Bernier´s Vanga (Oriolia bernieri)

Female Bernier´s Vanga (Oriolia bernieri)

White-browed Owl (Ninox superciliaris)

Madagascar Sparrowhawk (Accipiter madagascariensis)

Besides the awesome birds, we also enjoyed several good lemurs in the form of Red Ruffed Lemur, White-fronted Brown Lemur, Eastern Grey Bamboo Lemur, Scott´s Sportive Lemur (recently described species) and Moore´s Avahi (recently described species). Besides the lemurs we also observed Tanala Tuft-tailed Rat and Lowland Streaked Tenrec. Reptiles recorded included Furcifer pardelis, Phelsuma lineata and Amphiglossus melanurus.

Red Ruffed Lemur (Varecia rubra)

Scott´s Sportive Lemur (Lepilemur scottorum)

Moore´s Avahi (Avahi mooreorum)

Tanala Tuft-tailed Rat (Eliurus tanala)

After four days our time was up and unfortunately we had to leave this magical place. The boat ride back was however utterly horrible, for the sea was so rough that for four times  our boat almost capsized... So if the sea is rough, I would refuse to go... Once back in Maroantsetra we took the taxi-brousse to Tamatave. This is rather cheap, but one of the roughest roads I have ever travelled. You pay 80.000 Ariary for a seat in the bucket of an old beat-up Toyota Hilux and 100.000 Ariary for a seat in the cabin, but you have to reserve these a week in advance. The trip takes two days at best, but it took us nearly four days... Masoala is really an awesome destination, but to visit this place in certain luxury you pay a lot. There are some ways to get around this, but those are far from comfortable.