Madagaskar 11-31 oktober 2014 Samuel Hansson www.heliangelus.se Bondegatan 2 [email protected] 573 40 Tranås Tel. 0140-107 44 Participants Lasse Ceder, Hässelby Solweig Elfwing, Heby Yngwe Elfwing, Heby Ola Elleström, Malmö Erling Jirle, Lund Mikael Käll, Onsala Anders Lundquist, Färjestaden Bengt-Eric Sjölinder, Degerhamn Introduction Having finished two tours in a row in the fall of 2011 I realised that Madagascar was the perfect tour destination without my own presence as guide. Since my very skilled and service minded driver Zina wanted to start his own tour agency, a collaboration was initiated with a first mutual arrangement a year later. The first official tour with Zina as tour organizer and driver became reality in 2013, with his friend Tina acting as birding guide. Pretty much all of the possible endemics along the route (the same as in 2011) were seen and the tour was much appreciated! 2014 it was time for the next tour. A few of the participants wanted to visit additional birding sites both before and after the main tour, so Zina and I worked out the logistics to also include Bemanevika, the Betsiboka Delta and the Masoala Peninsula. These extensions gave Madagascar Pochard, Red Owl, Madagascar Sacred Ibis, Bernier’s Teal, Helmeted and Bernier’s Vangas and a few local species of lemur. The official tour again produced all the realistic endemics, except for Madagascar Jacana which was somehow partly forgotten. For the first time on any of Heliangelus’s tours Fosa was seen, even twice! Unfortunately Solweig, Yngwe and Lasse were delayed one day due to a cancelled flight in Stockholm, but they eventually caught up with almost all the important species during the course of the tour. The final result for the main tour landed at 188 species, which is quite good, and an additional seven species were seen on the extension. The trip list has been generated from iGoTerra www.igoterra.com and is complete as far as birds and mammals are concerned while some amphibians might be lacking. Many thanks Ola for the well-written diary and the photographic material, and thanks to all for joining this adventure to Madagascar! A new official tour is planned for September–October 2015, following the traditional route as seen to the left, but also with the addition of the Betsiboka Delta. /Samuel Hansson Diary (by Ola Elleström) 7/10 (AL, BES, OE) Flight from Copenhagen to Paris (Air France) around 10 a.m., a few hours at Charles de Gaulle changing terminals and airline company found us boarding Air Madagascar to Antananarivo almost at schedule (16.20). 8/10 (AL, BES, OE) Arrival as early as 04.15 local time (as scheduled). The queue to achieve visas was very long and as we happened to leave the aircraft almost last of all passengers the procedure took us well over an hour. However, we had no formal problems and Zina met us and bought us well-needed breakfast. We were also welcomed by Zu and Louis who would be with us on the pre-tour extension – Zu as driver and Louis as everything else. Around 6.30 we left the airport. It was already very hot and light (dawn is around 5 a.m.) and people everywhere. Madagascar is obviously a morning country with full activity in the streets and markets already at 6 a.m. On the other hand, restaurants and similar often close down around 9 p.m. Today we had a very long northbound drive to do – 750 km to the town of Antsohihy. Of course we tried to see birds from the car and also made a stop at a river seeing our first Madagascan Pratincoles. A little later we saw our highlight of the day as a male Madagascan Harrier was seen close to the road. This species has a population of just around 250 pairs and is rarely seen at the traditional birding locations so to find one while driving is the best chance. Otherwise the central highland with its never- ending savannah is both boring and poor for birds. Even so, we found quite a few species but none except the already mentioned species that proved to be of any significance later. Just at dusk we saw several Madagascan Nightjars, a species that also turned out to be common. We didn’t arrive to Antsohihy until after 8 p.m. although Zu drove very well and effective. We were too late for our booked hotel so we had to go to another one. But that was ok. We got single rooms and dinner and were happy to be here. Tomorrow we were trying to see one of the rarest birds on earth. 9/10 (AL, BES, OE) Madagascan Pochard was considered to be probably extinct when it was rediscovered in 2008 in a remote crater lake close to Bemanevika in Northern Madagascar. The location is out of the normal itinerary for birding trips to Madagascar and that was the main reason the three of us made this pre- tour extension. However, as there is actually some decent rainforest in the area, later surveys has revealed the area to also hold two other Northern Madagascar specialities – Red Owl and Madagascan Serpent-Eagle. None of these are however guaranteed to see. Another reason for not going to Bemanevika is that the access road is very bad. I say it again – veeeeeery bad. It is 140 km to go from Antsohihy. The first part, about 100 km to Bealanana is ok, at least it is what we traditionally call a road. There are some holes in the road but it is possible to drive this part in 3-4 hours. We arrived there around noon for lunch and here we also picked up our local bird guide Luckman. This guy is an awesome guide and THE bird guide to have if you decide to go to Bemanevika. The last 38 km took us about 3-4 hours and that surely says it all. Sometimes we had to cross rivers (without bridges) and sometimes there were big stones in the middle of the narrow “road”. Fortunately it now was very dry and the road was free from mud – I guess the road is impossible to use during the rain period. But big cred to Zu, who never had been driving this road before but never complained – actually he seemed to think it was fun. Around 4 p.m. we reached our campsite (no hotels out here!) and while the campsite staff unloaded our camping gear the three of us did some birding at the spot finding Meller’s Duck, White-throated Rail and Madagascan Grebe. We soon drove to the lake where the Pochards breed and from a hill we saw a few of the world’s probably rarest duck (28 adult birds known at the moment). We later walked down to the lake and went out with a canoe obtaining spectacular views, including a duckling accompanying its mother. We also saw Madagascan Rail and Madagascan Pygmy-Kingfisher. Back at the campsite when it was dark, Luckman showed us the extremely localized Bizarre-nosed Chameleon. Madagascan Pochard and Bizarre-nosed Chameleon. Photos: Ola Elleström. 10/10 (AL, BES, OE) Morning came and we had another target in sight. The Serpent-Eagle was very difficult this year, as there was no known nest and it was only seen by chance. But Luckman and his companion (don’t know the name but he had a big machete, thus we referred to him as “Machete Man”) knew a tree where there should be a roosting Red Owl. We were told to wait at the campsite and have breakfast while they were away looking it up. As we were almost finished with breakfast they were back. Luckman smiled “It is there. Of course”. And we were off. The walk took about an hour, crossing boring savannah with numerous Madagascan Cisticolas and Madagascan Bush Larks but eventually we came into rainforest and after a while we stood by a big tree. The Owl was obviously roosting inside so Luckman had to knock on the tree to get the owl to fly out. And it did and for half an hour it was sitting perfectly in the open. Wonderful. We went back to the campsite, packed our stuff and got ready to get back to Antsohihy. But first we found a female Madagascan Buttonquail walking cautiously around on the forest floor just where we had the car. Along the road we added a few more common birds, a few dragonflies as well and we didn’t get back until after dark. Apart from an “interesting” lunch in Bealanana the drive back was rather uneventful. The rarely seen Red Owl. Photo: Ola Elleström. 11/10 (AL, BES, OE) Today we headed for the coastal town of Mahajanga. The plan was to do a boat ride the next morning to see two special birds that we had no or very little chance to see during the main tour. We made a few short stops to look for birds, for example when we passed Lake Ravalobe and saw a Malagasy Pond Heron. And at some rice fields we found loads of herons, ducks, Glossy Ibises and other stuff. We arrived to Mahajanga for a late lunch before checking in at the very nice Hotel Coco Beach just by the Indian Ocean. The afternoon we just relaxed, checked internet for the first time since Paris, had a few beers and a nice swim in the ocean. The food here was just awesome – great steaks with pepper sauce and tomato salad.