birdgirl: August 2018

Monday, 27 August 2018

Madagascar Post 5 - Days 16 - 20

I still have images to add

Our birding trip was organised Madagascar Tour Guide (madagascar.tour.guide@gmail.com), who were really well organised. Our guide for most of our the trip was Julian, who was brilliant at digging our the birds as well as sorting things out for us along the way. The company is owned by Andre who came to meet us as we passed through Tena. I would highly recommend them and the prices were modest.

Day 16 - 23/08/2018

Thursday 23rd August 2018 our new guide NDrema met us at the Sakamanga Hotel in Tena at 6.30 am for our long drive to the North West of Madagascar to Ankarafansika NP, where he is from. The traffic was pretty bad getting out of Tena so it was about 8 am before we hit countryside. It was dry and mountainous most of the way with really really bendy, stomach churning, roads.

We stopped at about 10.45 am to try and find a Madagascan Harrier, which we found miles away, eventually.

Today was the day my GCSE exam results came out. So I had agreed withy sister Ayesha Ahmed-Mendoza that she would go to my school at 9am GMT at pick up my exam results. My mum had already given a letter giving consent for her to collect by results. Then she was going to phone me, open the envelope and read me my grades. The only problem was that there was virtually no reception in the mountains.

So as I was standing there in a red, dusty, desert mountain watching and ticking a Madagascar Harriers, my dad’s phone started ringing. I picked up the phone and Ayesha started reading my results. It was the clash of my two worlds; the most important things to me juxtaposed together. Some of my results were better than expected and some worse but overall I was relieved and happy.

Day 17 - 24/08/2018

Friday 24th August 2018 we set out early to bird at Ankarafansika NP with Ndrema. The forest was a dry deciduous forest, with a proper criss-cross of paths, making it easy to bird.

New birds for the day were Frances’s Sparrowhawk, Madagascan Sparrowhawk, White-breasted Mesite, Madagascan Green Pigeon, Coquerel’s Coua, Van Dam’s Vanga and Rufous Vanga,

However we just could not get onto the Schlegel’s Asity.

Then in the afternoon, we got a boat onto the lake next to the reserve, Ravelobe Lake. Here we saw Nile Crocodiles and 2 pairs of our target, Madagascan Fish Eagle.

We then went back to the forest, again trying for Schlegel’s Asity, but although we heard them going to roost we didn’t see any.

Day 18 - 25/08/2018

Saturday 25th August 2018 we started birding at 5.45 am at Ankarafansika NP, trying for Schlegel’s Asity where we heard them go to roost the night before. Our luck was in, as they started calling at 6 am in the same place. After a few minutes, we had some fantastic of a pair showing really well.

We then went back to the lodge for a 6.30 am breakfast before heading north west to Mahajanga for the night. First enroute, we stopped at two wetland/lakes. The first was great for Madagascar Jacana, a new bird for us. African Pygmy Goose was also new for the trip. At the second we saw Hottentot Teal as well as the Jacana.

It was interesting to visit the first as there were lots of adults and children who were friendly and interested in what were doing.

We arrived in Mahajanga in the early afternoon, which was a big city. We were staying at the Badamier Hotel which was lovely and a bit different as it had a Lebanese vegetarian menu. We had the rest of the day off to use the internet or catch up on sleep.

Day 19 - 26/08/2018

On Sunday 26th August 2018, we had to be at the harbourside at 7 am, where we look a speedboat out to the estuary, to bird the Betsiboka Estuary.

The two new birds that were targets were Bernier’s Teal and Malagasy Sacred Ibis. We saw quite a few of the Teal but only 2-3 of the Ibis. I was hoping to see returning migrants, Crab Plover and Sandersons’ Tern, but they weren’t back to Madagascar yet.

We then had a quick lunch in a place in Mahajanga which overlooked the sea. We are all at the point of being fed up of terrible veggie food, usually a tasteless choice of rice and veg, noodles & veg and maybe veg soup.

We then started our journey back to Ankarafansika NP, where we arrived in the early evening. We went out for a night safari and saw Mouse Lemur.

Before we arrived in Madagascar, my Dad Chris Craig worked out which birds were possible targets taking into account the ones we weren’t within range for (eg Madagascar Pochard), the ones that were migrants in Africa that time of year (eg Madagascar Pratincole and Crab Plover) and the ones on the list that were unknown or extinct. That gave us a target list of 132 new birds. Based on that, he thought that if we saw 120 birds, we would be doing brilliantly.

At the end of today, we had seen 120 new world birds in Madagascar, bang on target. We were targeting two more new birds in the North East but apart from those, it was unlikely we would see anything else, although obviously we would try. So at the moment, we were likely to end the trip on 122 new world birds.

With 120 new birds, that takes my world list up to 4,956, with 44 to get to 5,000.

Day 20 - 27/08/2018

Monday 27th August 2018 we had our long reverse journey back to Tana. Ndrema stayed with us for the first four hours whilst we looked for Madagascan Pratincole on any suitable stretches of river with rocks on them. We had no luck, which was not surprising as they normally don’t return until September.

We then said goodbye to Ndrema who headed back to Ankarafansika NP, whilst we carried onto Tena and the Saka Manga Hotel. Ndrema said that he had a group of two birders arriving that evening, so had to return.

In the middle of the Mountains, our driver started reversing and we wondered if he had seed a bird. But them we saw Julian who was with the group of two birders, travelling to meet up with Ndrema. It was really lovely to see him and say hello, even for 2 minutes. The group was actually a Spanish guy and his young teenager daughter. He wasn’t friendly I didn't try and speak Spanish with them.

That evening we arrived at the Saka Manca Hotel in Tena for another night stop.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 16-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. She is looking forward to visiting Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar birding in 2018 and hopes to see her 5000th bird species in the world.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She has given over 50 talks, speaking at conferences such as being on a panel with George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas on Sustainability and the Future of Cities. She has also appeared on TV an dis particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film which was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her fifth Camp Avalon camp in 2018. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.

Saturday, 25 August 2018

Madagascar Blog Post 4 - Days 15 - 20

Day 15 - 19/08/2018

Sunday 19th August 2018 we had breakfast at what had become the usual time of 6 am. However it was 6.20 am at the Cristo Hotel before anything arrived on our table and so it ended up being nearly 7am before we were actually in the forest. There is no point getting stressed about things like this when you are world birding, as there is nothing much you can do apart from starve. I think it was more that there was a large table which arrived after us but were served before us.

So, at 7 am we arrived in Andasibe NP, which is a stunning forest full of birds. As Julian is from this place, he knew the forest really well and where exactly you get particular birds.

The only new bird for the day was Nuthatch Vanga, after a lot of hard work.

Day 16 - 20/08/2018

Monday 20th August 2018 we went to the close-by Mantadia NP, again a forested area.

We spent the whole day there, with new birds being Collared Nightjar, Short-legged, Scaly and Rufous-headed Ground Roller. An amazing 3 Ground Roller day.

Julian had narrowed the Short-legged Ground Roller down to an island in the the forest. So being the hard-core world birders that we are, we took off our boots and socks, waded across a rivered, walked around the leech infested island in our bare feet before finding the bird, watching it for ages before walking back to the river, putting socks back onto our wet feet, getting our boots on and carrying on birding.

Day 17 - 21/08/2018

Tuesday 21st August 2018, we were back at Andasibe NP, birding in the forest. It was a hard day of birding, working hard for everything.

New birds were Red-breasted Coua, which I was gripped off by my parents yesterday, so is always sweet to catch up; Malagasy Turtle Dove, Malagasy Blue Pigeon and Madagascan Owl on a roost site.

In term of Lemur, we saw two amazing new Lemur Indri and Diadamed Sefaqua. There was a large National Geographic tour group watching these animals but they were very quiet compared to the previous forests.

Day 18 - 22/8/2018

Wednesday 22nd August 2018

We did a little birding first thing around lodge but saw nothing worth noting. Then we headed on our long journey north to Tana.

On the way, not far from Andasibe NP. we stopped at Torotorofotsy Marsh which is run by Asity. We spoke to the manager about a net and dead Snipe which I’m sure he just have known about.

We walked around the wetland area and were really lucky to see Madagascan Snipe and Buttonquall.

From here we carried on north to Tana where we arrived early evening and said goodbye to Julian, who had been the most amazing guide. We were back at the Saka Manga hotel, which was good to be back at.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Sunday, 19 August 2018

Madagascar Blog Post 3 - Days 10 - 14

I still have images to add

Our birding trip was organised Madagascar Tour Guide (madagascar.tour.guide@gmail.com), who were really well organised. Our guide for most of our the trip was Julian, who was brilliant at digging our the birds as well as sorting things out for us along the way. The company is owned by Andre who came to meet us as we passed through Tena. I would highly recommend them and the prices were modest with much of the money going back into local communities.

Day 10 - 14/08/2018

Tuesday 14th August 2018 we were up early again for a 5.30 am breakfast, so that we could start out on a our long journey to Ranomafana NP, which is a tropical jungle. Unfortunately we didn’t see anything on route except for Olive Bee-eater, Grey-headed Vanga and Common Myna which is introduced. We were staying at The Cristo Hotel, which was mid range but the owner went out of her way to be accommodating.

Day 11 - 15/08/2018

Wednesday 15th August 2018, we were up for a 6 am breakfast, so that we could go birding into the Ranomafana NP, which is a tropical jungle. The forest is big and the paths go up and down steeply, keeping you fit in the heat. Our local guide was Emele (jery.ra@gmail.com), who was the best local guide in the area and had helped with many research projects. He was very friendly and told us very proudly about how he had two animals named after him, which was impressive for anyone. He told us that some parts of the forest had not even been investigated and that if he could get researchers and funding, they were bound to find new species. That is exactly what I would like to do in the future but with a camera person filming. We also had a spotter with us for our visit.

We had a fantastic first morning birding, with birds of the day being Malagasy Blue Pigeon, Red-fronted Coua, Velvety Asity, Common Sunbird-asity, Wards Flycatcher, Crossley’s, Blue, Tylas and Rufous Vanga, White-thoated Oxylabes, Spectacled Tetraka, Rand’s Warber, Malagasy White-eye, Nelicouvi Weaver and Forest Fody.

For most of the morning and afternoon we tried for Rufous-headed Ground Roller again. Whilst we did hear one a few times very briefly, by the time we had followed the call, the birds had gone quiet. Maybe tomorrow?

Day 12 - 16/08/2018

Thursday 16th August 2018, we were back at Ranomafana Forest birding from 6.30 am. We had another tough day of birding, climbing up and down the steep paths and off roading through thick forest, with one new bird, Long-billed Bernieria.

Other birds for the day were Brown Mesite, Madagascan Wood Rail, Pitta-like Ground Roller, Common Sunbird-asity, Pollen’s, Blue Vanga and Tylas Vanga and Wards Flycatcher.

We drove up to Sahamalaotra Forest for 5.30 pm, which was at the top of the mountainside, to look at Lemurs, frogs and try for Madagascar Long-eared Owl, which we didn’t see. However we did see Brown Mouse Lemur.

Day 13 - 17/08/2018

Today, Friday 17th August 2018, we went up to the mountain early to go birding in Sahamalaotra Forest all day. It was another tough day, running up and down steep paths and climbing through dense forest with most of it spent trying to see Rufous-headed Ground Roller, which were only calling briefly. It’s frustrating when you spend a whole day trying for one bird and you just hear a 20 second burst every two hours or so. Eventually, I saw one but only managed to get mum and dad onto it briefly. When that happens, you can’t really celebrate and you know that you have to keep looking until everyone sees it well. Other birds were Blue Coua, Grey-crowned Tetraka, Green Jery, Madagascan Yellowbrow, Red Fody and Madagascan Mannikin.

Day 14 - 18/08/2018

We were up early again today and headed up to Sahamalaotra Forest for a final try before we had to start a long journey. It’s hard when you are trying for specific but without any joy. The forest paths here were steep, with lots steps. We were listening for Rufous-headed Ground Roller the whole time. If we heard it, we would have to run to the part of the forest where the bird was calling from, go into the forest and sit quietly still. Julian and Emile would play the tape and the spotter would look for the bird. For all our hard work, we weren’t rewarded with the bird and by 8am we had to leave. New birds for the day were Cryptic Warbler and a Madagascar Flufftail, which we saw well, just as we were leaving the forest.

We then left this stunning location to make our way to Andasibe NP, another great forest. On the way we stopped at wetlands where we saw Black Heron, Madagascan Lark and Stonechat.

We arrived at Andasibe NP at about 6 pm, in time to get sorted in our lower mid-range lodge Feon’ny Ala Hotel. This was the only place where staff seemed disinterested but every time mum was about to complain, a different staff member would serve us who could speak English and seemed vaguely interested. This is where Julian lived and so he went off that evening to see his daughter and granddaughter who had been born the day before.

It’s been really hard blogging in Madagascar as the internet has been really weak, so I’ll just have to wait until we get home to upload any images.

Today was my niece Laila’s 10th birthday. We were all really missing her and it was great to have a WhatApp call to her.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Tuesday, 14 August 2018

In the last footsteps of Phoebe Snetsinger - Madagascar Blog Post 2 - Days 6 - 9

I still have images to label

Our birding trip was organised Madagascar Tour Guide (madagascar.tour.guide@gmail.com), who were really well organised. Our guide for most of our the trip was Julian, who was brilliant at digging our the birds as well as sorting things out for us along the way. The company is owned by Andre who came to meet us as we passed through Tana. I would highly recommend them and the prices were modest.

Day 6 - 10/08/2018

Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig having an early breakfast in Anakao, Madagascar
Photographs copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

On Friday 10th of August we were up at 3.45 am, so that our bags could be picked up from our cabin at 4.15 am. Then breakfast at 4.20 am, so that we could leave Anakao at 4.50 am and travel by speedboat for Toliara. It was pitch black on the boat and jammed packed with tourists. It was good that I had a hoodie on, as it was freezing cold and we were all huddled together for warmth.

We arrived in Toliara at 6.30 am where we were met with carts pulled by Zebu (a species of horned cattle) up to their chests in water which took us back to the road without us getting soaked.

Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig being picked up by zebu in Toliara, Madagascar
Photographs copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig on a Zebu cart in Toliara, Madagascar
Photographs copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

We then headed straight back to Andatabo Forest to look for Red-shouldered Vanga again without any luck. Apparently the birds normally call, so they might have been breeding at the moment. I did feel pretty disappointed as this was Phoebe Snetsinger’s last new bird but maybe it was only right that me, being a 16 year old birder, should not see the last bird of the world’s most amazing female birder.

So, at 8.00 am we started our journey north along the coast to Ifaty, to bird in the Mangily spiny forest there.

On the way we stopped at some pools and saw Madagascar Harrier-hawk, Kittlitz’s Plover, Olive Bee-eater and White-fronted Plover.

Arriving in Ifaty, our hotel was high over the sea and had amazing views looking over the coast. First we had lunch and a swim, then when it was a bit cooler, we went to the forest about 10 minutes drive away. The forest is owned by the local community now and so they share the income from tourism. This is where Jean-Marie lives and we saw his booth that he and his colleagues guide out of. We had two young guys with us who were spotters, who track down the birds.

Birds that we saw today included Crested Coua, Long-tailed Ground Roller, Malagasy Turtle Dove, Malagasy Coucal, Running Coua, Grey-headed Lovebirds (a tick back on dad), Sickle-billed and White-headed Vanga and Malagasy Green-sunbird.

Crested Coua, Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Running Coua, Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Grey-headed Lovebird Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Long-tailed Ground Roller, Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Chris Craig, Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Mangily Spiny Forest, Madagascar
Photograph copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Afterwards, we stayed out birding into the evening but didn’t see any night birds.

Day 7 - 11/08/2018

On Saturday 11 August 2018, we were up early so that we could get to the Mangily Spiny Forest by 6.30 am. We had a good morning of birding, seeing Subdesert Mesite, Crested Coua, Red-tailed, Hook-billed Vanga, Red Fody, Striped-throated Jery, Chabert Vanga and Thamnornis, This is when we said goodbye to Jean-Marie as he was guiding in the afternoon.

We then returned to the hotel in time for a 9 am breakfast, a lazy day by the pool before retuning to the forest in the afternoon. We stayed out night birding again.

The highlight of the evening was Torotoroka Scops Owl as well as Mouse Lemur and White-footed Sportive Lemur.

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Day 8 - 12/08/2018

On Sunday 12 August 2018 we left the hotel very early at 5.30 am and drove to another dry forest, Zombsite Forest. We stopped in a town en-route to pop into a supermarket to buy some food for a picnic lunch. When we arrived at the forest, out local guide was waiting for us and immediately took us behind a building to see a Giant Coua. They put food out of the Coua, so they were relatively showy.

We stayed to bird here for 3 hour, including a picnic lunch. The best birds were Giant Coua, a roosting White-Browed Hawk-owl, Rufous Vanga, Long-billed Bernieria (or Tetraka) and Appert’s Tetraka. We also had great views of Zombsite Sportive Lemur and Verraux’s Lemur.

At about 1pm, we carried on with our journey, along straight roads through miles of dry forest.

It was 4 pm before we arrived at our hotel, against the backdrop of stunning red ridges next to a huge dry forest. We had the rest of the afternoon off, so I went for a swim in the pool. Even though it looked inviting, the water was icy cold!

Day 9 - 13/08/2018

Monday 13th August 2018 we had breakfast at 5.30 am and so we would go out birding in Islao NP early before the day became hot. We birded along undulating dry trails during the morning, with a stream running through.

Best birds of the day were White-throated Rail, Forest Rock Thrush which might split into Benson’s Rock Thrush, Madagascan Stonechat and a roosting Rainforest Scops Owl. We also had even better views of a Verraux’s Lemur.

It got hot very quickly, after which we had the rest of the day off.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 16-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. She is looking forward to visiting Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar birding in 2018 and hopes to see her 5000th bird species in the world.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She is an Ambassador for See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She has given over 50 talks, speaking at conferences such as being on a panel with George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas on Sustainability and the Future of Cities. She has also appeared on TV an dis particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film which was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her fifth Camp Avalon camp in 2018. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.