Today we would travel from our hotel in the town of Maronsetra, across Antongila Bay and to the shores of the Masoala National Park. We were scheduled to set off at 07:00, so we were able to have a short breakfast before heading to the harbour. During this time, after we had enquired yesterday, one of the staff from the hotel brought us one of our most wanted species for the whole trip; a Tomato Frog. Only found in the area immediately around the town, it is now quite difficult to find unless you know how, and the waiter apparently knew how. After showing us and letting us grab some photos, he returned it to wherever he found it. An absolutely fantastic start to the day! A massive red frog!
The boat across the bay took just over two hours in total. In that time we passed an impressive heronry, mostly composed of Egrets but also with a few Purple Herons and Black Herons in the trees. A few Reed Cormorants also flew past us as we traveled. There was a lot of fish action as well, with a distant flying fish and multiple encounters with hunting Bonito, although we only saw them jumping on a couple of occasions.
After arriving at the lodge, beautifully located in the forests next to the beach, we took a moment to rest before we set off into the forest in search of our first birds. Of course, it was already 10:00 in the morning, so was extremely hot. But we still managed to get a few birds seen, including one of our three main targets, the Brown Mesite, our last Mesite species. It showed very nicely in the forest, although generally obscured by vegetation.
The rest of the walk was fairly uneventful. We did get our first Lemurs of our time here, with the magnificent Red Ruffed Lemur, probably the most iconic species of the Masoala National Park. They were always high up, but we enjoyed very nice views of them. Otherwise we were limited to common species of bird, but this did include our first Black-bellied Magpie-Robin, a subspecies found in the north of the island.
During the afternoon we took an extensive nap, which helped restore our energy levels for the walk at night, before a pleasant but uneventful walk on the beach in the late afternoon. Our night walk was excellent, as we had views of multiple Scott's Sportive Lemurs, a Tanala Tufted-tailed Rat and then a fantastic Giant Leaf-tailed Gecko species that was crawling on vegetation right in front of us before leaping into other strands.
Masoala National Park: Brown Mesite, Blue Coua, Malagasy Coucal, Bar-tailed Godwit, Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Reed Cormorant, Great Egret, Purple Heron, Madagascar Buzzard, Cuckoo-roller, Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher, Olive Bee-eater, Broad-billed Roller, Common Newtonia, Crested Drongo, Spectacled Tetraka, Malagasy Bulbul, Malagasy White-eye, Common Myna, Madagascar Magpie-Robin, Souimanga Sunbird,
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