Our first full day in Madagascar was extremely full-on, with little time for a break. We set off from our hotel at 05:15 and walked to the Reserva Reniala, arriving at 06:00 where we met up with our guides for the day. We only had one day at this site, so we had to make the most of our time to try and find as many of the regional endemics as we could.
It started off well, with the Green-capped subspecies of the
Red-capped Coua feeding openly in the car park. We quickly moved through
commoner species such as Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher, Malagasy Bulbul, Common
Jery and Common Newtonia, with the forest being quite lively with movement in
the first few hours. We also had other goodies, such as distant views of a
preening Sickle-billed Vanga, Thamnornis and Stripe-throated
Jery.
There were two birds that we really wanted to see here; the
Subdesert Mesite and Long-tailed Ground Roller. The Mesite fell first, with an
individual perched nice and conspicuously about two meters off the floor in an
open tree. They have a distinctive response to threats, where they sit
completely motionless for an extended period. And so it transpired,
with the bird doing exactly that. In the rest of the morning with found two
other individuals, and they also performed the same comical behaviour.
The Long-tailed Ground Roller did not take long either, with
the guides directing us to a territory where an individual showed
phenomenally well. Many of the photos online show the bird obscured, but our
individual perched right out in the open for us, offering brilliant views. We
later were also shown a nest, or rather the entrance to a nest since they breed
in burrows. The pair was also nearby, but the female was not happy with our
presence, performing a strange distraction display, so we moved on.
The rest of the morning we continued birding until midday.
The guides were excellent, and they completed the first session with brilliant
views of Madagascar Nightjar at day roost and Torotoroka Scops-Owl. We
completed the site Coua collection, with both Running and Crested Coua
showing nicely.
We had a walk outside the reserve to search for our few
remaining birds, but failed to find them in the already hot conditions. As such
we decided to head back to our hotel, grab lunch, meet our driver for the next
ten days and then change our lodging, as we had decided to stay in the reserve
itself, now that we had seen the accommodation on offer was brilliant. Over
lunch, we were treated to a brilliant show by the local Banded Day Geckos, which were
perched conspicuously on the bamboo walls of the dining area.
In the afternoon we tried again searching for our missing
species. We got very lucky with nice views of Madagascar Cuckoo-Hawk perched
directly over the path, and then after some searching, we finally got an
Archbold's Newtonia, which was not a particularly exciting species but is
restricted to this one site on our itinerary. A White-headed Vanga nicely
rounded out our first full day in Madagascar.
At night we had an explore of the reserve as well. There are no real species to target but we hoped to find a few bits. It started well with a nice Grey-brown Mouse Lemur in the car park, although it was not particularly showy. For the next hour, our attention was mainly spent on bugs and geckos, with at least five species of geckos being found. Two species of Chameleon was a good start to our plan to try and find as many species of these awesome reptiles as we could over the next five weeks. And then, to round it off, we had a Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec close to the path, but not doing anything interesting.
Reserva Reniala: Malagasy Turtle Dove, Namaqua Dove, Subdesert Mesite, Crested Coua, Red-capped Coua, Running Coua, Malagasy Coucal, Madagascar Nightjar, Madagascar Spinetail, Madagascar Buttonquail, Madagascar Harrier-Hawk, Madagascar Cuckoo-Hawk, Yellow-billed Kite, Torotoroka Scops Owl, Madagascar Hoopoe, Olive Bee-eater, Long-tailed Ground Roller, Malagasy Kestrel, Greater Vasa Parrot, Archbold's Newtonia, Common Newtonia, Chabert Vanga, Sickle-billed Vanga, White-headed Vanga, Crested Drongo, Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher, Pied Crow, Common Jery, Stripe-throated Jery, Subdesert Brush Warbler, Thamnornis, Malagasy Bulbul, Common Myna, Madagascar Magpie-Robin, Souimanga Sunbird, Sakalava Weaver,
No comments:
Post a Comment