Fri, Aug 23 - Birding Ankarfantsika Park, Day 2

ET?!!

I got up at 5 AM, went into the bathroom, turned on the faucet...the water coughed a bit and out came my froggy friend from last night!   He ran up the wall and disappeared!   I had a Pain au Chocolate for breakfast, and we took off back to the park headquarters.  I had my hiking poles as we were to climb a bit.  It was a clear warm morning; we first stopped by a marshy area to try for the Madagascar Jacana, a bird on tall spindly legs which walks on top of lily pads.  We managed to see one, but this area is being converted to rice paddies, so who knows how long they will be around.  

Passing Ox Cart

Tuvo parked at the Headquarters, and we all set off climbing up steps into the sand forest of tall thin trees and a few larger ones.  Jackie took us off the trail and pointed out a hole in a dead tree with E.T. looking out!  Our first lemur of the Sportive genus: Milne-Edwards, and a very cute guy!

Strange Insect

Cuvier's Iguanid

David flushed out a beautiful bird, the Coquerel’s Coua, a road runner-size bird with red breast, dark back and brilliant blue skin around the eye. 

Coquerel's Coua

It dashed back and forth across the path, difficult to photo, but I got a bit..

With the full sun (95 degrees F) shining and the contrasting shade and all the small branches, photography was difficult.

We got back to the park headquarters at 11 and Dave bought us all gran beers in the restaurant and we relaxed,

before driving back to our hotel for more beers and lunch of delicious local fish.  Bob asked for a sandwich so I ate his fish in addition to mine!

Chameleon sp.

Very strange insects!

  We dozed until 3:30 and then set off again to try for the last specialty bird of the area, the White-breasted Mesite.    We walked for a mile until Jackie said he heard the birds a ways away and set off into the forest.  David told us to stand stock still as these are very shy birds so we froze for 15 minutes.  Jackie started towards us, making quite a bit of noise, and  just as the light was dropping fast, three Mesites scooted across the path!  We couldn’t see all the field marks, but their posture, heads held low, parallel to the ground, is very distinctive, so we were pleased!

Back for supper.  Our neighbors, three young German music teachers, gave us a concert of lovely singing as we sat in the open air dining area.  That inspired Dave and Nancy, one of whose hobbies is Scottish folk dance to give a demonstration to music on Dave’s computer!  A lovely evening!