Thu, Aug 22-Birding Ankarfantsika Park

(Sending this out Aug 28 - long time without wifi!!)

We met for breakfast at 6 AM, and found that the French influence even extends to this tiny village as we had excellent warm croissants with our cheese omelets.

Our hotel

Dining Area

We were joined by Jackie, our park guide, and drove a short distance to a trail head, and started walking slowly into the dry deciduous forest on a wide well-maintained trail.   We started spotting birds, and also some fantastic flowers and our first chameleon, Oustalet’s Chameleon, chunky and about a foot long.

Oustalet’s Chameleon

We saw Crested Drongo, and the Lesser Vasa Parrot, probably the world’s plainest parrot as it is entirely dull brown.  The bird of the day was a struggle: Schlegel’s Asity which took some time for all of us to get a good look, but really worth it!  Only 6” long, but with a black head, olive back, bright yellow breast, and an amazing mottled, shiny metallic green and turquoise skin patch around its eyes!  Really a gem!

We returned at 11, having walked only 1.6 miles in four hours, classic birding speed!   Bob and I split a large Three Horses beer and relaxed until noon, when we were served a large plate of carrots and fried fish.  David said we could siesta until 3:30 to avoid the heat of the day.

We had a short drive to a reservoir. Lake Ravelobe, in the middle of the park where we boarded a small flat boat with two rows of plastic chairs bolted to the deck. 

Madagascar Fish Eagle

We took off and immediately saw across the water a young Madagascar Fish Eagle in a tree.  We cruised along passing signs warning of crocs, and there was a reptilian eye looking at us from the water next to the boat!  

Croc by our boat!

We saw many people fishing and wading in water up to their waists.  Jackie says they don’t believe they will be eaten, although 8 have been in the last decade. 

Madagascar Kingfisher

We disembarked and Jackie showed us a couple of Common Brown Lemurs resting in trees next to  the village.

Tuvo drove us back to our hotel and 5 minutes later at 6:15 we took off once again to walk up a road to look for nightlife.  The park doesn’t allow hikes after dark so we walked next to the village and, amazingly, Jackie was able to show us the very cute Golden

Golden Mouse Lemur

Brown Mouse Lemurs, more chameleons and a tiny gecko about three inches long.

Back at 7:30 for dinner:  pasta beef soup, grilled shrimp, and banana with caramel sauce! We have several cute geckos who live in our room and make little chirping noises at night when they’re out hunting insects.  I also found a small green frog hopping around the bathroom