Thu, Sep 12 - Birding Kirindy Forest

It got chilly during the night and we had to pull up the thick comforter that had seemed so unnecessary earlier.  We awoke at 4:45 AM, got dressed and stumbled over to the car park to meet Fano, David, and our driver. It was just getting light and the roosters from the settlement next door were in full crow.

Kirindy Research Station

We drove a few kilometers to the Kirindy Research Station, a collection of dorms, eating pavilion and labs.  The temperature was in the low fifties when we set out with our guide, Christian.

Crested Coua

We crisscrossed through a maze of trails, passing huge Baobabs standing in this dense forest, and seeing well some birds that we had just glimpsed before.  David used his tape to call out the White-breasted Mesite which we briefly saw in Ankarafantsika NP weeks ago. 

Frances's Sparrowhawk

They were a pair of lovely chestnut-backed birds with black and white streaks on the face and a speckled breast.  Then we saw a Red-fronted Brown Lemur sleeping high in a Baobab!  I don’t know how it managed to climb such a huge smooth-barked tree.

Red-fronted Brown Lemur

There are three species of Baobab (Adansonia  grandidieri, A rubrostipa, and A za) in this forest, but it is difficult to tell them apart (for Bob and me, at least) as they aren’t in leaf or flower.

Madascar Hoopoe

  Fortunately there is no commercial use (except tourism) for Baobabs.  When they are knocked down by a cyclone, for instance, they just dissolve into powder and disappear within a few years, leaving a hole in the ground; they are quite fire-resistant and so survive in fields that have been burned by farmers.

Our Fosa - related to Civets and Mongooses

It got warmer finally and we continued walking until 10 when we returned to the research station, and there, relaxing under a bungalow, was a Fosa (Cryptoprocta ferox), a civet-like carnivore, weighing between 15 and 20 lbs, scary looking, like a small mountain lion!  He woke up and walked right by me, over to a water tank, and started munching on something - stolen chicken?  We had seen signs warning us not to feed Fosas and to avoid them, but it was a thrill to see one so close.  He had ferocious teeth!

We were driven back to our hotel where we had breakfast next to the pool - the temperature now 95 degrees and me without my bathing suit!!@$## which I had left in Tana.  We napped and

reassembled for lunch at 1 PM:  green bean salad, then shrimp for the boys and cauliflower for me. 
 

Grey-headed Lovebirds

At 4:30 we got into the Toyota and drove back to Kirindy, and met up with Christian again . He showed us a group of Red-fronted Brown Lemurs right by the car park who were racing around.   Then he led us back into the woods as the sun set and the almost full moon rose beyond a Baobab.  

Narrow-stripped Mongoose

We had our torches with us which we used as it soon became dark.  Christian showed us several kinds of lemurs, including incredibly cute mouse lemurs which didn’t seem to mind having lights shone on them and continued licking sap from tree trunks. They are about the size of a small chipmunk

Mouse Lemur 

  We got back to the car park and found twenty other vans there for night walks - glad we got here early!   We returned to the Relais du Kirindy; I grabbed a shower and we joined David for dinner: smoked fish salad, chicken with gravy and ice cream.

I was trying to stay up until eleven when the plan was to drive back yet again to Kirindy and look for the Giant Jumping Rat!

Bob decided to stay home and sleep, but I joined David and Fano and we returned to the research station.  We sat staring into the darkness, and Christian walked around with his torch looking for eye shine.  This went on for a while as I dozed.  Finally at 12:30 we decided to give up - the full moon made it unlikely that the rats would dance around and expose themselves to the Fosa.  The rats, which weigh 2-3 lbs, and have rabbit-like ears, can jump 40 inches into the air, and only exist in this corner of Madagascar, so it was worth taking a chance on seeing them!