Fabulous, Frustrating Madagascar

[TonyQ]

More beautiful photos. Good to see you had such great views of different Lemurs in Berenty. The dancing Sifakas are wonderful. We enjoyed our visit here, but were not into birding then so don’t  recall any birds!

 

I feel very frustrated just reading about your trip leader/guide. He seems very self centred with little idea of what he is being paid for. Your local guide seems much more considerate. 

[michael-ibk]

One of the most striking Flycatcher photos I´ve ever seen - Beautiful!

[Zim Girl]

Just catching up with this @janzin, interesting to compare your experiences in Madagascar to mine the year before.  Shame you had issues with the internal fights like @Atdahl.  We must have been lucky with ours as they all ran bang on time, although I am pretty sure we used a different domestic airline.

I also would not have been at all impressed with your tour guide.  We definitely chose right by having a privately guided trip. Being able to set your own pace and take as much time as you want to study and watch the reptiles/lemurs/birds etc makes all the difference.

 

However,  all your pictures are stunning!  The dancing sifakas were a great sighting.  You managed to still find a good array of chameleons and what a colourful insect that rainbow locust is!  All the birds are beautiful and captured really well considering some of the struggles you had.  Love the Blue Vanga and Red Fody. I am also enjoying all the people/general life shots very much.

[janzin]

Thanks @Zim Girl! Your report was an inspiration for our trip, I only wish we'd seen as many reptiles as you and @Atdahl too. Of course we didn't go to many of the parks where you both got a lot of the chameleons, like Ranomafana and Masoala.

 

Its actually the same airline, Air Madagascar---they just sort of split off their domestic group into Tsaradia. But its still "Air Mad."

 

Thanks for your compliments!

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by janzin

[janzin]

3 hours ago, TonyQ said:

More beautiful photos. Good to see you had such great views of different Lemurs in Berenty. The dancing Sifakas are wonderful. We enjoyed our visit here, but were not into birding then so don’t  recall any birds!

 

I feel very frustrated just reading about your trip leader/guide. He seems very self centred with little idea of what he is being paid for. Your local guide seems much more considerate. 

 

Thanks @TonyQ. How long ago were you at Berenty? I imagine it was before they built these fancy new cabins with a/c and king sized beds. They still have some of the older, more rustic cabins and I was happy that Rockjumper got us the newer accommodations.

 

It actually wasn't as birdy as some of our other locations, I think the main draw here for birders is the Giant Coua and the France's Sparrowhawk. But so worth it for the lemurs!

[TonyQ]

@janzin  more than 20 years ago. I remember very little about the accommodation, but I don’t think it had air con. I suspect the old accommodation was fairly new when we stayed in it

I do remember some of the important bits - seeing lots of lemurs, in particular the Ring-tailed and the dancing Sifaka!

[Soukous]

and the stunning photos keep on coming. Loving it @janzin So many species I've never seen and probably never will.

 

The more I read your TR the happier I am that I did not join a group trip to Madagascar in 2019. I almost did - and the company seemed pretty accommodating for photographers - but in the end I was saved by clients wanting to go elsewhere.

I'll never know how good or bad it might have been.

 

 

[kittykat23uk]

The dancing sifakas are definitely the main draw at Berenty and you got some very nice pictures. 

 

France's Sparrowhawk and Giant Coua can be seen in Zombiste as well. I guess the habitat must be quite similar. 

[Alexander33]

Wow, Berenty certainly looks like it was a productive (and more comfortable) stop for you than some others. Great lemur and paradise flycatcher shots, among so many others!

[Galago]

Some really lovely photos from Berenty. The Frances sprawk is just stunning.

 

Like @TonyQ I was at Berenty 20 odd years ago. The chalets were small and wooden with a simple ceiling fan. Mine didn't have mossie netting so at night I had to close the wooden shutters but in the daytime I left it all open. While having an afternoon nap I heard a noise and found that three Ring-tails had come in to the room and the two adults were turning over my stuff to see if I had anything edible. One of my lifetime memories is seeing Vereaux's Sifaka dancing across the red laterite ground. And at night the stars were unbelievable, best I've ever seen anywhere, probably because there was hardly any elecricity there then and you had quite a long walk in the pitch dark between the restaurant and the cabins.

[shazdwn]

Wow I wanted to go to Berenty before but now I REALLY want to go to Berenty, so much diversity and who can resist dancing sifakas - looks like it was well worth the horrid drive in.  I can't wait to see what you spotted on your afternoon and night walks. 

[janzin]

Actually @shazdwn the afternoon walk was very quiet.  Probably due to the extreme heat!

 

After lunch and a brief respite in our air conditioned rooms (very welcome at this time!) we met up again at 3 p.m. for a brief visit to the on-site museum. Although it was walkable we actually took the van for the 5 minute drive, because it was so hot.

 

The museum is called Arambelo, the Museum of Androy; it focuses on the history and daily life of the local people, the Androy. Its a small, dusty anthropological museum of just a couple of rooms but it is actually very interesting with many photographs and some cases of household implements, musical instruments, clothing, ritual items, etc. There is even a full size traditional house inside the building. But the most interesting were the photographs and explanations of various ceremonies and rituals.

 

Unfortunately, one thing that everyone was keen to see--and had read about in the guidebooks--was missing! That was a full-size, complete Elephant Bird egg that was (once) housed in the museum. It seems this egg was stolen in the not-so-distant past! We were all disappointed not to see it. Elephant birds, now extinct, were enormous flightless birds that once lived on Madagascar. They could reach 10 feet tall and 1000 lbs! Although looking somewhat like an ostrich, it is believed their closest living relatives are the kiwi.

 

Anyway, after about 1/2 an hour in the museum we headed out to the trails, but it was still very hot and the forest was pretty quiet.  Our goal was to get to the Madagascar Flying Fox roost.

 

To get to the trailhead from the museum we walked through Berenty's nursery. These are all native plants being propagated for reforestation. It was actually very interesting to see all the seedlings and the effort they are making to reforest.

 

 

more of the grounds, with some spiny forest but also non-native sisal. Looks hot, right?

 

 

The trail in the deciduous forest. At least here there was some shade.

 

 

I actually only have a few photos from that afternoon. I am sure there were lemurs but probably nothing posing well.

 

A Crested Drongo at the nest.

 

 

These Polka Dot butterflies were congregating on these branches; possibly they held sap that they were drinking. There were several groups of them.

 

 

A Broad-billed Roller...a bird we'd seen many times in Africa.

 

 

Hot and tired, we reached the roost of the Madagascar Flying Foxes--a large endemic fruit bat. We could see that there were hundreds roosting in the trees.  Unfortunately, we were disappointed to find that there were signs prohibiting any close approach. Understandable perhaps---although in Australia we were able to walk right up to trees with Flying Foxes; I'm not sure if they are concerned here about disturbance or about disease. Anyway, we could really only get scope views and I didn't even bother to take a single photo as they were just too far. And I was just too hot

 

Well, one more night walk, our last of the trip, still awaits.

 

 

[janzin]

Before dinner we did a night walk, not in the deciduous forest but we drove to a nearby patch of spiny forest. I really wish we'd seen this area in the daylight because as we walked in I could see the outlines of huge octopus trees towering over us, they seemed even taller than those we'd seen in Ifaty.

 

There wasn't really a trail here but we followed our local guide through the forest.

 

Of course there were lemurs--nothing we hadn't already seen, but some nice looks.

 

 

 

and chameleons. More Warty Chameleons; there must be other types here but we only saw these.

 

 

I really tried to make this into some other kind of chameleon but I think its just a stretched-out Warty. I don't have any other listed on my day list.

 

 

One thing I'd hoped to see, having seen photos in guidebooks and on the web, were the nymphs of the Flatid Leaf insect. The adult bug is pink but the nymphs excrete a waxy substance that forms these feather-like appendages. Very cool! We didn't see any adults although some of our group saw some the next morning.

 

 

We found this Paradise Flycatcher sitting on a nest, we didn't want to disturb it but grabbed a very quick photo by torchlight.

 

 

So a short, but productive night walk for our last evening.

 

The next morning, we didn't have to leave Berenty until 9 a.m., with breakfast at 8, as our return flight to Tana was at something like 3:30. So David gave everyone the option of going for one last walk in the forest at 6 a.m. or sleeping in. Given that we had a very long return trip to New York that day, we opted to skip the walk and get a bit more rest. Plus, I thought it would be a good opportunity to wander the grounds alone before breakfast, commune with the lemurs; and get a few more photos.  This was a good decision as those who went on the walk didn't see much new (except the pink, adult Flatid Leaf bugs!)

 

I left Alan sleeping and headed out around 7 to see what I could find. Right away, I saw a bird that I hadn't gotten any photos of, although we'd seen it a few times. it was still fairly high up but I was happy to get a photo of the regional-endemic Grey-headed Lovebird.

 

 

And I said a sad good-bye to the Verreaux's Sifaka...

 

 

And the Ring-tailed Lemurs...

 

 

 

 

It was hard to leave Berenty! This mom and pup were on our back deck as we packed up to go.

 

 

We truly had a wonderful time here and I wish we hadn't missed that first afternoon, as I definitely could have spent more time in this area.

 

Well, we had a very long travel day to look forward to:

 

• A 3 to 4 hour drive back to Fort Dauphin on the horrible road...this time in the heat with minimally working air conditioning in the van
• Flight back to Tana (Fingers crossed--would it be on time? Amazingly, and fortunately for our connections, this one was perfectly on time! Whew.)
• Return to the Relais des Plateaux for our farewell dinner. One last chocolate tasting plate all around!! We all had rooms at the hotel, as technically the tour ended the following morning. However, most of the group...all except two...were departing that night on the Air France flight at 1 a.m. So we were able to shower before dinner, and have a bit of a rest after dinner before being taken to the airport. 
• Departure at 1 a.m., connect in Paris to JFK
• Another hour or more to get home from JFK
• Home sweet home!

 

Oh a word about the international departure terminal at the airport. Absolutely crazy, none of the shops will take any Madagascar currency! Only Euros or dollars! We had expected to buy some souvenirs and get rid of our excess currency, but we couldn't. (The snack shop took mercy and let us buy water--he said "just for you" but it seems he said the same thing to everyone.) So anyway we came home with about $30 worth of Ariary if anyone is going anytime soon...and that was after leaving some in a donation box, goodness knows where that might go to.)

 

Anyway, Air France departed on time, and luckily we arrived in Paris a bit early as we had a tight connection...but made it with no problem.  

 

I'll wrap up with a few final thoughts and the full bird list in a bit.

 

But first, here are a few photos I took on the road back from Berenty to Fort Dauphin, since I can't figure where else to put them.

 

Typical housing in this area.

 

 

Village life.

 

 

 

 

And the ubiquitous zebu carts.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by janzin

[mapumbo]

Thanks for doing this great TR.  Really enjoyed following along and learning more about Madagascar.

Still on the fence on a visit there or not. 

[shazdwn]

I really enjoyed your report @janzin.  Well written, entertaining and great photos.  

[janzin]

Here's the list of birds we saw. 137 and of these, 95 were life birds for us. Those that weren't were mostly shorebirds, herons, terns, etc. and a few we'd seen in Africa.  This of course was our personal tally. The trip as a whole, according to David's trip report, had 153 species. Some of those extras were birds we missed, but some were due to differences in the list that we use (Clements/AOU) vs the one Rockjumper uses (IOC). For example, IOC splits Yellow Billed Kite and Black Kite, but Clements/AOU considers them the same species.  Ditto for Malagasy Scops Owl and Rainforest Scops Owl, etc.

 

 

 

Species: 137 - Subspecies: 0 - Forms: 137
Total Records: 137

NAME                            

DUCKS, GEESE, AND WATERFOWL
White-faced Whistling-Duck      
Knob-billed Duck                
Hottentot Teal                  
Meller's Duck                   
Red-billed Duck                 

GUINEAFOWL
Helmeted Guineafowl             

FLAMINGOS
Lesser Flamingo                 

GREBES
Madagascar Grebe                

PIGEONS AND DOVES
Rock Pigeon                     
Madagascar Turtle-Dove          
Namaqua Dove                    
Madagascar Green-Pigeon         
Madagascar Blue-Pigeon          

MESITES
Subdesert Mesite                

SANDGROUSE
Madagascar Sandgrouse           

CUCKOOS
Crested Coua                    
Verreaux's Coua                 
Blue Coua                       
Red-capped Coua                 
Red-fronted Coua                
Running Coua                    
Giant Coua                      
Red-breasted Coua               
Madagascar Coucal               
Madagascar Cuckoo               

NIGHTJARS AND ALLIES
Collared Nightjar               
Madagascar Nightjar             

SWIFTS
Malagasy Spinetail              
Madagascar Swift                
Little Swift                    
African Palm-Swift              

FLUFFTAILS
Madagascar Wood-Rail            

RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS
Madagascar Rail                 
White-throated Rail             
Eurasian Moorhen                

STILTS AND AVOCETS
Black-winged Stilt              

PLOVERS AND LAPWINGS
Black-bellied Plover            
Kittlitz's Plover               
Common Ringed Plover            
Madagascar Plover               
Three-banded Plover             
White-fronted Plover            

PAINTED-SNIPES
Greater Painted-Snipe           

SANDPIPERS AND ALLIES
Whimbrel                        
Ruddy Turnstone                 
Curlew Sandpiper                
Sanderling                      
Common Sandpiper                
Common Greenshank               

BUTTONQUAIL
Madagascar Buttonquail          

CRAB PLOVER
Crab-plover                     

GULLS, TERNS, AND SKIMMERS
Caspian Tern                    
Lesser Crested Tern             

TROPICBIRDS
Red-tailed Tropicbird           

HAMERKOP
Hamerkop                        

HERONS, EGRETS, AND BITTERNS
Humblot's Heron                 
Purple Heron                    
Great Egret                     
Little Egret                    
Black Heron                     
Cattle Egret                    
Squacco Heron                   
Madagascar Pond-Heron           
Striated Heron                  
Black-crowned Night-Heron       

IBISES AND SPOONBILLS
Madagascar Ibis                 

HAWKS, EAGLES, AND KITES
Frances's Sparrowhawk           
Madagascar Sparrowhawk          
Henst's Goshawk                 
Black Kite                      
Madagascar Buzzard              

OWLS
Malagasy Scops-Owl              
Torotoroka Scops-Owl            
White-browed Owl                

CUCKOO-ROLLER
Cuckoo-Roller                   

HOOPOES
Madagascar Hoopoe               

KINGFISHERS
Malagasy Kingfisher             

BEE-EATERS
Madagascar Bee-eater            

ROLLERS
Broad-billed Roller             

GROUND-ROLLERS
Rufous-headed Ground-Roller     
Long-tailed Ground-Roller       

FALCONS AND CARACARAS
Madagascar Kestrel              

PARROTS; PLATYCERCINAE, PSITTACELLINAE, LORIINAE, AGOAPORNITHINAE, PSITTACULINAE
Greater Vasa Parrot             
Lesser Vasa Parrot              
Gray-headed Lovebird            

ASITIES
Velvet Asity                    
Common Sunbird-Asity            

CUCKOO-SHRIKES
Madagascar Cuckooshrike         

VANGAS
Archbold's Newtonia             
Common Newtonia                 
Dark Newtonia                   
Tylas Vanga                     
Red-tailed Vanga                
Nuthatch-Vanga                  
Chabert Vanga                   
Crossley's Vanga                
Blue Vanga                      
Hook-billed Vanga               
Ward's Flycatcher               
Helmet Vanga                    
Sickle-billed Vanga             
White-headed Vanga              
Lafresnaye's Vanga              

DRONGOS
Crested Drongo                  

MONARCH FLYCATCHERS
Madagascar Paradise-Flycatcher  

CROWS, JAYS, AND MAGPIES
Pied Crow                       

LARKS
Madagascar Lark                 

CISTICOLAS AND ALLIES
Common Jery                     
Green Jery                      
Stripe-throated Jery            
Madagascar Cisticola            

REED-WARBLERS AND ALLIES
Madagascar Brush-Warbler        
Subdesert Brush-Warbler         
Madagascar Swamp Warbler        

MALAGASY WARBLERS
White-throated Oxylabes         
Long-billed Bernieria           
Cryptic Warbler                 
Thamnornis                      
Spectacled Tetraka              
Rand's Warbler                  

SWALLOWS
Plain Martin                    
Mascarene Martin                

BULBULS
Madagascar Bulbul               

YUHINAS, WHITE-EYES, AND ALLIES
Madagascar White-eye            

STARLINGS
Common Myna                     

OLD WORLD FLYCATCHERS
Madagascar Magpie-Robin         
Forest Rock-Thrush              
Littoral Rock-Thrush            
African Stonechat               

SUNBIRDS AND SPIDERHUNTERS
Souimanga Sunbird               
Madagascar Sunbird              

WEAVERS AND ALLIES
Nelicourvi Weaver               
Sakalava Weaver                 
Red Fody                        
Forest Fody                     

WAXBILLS AND ALLIES
Madagascar Munia                

WAGTAILS AND PIPITS
Madagascar Wagtail             

 

 

We had 15 lemur species:

 

Brown Lemur
Red Brown Lemur
Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemur
Ring-tailed Lemur
Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur
Hubbard's Sportive Lemur
White-footed Sportive Lemur
Weasel Sportive Lemur
Geoffroy's Dwarf Lemur
Grey-brown Mouse Lemur
Goodman's Mouse Lemur
Grey Mouse-lemur
Indri
Diademed Sifaka
Verreaux's Sifaka

 

And 13 reptiles:

 

Short-horned Chameleon
Perinet Chameleon
Nose-horned Chameleon
Parson's Chameleon
Oustalet's Chameleon
Furcufer verrucosus
Madagascar Iguana
Striped Day Gecko
Modest Day Gecko
Standing's Day Gecko
Madagascar Girdled Lizard
Madagascar Ground Boa
Lateral Water Snake

 

Plus Indo-pacific Dolphin, Madagascan Flying Fox, and Western Tuft-tailed Rat.

 

No frogs!

 

I'll sum up thoughts tomorrow!

[Soukous]

A terrific list. I wish I could get 69% lifers out of 137. 

I guess I just need to go somewhere new. 

[Zim Girl]

Great report @janzin, lots of beautiful pictures as usual.  The ring-tails at the end are lovely and how nice to see them just before you leave.  Impressive list of birds, was that the kind of number of species you were hoping for?  Good selection of lemurs and chameleons, shame you missed out on the leaf-tailed geckos.

[janzin]

5 hours ago, Soukous said:

A terrific list. I wish I could get 69% lifers out of 137. 

I guess I just need to go somewhere new. 

 

@Soukous Indeed! Especially an entire new continent. When we went to Australia I think we got even a higher percentage of lifers. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Zim Girl said:

Great report @janzin, lots of beautiful pictures as usual.  The ring-tails at the end are lovely and how nice to see them just before you leave.  Impressive list of birds, was that the kind of number of species you were hoping for?  Good selection of lemurs and chameleons, shame you missed out on the leaf-tailed geckos.

@Zim Girl thanks again. In terms of numbers...I don't really think in those terms usually, but I certainly can't complain about the number of life-birds.  My big disappointment on the birding front was missing those forest Ground-rollers; and also not getting photos of more species.  I've pretty much posted all the decent bird photos I got in this report, but normally on a birding trip I'd come home with a much greater number of passable (i.e., not just record shots of a tiny out of focus dot) bird photos. Part of that of course has to do with shooting in the rainforest in general, but also being in the group was a hindrance.

 

And yes, missing the Leaf-tailed Gecko and more colorful chameleons was a disappointment as well. I don't know if we were just in the wrong places or if our local guides didn't really try hard enough to find them, since they thought of us as "birders."

[janzin]

Final thoughts:

 

I know at the beginning I said we were disappointed in the trip and that we'd never go again on a group trip. And I stand by that, with a slight modification--if we personally knew the guide, and had traveled with him before, I might consider it.  And if we put together our own group, with like-minded friends, even better. But certainly with no more people than were on this trip (8) and preferably less. We'd still prefer private guiding whenever feasible. And of course there's also the cost involved; a group can be much more cost efficient than a private guide.

 

However, given the logistical difficulties of Madagascar, I'm still uncertain as to the best way to approach it. I am not sure we'd have fared much better if we'd planned this trip with a local company. We may have been able to pace it better, but might have faced other problems. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to deal with all the transportation issues and decisions on my own. I know some folks on ST have had great trips with local companies--and some not so great. So its a bit of a conundrum.

 

As for the country itself--I know some people reading along have said they are still on the fence. Go! We don't regret going to Madagascar, not at all. Only doing it the way we did. We actually loved the country and found the fauna, flora, and history fascinating.  All the people we met were friendly, we never had any issues. Yes, there's poverty and deforestation which is very sad and depressing, but if you've been to some other places in Africa, Asia, or India I suspect its not worse, or at least what we see as tourists is no worse (we saw much, much worse in India, people living in trash by the side of the road in Gujarat, for example; many beggars with deformities, etc. Never saw anything like that in Madagascar.)  And its also heartening to see what is being preserved and efforts to preserve what's left. I don't think I mentioned that we saw lots of signs around Berenty that areas were being preserved and restored by WWF and other NGOs.  Hopefully our tourism dollars help contribute to the economy in some way, and I especially think tourists with a birding/naturalist focus give incentive to preserve what's left.

 

Of course, we were only in limited areas of the island so I don't really know what its like further in the north. I do know there is some horrible mining operations up north,  but I imagine tourists never see these areas.

 

As I stated before, aside from the issues with the guide, my biggest disappointments were missing some of the key endemic species we'll never have another chance to see in the wild.

 

I would actually love to return some day, but its probably unlikely with so many other places I want to visit. But I highly encourage people to go and see for themselves all these incredible animals and plants which are found no where else on earth!

 

 

 

 

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks for a fantastic report @janzin I really enjoyed following along with you. It makes me want to return someday! 

 

All the best

 

Jo

[AfricIan]

1 hour ago, janzin said:

But I highly encourage people to go and see for themselves all these incredible animals and plants which are found no where else on earth!

 

I can only agree with you @janzin.  Yes Madagascar can be frustrating and "challenging" but its also such a fascinating place and really does need to be visited, many thanks for taking us with you.

[Galago]

Splendid list! And, despite all the hassles, Mada does guarantee a lotta lifers. I think my favourite name on your list is Spectacled Tetraka. It sounds like a real geek among birds 

[Galana]

Thanks for a very informative and interesting report. Quite a tempting place to visit. I did have the opportunity to go some years back but it fell apart and got crossed off the list. I would like to put it back on but the old egg-timer is getting short of sand so your report helped me see what I have missed.

6 hours ago, janzin said:

a group can be much more cost efficient than a private guide.

Do you think so? This has not been my experience which is why I don't do them any more.

Yes a tour operator can maybe, just maybe, nail down room rates a shade but I find the only visible saving to be shared transport and local guides. Rooms, food, park fees etc., are per person whether there is 1 or 21 in the group and you are often paying for the "imported" guide on top.

[janzin]

6 hours ago, Galana said:

 

Do you think so? This has not been my experience which is why I don't do them any more.

Yes a tour operator can maybe, just maybe, nail down room rates a shade but I find the only visible saving to be shared transport and local guides. Rooms, food, park fees etc., are per person whether there is 1 or 21 in the group and you are often paying for the "imported" guide on top.

 

In my experience I've found that the private guide and the transportation is generally the most expensive aspect of the trip. Its true room rates and food are generally more or less the same. But the guide's fee and a rental vehicle, plus in most cases a driver as well, is what ups the cost. Its economies of scale. And if you want a specialized birding guide in some cases they may not be local and so you are paying their airfare or transportation costs to get to the place as well.  I suppose if you are talking about strictly local guides it might be possible to do it less expensively, but there isn't always an experienced local guide available.

 

Obviously it also depends on destination and on whether you are looking at "high-end" birding tours or budget tours, I'm sure there are opportunities to do a privately guided trip to some destinations more economically than on one of the super high-end birding tour companies like VENT or WINGS.  Rockjumper is actually much more reasonable in cost than many of their competitors for the same trips--another reason I chose them.