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Nearly there.  This batch is from our stay in Perinet.

Indris, singing in the rain.

Collared Nightjar

Red-breasted Coua

Leaf-tailed Gecko

Indri

Parsons’ Chameleon

Rainforest Scops Owl

Nuthatch Vanga

Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher

Madagascan Blue Pigeon

White-throated Rail

A break on the Highway to Helmet

This car didn’t make it

Short-legged Ground Roller

And when we got there, the nest was bare…

Lowland Striped Tenrec, trying to escape Patrice

After a long clamber through the jungle, and the horror of another empty nest, finally a Helmet Vanga turned up.

… and there was much rejoicing

One of the many river crossings in the dark

Meller’s Duck

Diademed Sifaka

Elephant Chameleon

Horn-nosed Chameleon

Perinet Chameleon

Goodman’s Mouse Lemur

Furry-eared Dwarf Lemur

Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher

White-throated Oxylabes

Rainforest Scops Owl

Velvet Asity, female

Velvet Asity, male

Tree Boa

Back in Tana, Squacco and Black Herons

Night Herons

Malagasy Pond Heron

Another batch, this time from the spiny forest and wetlands near Ifaty

Madagascan Plover

Long-tailed Ground Roller

Baobab

Undescribed Sportive Lemur (Spiny Forest Sportive Lemur, probably)

Thamnornis

Archbold’s Newtonia

Sickle-billed Vanga

Lesser Vasa Parrot

Spiny Forest

Subdesert Mesite

Chabert Vanga

Madagascan Buzzard

Madagascan Hoopoe

Madagascan Nightjar

Madagascan Buttonquail

Lesser Flamingos and Black-winged Stilts

Fetching the thatch

Lesser Flamingos

Running Coua

Greater Vasa Parrot

Madagascan Harrier-Hawk

Madagascan Sparrowhawk

Ugly, and its bite is apparently very nasty

Just ugly

Scorpion

Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec

Grey-headed Lovebird

Black-winged Stilt

Another batch, this time from Anja park, where the Ring-tailed Lemurs were, Zombitse, an excellent reserve with Verreaux’s Sifakas and around Toliara with a boat trip to Nosy Ve.

Ring-tailed Lemur

Oustalet’s Chameleon

Grey-headed Lovebird

Scenery on the high pleateau

Pied Crow

Benson’s Rock Thrush, female

Benson’s Rock Thrush, male

Sunset scenery at Ranohira

Madagascan Cisticola

Giant Coua

Mahafaly Sand Snake

Cuckoo Roller, a very strange bird indeed

Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher

Appert’s Tetraka

Orchid

Baobab

Verreaux’s Sifaka

White-browed Owl

The future’s bright for these Flatid Leaf Bug nymphs…

The future’s orange.

Dry forest near Toliara

Three-eyed Lizard

Red-shouldered Vanga

The tide was in when we set off to Nosy Ve, in zebu carts

Marilyn keeping her elbow high…

Crab Plover

Sooty Gull with Greater and Lesser Crested Terns

Red-tailed Tropicbird

Nosy Ve

The tide was out on the way back from he boat, so it was the zebu grand prix

Ours was rubbish

A wretched day, with horrible weather and a major disappointment in the World Cup final.  Still, at least it gives me some time to get back to the photos.  This lot is from our first location at Ranomafana.  I’ll put them all and more in better quality and resolution on my OneDrive and put a link up when they’re done.

Moth

Gecko

Malagasy Green Sunbird

Malagasy White-eye

Parson’s Chameleon

Pitta-like Ground Roller

Velvet Asity, male

Pollen’s Vanga

Red-fronted-Brown Lemur

Brown Mesite, creeping quickly through the indergrowth in the dark, it’s hard to photograph.

Souimanga Sunbird

Green Day Gecko

Blue Vanga

Crested Drongo

Red-tailed Vanga

Skink

Green Day Gecko

Malagasy Palm Swift

Madagascan Wagtail

Ward’s Flycatcher (another Vanga)

Chabert Vanga

Red-fronted Coua

Giraffe-necked Weevil: the female is a strange looking-thing…

… but the male’s just bonkers

Forest Rock Thrush

Eastern Rufous Mouse Lemur

Blue Coua

Red-bellied Lemur

Red-fronted Coua chick, I think

Looking for a Madagascan Yellowbrow

Tylas Vanga

Grey Bamboo Lemur

Tree Boa

Deceptive Short-nosed Chameleon (I didn’t trust the explanation of the deceptive bit).

Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher

A day of dodging showers, with the rain eventually winning in the afternoon.  That didn’t stop us from seeing some amazing stuff though, particularly the superb Collared Nightjar and a chance to sing along with the Indris.  Possibly the most amazing thing was the Leaf-tailed Gecko.

Collared Nightjar

Collared Nightjar

Leaf-tailed Gecko, if you can find it

Rainforest Scops Owl

Indri

Here’s a couple more photos from the Spiny Forest of Ifaty, a weird and wonderful (and hot) place.

Lots of superb birds and beasts, and an unexpected swimming lesson (when a former world record holder offers to improve your stroke you don’t refuse) has made it a real highlight of the trip.

We’ve now moved on and are at Perinet, where the WiFi is distinctly patchy.  The birds and beasts are not, though, more on that once if the uploads work.

Running Coua, expertly herded by the Mosas

Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec, from its rest hole untimely plucked.

Baobabs and spines everywhere

A big day for me yesterday, when we went to Nosy Ve, a sandy island off Tulear, in the hope of seeing some of my most wanted birds: Red-tailed Tropicbird, which breeds there and Crab Plover, which is there sometimes.  Bot are cracking birds and new families for me and both were there, along with a real bonus of a Sooty Gull, a real Madagascar rarity.

Later, in our first visit to the spiny forest at Ifaty we had superb encounter with another of my most wanted birds: Long-tailed Ground-Roller.  Not a bad place, Madagascar.

Sooty Gull, Greater and Lesser Crested Terns

Red-tailed Tropicbird

Long-tailed Ground-Roller

Crab Plover: it’s not a Plover and it doesn’t eat crabs.

… there is a cooler animal than the Ring-tailed Lemur: Verreaux’s Sifaka, which clings to the tree’s like it’s scared of heights, bounces through them like a Gibbon and then finally dances away on the ground, all while looking utterly cute.

There’s lots of good birds at Zombitse too.

Giant Coua

White-browed Owl

Not sure what this is, but it’s not dangerous.

Verreaux’s Sifaka

A terrific start to our trip to Madagascar, with three nights in Ranomafana, and some superb forest birds and lemurs.  Today a trip to Isalo had a stop off at Anja Park for our only Ring-tailed Lemurs of the trip: just magnificent!

Wifi is very patchy here, so there might be no updates until we’re back…

Dotty!

Pitta-like Ground Roller

Rufous Mouse Lemur

Blue Vanga

A walk up the downs on Saturday turned up a surprise, when I flushed a bird off the path along the down top behind the house.  It looked a bit wrong, but I thought it was just one of the common migrants that have really tailed off in the last week.  After waiting for Karen to catch up we walked carefully on and found it again.  We then spent a few minutes inching up on it, not knowing what we were looking at.  Finally it became clear: a Snow Bunting, about a month earlier than an early bird, and in completely the wrong place (we see them on coast shingle in Sussex, not grassy down tops).

Typically I didn’t have my good camera, just my compact, but with a bird as confiding as a Snow Bunting you can still get something.