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Merry Christmas to all of my readers (both of you).

Here’s another shot of the shrike from yesterday in slightly better light.

With the weather looking good, possibly for the last day before Christmas, I took one of my remaining days off with the intention of a 20+ mile walk around the Cissbury and Chanctonbury Rings. 

My only concession to birding at Cissbury Ring was to walk at high speed around the perimeter checking the bushes for a Great Grey Shrike (there was one for a day a couple of weeks ago – surely long gone – but I’ve always fancied that there should be one up there one winter).  My plans were thrown into disarray when I actually found one.  It played the usual Shrike game of hide and seek , but ended up showing beautifully: what a shame I only had my compact camera, but it was meant to be a long walk.

The hour spent there meant that plans had to be changed, and the day turned into a shorter walk, returning to Cissbury in the afternoon, to meet up with Karen and my SLR.  The light was now awful and the bird utterly uncooperative, but it finally deigned to sit around for a couple of pictures.

(It ended up at 16.5 miles)

Perfect light, perfect pose: wrong camera!

Right camera, terrible light

I wasn’t up to much today, having just got back from a week working in Japan.

A short walk over to the reedbed just east of us failed to produce the hoped-for Jack Snipe, but 6 Snipes and a Woodcock were good, and this Peregrine flew into a pylon above us.

Peregrine

The photos from my last few posts are now in one place in Madagascar 2019

There are more photos, and better quality and higher resolution copies of the ones posted here on my OneDrive.  It might be a bit slow: there’s a lot of big files there.

The last lot, this time from our trip up north to Ampijoroa.

A Coquerel’s Sifaka takes the low road.

The long journey was scenic

Madagascan Hoopoe

Coquerel’s Sifaka

Sickle-billed Vanga

The beach at Mahajunga

Bernier’s Teal

Malagasy Sacred Ibis

Dimorphic Egret

The other morph

Bernier’s Teal

Broad-billed Roller

Frances’s Sparrowhawk

Striated Heron

Madagascan Buzzard

Madagascan Fish Eagle

Malagasy Coucal

Purple Heron

Humblot’s Heron

Brown Lemur

This baby Sifaka just wanted to climb onto its mum, but was made to practice jumping from bough to bough.

Green Jerys at roost

Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur

Golden-brown Mouse Lemur

Grey Mouse Lemur

Schlegel’s Asity

White-breasted Mesite

Red-capped Coua

Olive Bee-eater

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