Day 14 - Wednesday 16/09/2105: Perinet (Mantadia)
Unfortunately, I had a bad night with fever and shivering, such that I couldn’t get warm despite wearing my nightshirt, trousers, jacket and 2 pairs of socks in bed – and watery diarrhoea. In the morning, still feeling feverish but no longer shaking, I decided I was too unwell to go out on the days’ excursion. However, just before the group left the thought of all the birds they were going to see without me made me feel just about well enough to make the effort. I was weak and slow all day, so that I couldn’t carry my big lens camera and sat in the vehicle whenever possible – but I saw all 4 of the new birds seen today and survived.
Mantadia is an area of protected primary forest at higher elevation than Perinet, it is about 20km from our lodge. The road to Mantadia was described by Patrice as “slightly very bad”. He was wrong about the first word, but it could have been even worse in or after heavy rain – which fortunately did not occur while we were there. It took 2 hours to get there. Birding here was hard work even without my incapacity. The birds we were seeking are rare and shy, the slopes sometimes very steep, the paths often rough and sometimes we had to leave them altogether – but the forest was beautiful. The 4 species we added today were: Scaly Ground-roller (which runs along the forest floor very quickly appearing more like a rat than a bird and nearly completely camouflaged against the forest floor, but it would intermittently freeze and then its beautiful multicoloured scaly appearance would be seen), Madagascar Starling, Madagascar Spine-tailed Swift and Nuthatch Vanga (which was previously considered to be a nuthatch and went by the name Coral-billed Nuthatch, has the blue-grey colouration of a European Nuthatch but works up the tree like a treecreeper rather than down the tree like a nuthatch). We stayed in the forest for a picnic lunch – of which I ate very little.
On the way home we stopped at 2 places to try for Madagascar Rail. Alison and I caught a glimpse of the tail of one and we heard calls but this was insufficient to tick this species. I spent most of the journey home asleep and went straight to bed on our return – and stayed there (apart from regular visits to the bathroom) until morning.
Mantadia is an area of protected primary forest at higher elevation than Perinet, it is about 20km from our lodge. The road to Mantadia was described by Patrice as “slightly very bad”. He was wrong about the first word, but it could have been even worse in or after heavy rain – which fortunately did not occur while we were there. It took 2 hours to get there. Birding here was hard work even without my incapacity. The birds we were seeking are rare and shy, the slopes sometimes very steep, the paths often rough and sometimes we had to leave them altogether – but the forest was beautiful. The 4 species we added today were: Scaly Ground-roller (which runs along the forest floor very quickly appearing more like a rat than a bird and nearly completely camouflaged against the forest floor, but it would intermittently freeze and then its beautiful multicoloured scaly appearance would be seen), Madagascar Starling, Madagascar Spine-tailed Swift and Nuthatch Vanga (which was previously considered to be a nuthatch and went by the name Coral-billed Nuthatch, has the blue-grey colouration of a European Nuthatch but works up the tree like a treecreeper rather than down the tree like a nuthatch). We stayed in the forest for a picnic lunch – of which I ate very little.
On the way home we stopped at 2 places to try for Madagascar Rail. Alison and I caught a glimpse of the tail of one and we heard calls but this was insufficient to tick this species. I spent most of the journey home asleep and went straight to bed on our return – and stayed there (apart from regular visits to the bathroom) until morning.