Lantana

20^th November

A conversation today about Lantana and its colonisation of forests all over the tropics (as we waited for a Madagascar rail to appear):

Marsh tit: Tigers in India love to sleep under Lantana and it was all over Mount Lewis when I saw the blue-faced parrot-finch there.

Charming birder from Queensland: You’ve seen the blue-faced parrot-finch?

Marsh tit: Yes.

Charming birder from Queensland (with a big smile): Bastard.

He, it would seem, has not.

In my bathroom at Vakona Lodge in Andasibe there is a large and beautiful male lined day gecko. In the forest this morning there were singing indris, diademed sifakas just metres from us (including an adorable youngster born in June), and a male Henst’s goshawk on a bough. Just twelve birds to go before New Year.

New today

	Birds
988	Henst’s goshawk	Accipiter henstii
	Amphibians
22		Guibemantis (liber) perineti

2012 Totals

Mammals: 128

Birds: 988

Reptiles: 76

Amphibians: 22

Fish: 12