22nd
November
On
our last walk in the lovely forest of Analamazaotra my group saw their first
eastern avahis. Three adults, in an exposed huddle on a dead tree, stared at us
with dopey eyes; they even allowed us to coo over their tiny round-faced
infant. Hubbard’s sportive lemur was almost knocked from his popularly-voted
position as cutest lemur seen on the tour.
We
left the forest without having seen any of the last-minute birds I’d hoped we’d
find. I resigned myself to leaving Madagascar on 990 species. A tour leader is
always busy so I was late getting back to my room at Vakona Lodge to pack. As I rushed past a flowering Callistemon I heard
the seven bright chips of a green jery, which I last heard here more than a
year ago. The tiny olive bird was poking his sharp beak into the bristly red flowers above
my head. I stopped to watch and had even less time for packing as a result, but I leave Madagascar on
991 birds for the year. Nine more to find in Norfolk before 2012 is out.
Tonight
we reached Tana and in the wee small hours of tomorrow we’ll leave Madagascar,
courtesy of Air France, bound for Paris and the UK.
New at the eleventh
hour today
|
|
Birds
|
|
|
991
|
green
jery
|
Neomixis viridis
|
2012 Totals
Mammals:
129
Birds:
991
Reptiles:
76
Amphibians:
23
Fish:
12
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