MADAGASCAR - Part I

Not at all the usual way of things as in 2010 we set off for 3 weeks in Madagascar but, for the first time and right against the grain, to join up with a formal group and right against our usual moto:-

 No Mate's No Moans! 

The train now standing at platform 9 - Tananariva the Capital
while arriving at dusk our first Bird was a lone

AFRICAN MARSH OWL
(good start)

Getting to Know the Group (yours truely left centre)
then in no particular order the good stuff begins!

BROAD-BILLED ROLLER

Meeting the First of the Locals

COMMON MYNA

DESERT PLANT LIFE
and our first Lemur

HUBBARD'S SPORTIVE

PIED CROW
along with our first avenue of

BAOBAB TREES

CHABURT'S VANGA

BARE HILLSIDES and PADDIES
on other watercourses

likely the bird that most of the party wanted to see

ALLAN'S GALLINULE

Ploughing the Paddies

COQUEREL'S SIFAKA

Village Hardware Store

INDRI

RED-BILLED TEAL

Bringing in the Sheaves - Bringing in the Golden Sheaves

Was That the Dinner Gong?
We'll Leave it There Until Next Week!

FROZEN (Adapted from the Snow Queen)

 The main thrust of yesterday's outing were c3 small birds that should have been consigned to the Year List before now, but nothing can be guarunteed in this game! For the first 2 the small stand of

OAK TREEs

within and adjacent to the the now frozen

NORTHERN HORSE PADOCKs
with the first, a very vocal

NUTHATCH

consigned to the log before even shutting down main engines, while a short time later at the

Sewerage Works first a female and then a male

FIRECREST
were coaxed out of the brambles, while the third hopeful will have to wait for another day.
Within the seemingly even more frozen

Solar Panel Compound
(earth stood hard as iron water like a stone)

just a single
LAPWING

turning our thoughts back to the Spring youngsters

and the final sighting of

3 or 4

MEADOW PIPITs

Hear Comes the Flood - Peter Gabriel

A Glow in the Sky and another Frost on the Ground it was a
 day with very little to report (no wonder the Blog is Dying on it's Feet) with our first sighting at the new Lorry Park which was pedicted but hoped not to manifest itself we found the

first signs of litter in line with the lane leading to the Eco Works also knee deep in it!

A now compleatly frozen surface to the

Irrigation Pond
and again frozen padlocks at the Solar panel Compound within were found just c2

MISTLE THRUSH

both seemingly still showing signes of juvenile plumage?

as the Floodplain increases within attacting the first ever 'landed'

MUTE SWAN
at the site

along with a similarly 'first' male

TUFTED DUCK
maybe the same now absent individual from the
Gravel Pit????

Ice Cold in Alex - Christopher Landon

 

With the first -3° now behind us all we can be sure of is that there will be more to come before

winters end. The bout of cold was enough to stop the tumblers turning on the padlocks that secure the Solar Panel Gates so somewhat lucky that the resident

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

(centre)

was close enough to 'snap' through the bars. Also within one the irresistable

HERRING GULLs
in close-up and at altitude a

BRITSH AIRWAYS AIRLINER
which we seen very few of even though they were once rumour as joining the fleet at 

Bournemouth International
While we caught

Torville & Dean
on the now totally iced over Irrigation Pond the Gravel Pit still had open water supporting the likes of

COOT (left) TUFTED DUCK (right) and one of c2 LITTLE GREBE (centre)
while on the Moors Flood-plain a couple of further additions to the Year List

a female accompanied by a male

WIGEON
and a lone male

SHOVELER
and a far less gloomy picture

on our return to base.