The Ankoririka Circuit, Ankarafantsika

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Tara

I’m going to qualify this post with a caution that I think this is the circuit we did the 2nd morning. It could also have been the Retendrika Circuit as that one seems to be in the same area. I am going from the description of the birds we saw there and the one from the website. If you tell them you want to see the Schlegel’s Asity, they will take you to this place.

Duration : 3h
Distance : 9 km (Don’t panic, you won’t have to walk that far if you are only after the Schlegel’s Asity)!

Guidance :
Ar 25,000 for 1 to 5 persons/day
Ar 37,000 for more than 7 persons / day

Another birding group was also looking for the bird. That was a good thing as their guide found the Asity first and alerted our guide. It’s nice how they work together!

The nest of the Schlegel’s Asity

And there he is, in all his glory! This Schlegel’s Asity was super-cool and he knew it! He posed for the whole group, turning his profile both ways and just showing off!

The group moved off through the bush, the next target would be a White-breasted Mesite.

We did eventually find one in the bush but he scurried off before I could get a decent shot. You can’t win ’em all!

Malagasy Bulbul

Malagasy Coucal

Crested Drongo (Dicrurus forficatus)

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Tara

The crested drongo (Dicrurus forficatus) is a species of bird in the Dicruridae family. The nominated race is endemic to Madagascar, and found throughout the island, and some of the larger inshore islands including Nosy-Bé. The Dicrurus forficatus potior subspecies on only found on the Comoro Islands.

I took these photos in the car park of Ankarafantsika NP.

They have a very large range and can be seen anywhere in Madagascar. They are found easily in Ankarafantsika pretty much everywhere from the car park to the actual trails in the park. It’s nice to have such a cool looking bird easily found!

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CRESTED DRONGO

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Internet Bird Collection

VIDEOS

I can’t find anything embeddable but there are a couple brief clips on IBC.

The Lemurs Of Ankarafantsika

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Tara

Continuing on from yesterday’s post where we met the birds that hang out in Ankarafantsika’s car park, we will now meet the lemurs. Although you will also see them while hiking in the actual park, these photos were all taken in the car park. My husband was a bit surprised by how close they came.

Common Brown Lemurs

Coquerel’s Sifaka – my personal favourite!

In the evening we also saw a few of the shy nocturnal species. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any decent photos as it was dark and they were far away enough so that a flash wouldn’t have helped and would have frightened them off. We saw Dwarf Lemurs, Golden-brown Mouse Lemurs, and Grey Mouse Lemurs.

Scottevest 20% Off Sale & 50% Off International Shipping

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Tara

One of the most frustrating things for people who live outside the USA is the high cost of shipping. Luckily Scottevest has occasional sales where they reduce to price of international shipping. If you have your eye on one of their products, use the promo code to save on the shipping!

Greater Vasa Parrot (Coracopsis vasa)

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Tara

The Greater Vasa Parrot (Coracopsis vasa) is one of two species of vasa parrot, the other being the lesser vasa parrot C. nigra. The greater vasa parrot can be found throughout Madagascar and the Comoros. In Madagascar it is more common in portions of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests, compared with the lesser vasa parrot which is more common in the humid forests of the east coast.

I took these photos in Ankarafantsika NP.

This pair was clearly in a romantic mood!

They can be found in various places around Madagascar except in the interior. Their population is decreasing so if you want to be sure of seeing them, head to Ankarafantsika where there is a good sized flock.

LEARN MORE ABOUT GREATER VASA PARROTS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

VIDEO

I can’t find many videos of them in the wild, at least not that I can embed here so head over to IBC for a brief clip.

And here’s a clip of a breeder describing the characteristics of a Greater Vasa Parrot.

Any Value In Daily Getaways For Eco-Tourists?

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Tara

Longtime miles & points junkies will be familiar with the annual US Daily Getaways Program. In the golden days, it was once possible to leverage cheap Wyndham Rewards points to cheap airline miles and I must admit to taking full advantage in years past. That all came to a halt last year when Wyndham devalued their transfer ratio and the Daily Getaways put up their price.

This year the promo will run 23 March to 24 April and the first 3 weeks have already been posted. Since there is no longer any value in airline transfers unless you just need a couple 1000 as a top up, the best reason to buy these points is to use them for hotels. I know all the miles/points/travel blogs will be covering the best deals in a general sense so I will only address the best deals specifically for eco-tourists who want to use points to stay cheaply some place within a day trip of a good bird watching location.

In all of the examples below, you need to determine if it represents a good value to you. You need to check if the chain hotel is where you really want to be or would you prefer to just pay for a night in a non-chain hotel. For myself, I have decided that I will not pay money to stay in chain hotels but I will stay in them if I get an extremely good deal from a credit card. The only credit cards I deem useful to me are the IHG Rewards & Club Carlson Visa. I have no interest in any other hotel chain credit cards.

Daily Getaways Week 1

WEEK 1

3 major chains have points on offer, – IHG, Club Carlson & Hilton

IHG does have some good properties in places like Accra, Ghana (day trip to Shai Hills, my review coming soon), Tahiti (between hops to Rimatara & the Marquesas), Panama (day trip to Soberania NP) & Puerto Rico (day trip to El Yunque). Historically these points won’t sell out quickly as you can buy IHG Rewards using the book & cancel method.

Club Carlson also has a property in Puerto Rico and Panama suitable as above. I also used the Radisson Blu to good advantage for a day trip to Birds of Eden, Tahiti on a layover and a pre-flight stay in San Jose, Costa Rica. These points will go moderately fast as they are very useful to anyone who has the Club Carlson Visa card and gets a free night for at least one night booked on points.

The Hilton packages don’t seem to be that great of a value and I don’t see them selling out. While we did enjoy our stay in Mauritius last year which cost 80,000 points for 2 nights, there is no way I would have spent $500 to purchase 100,000 points for those 2 nights. We got those points by doing social media games which are no longer running for free. If we hadn’t had the points, we would have used Pointshound to book something cheap and earn miles.

Daily Getaways Week 2

WEEK 2

Nothing here to interest eco-tourists. The Choice points on Friday are excellent value when used in Europe but that’s out of scope for this blog. Here is a good example of a blogger who is making excellent use of this promo for his trip to Europe. Last year, we used 10,000 Choice Rewards to stay in Venice at a hotel that would have cost over $300! They are the only thing I see going fast so if you want some you will have to be ready to go right at 1:00 pm ET. (US time zone as in New York if you need a converter).

Daily Getaways Week 3

WEEK 3

Once again, nothing of interest to eco-tourists. The Hyatt packages will go extremely fast because people who want to stay in luxury hotels will snap them up but Hyatt doesn’t have any properties in places that also have good birding.

WHAT AM I DOING?

Sitting out this year! Since I am a good advance planner, I have already determined that I have enough hotel points for our needs for the next 3 years. Most of our stays will be at independent properties, I just like them much better and I like having more choice. Nothing worse than being stuck in a bad location because that’s where your points hotel is!

AA & US Mileage Accounts Will Be Merged In April

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Tara

Here’s the latest as per the email sent by US Airways about the merger. In addition to the below, I would like to point out that if you have an award trip planned that is within the 330 day booking window that is more advantageous to book with US miles than AA miles, you have about 3-4 weeks to do it.

Trips that require crossing a 3rd zone. Example LAX – HKG – SYD – HKG – LAX. AA will charge you for 2 awards, LAX – HKG & HKG – SYD.
Trips that require using a stopover. Example LAX – SYD – BNE – HKG – LAX with BNE or SYD being the stopover. While AA will allow open jaws and one ways, you would pay extra to add BNE in addition to SYD as a stopover.

Moving to the AAdvantage program

Once we combine programs, we’ll begin transferring your Dividend Miles mileage balance, Preferred-qualifying activity and million mile balance into your AAdvantage account on a one-to-one ratio. We’ll determine your elite status level by looking at your combined elite-qualifying activity for 2014, and separately, your combined 2015 year-to-date elite-qualifying activity. It may take a few days to transfer everything, but we’ll email you once it’s completed.

As a member of the most rewarding airline loyalty program, you’ll continue earning miles when you fly on American, US Airways, oneworld^® and other participating airlines, as well as with over 1,000 partners. And, you’ll still be able to redeem miles for flights, upgrades on American and US Airways, car rentals, hotel stays and more.
Benefits of the AAdvantage program »

Booking award travel

Dividend Miles award bookings and mileage upgrade requests will be disabled a few days before we combine programs to allow us to integrate your accounts. If you plan to redeem Dividend Miles for an upcoming trip, we encourage you to book now. Once our programs are combined, Dividend Miles will be converted into AAdvantage miles, and you’ll be able to redeem AAdvantage miles with American.

Upgrading your experience

Once we combine programs, your elite benefits will initially work differently for American and US Airways flights, as we’ll still operate as two separate airlines. We’ll adopt the American upgrade process for all flights when we have a single reservation system later this year.
How upgrades will work »

To upgrade, you should book flights that are marketed and operated by the same airline – either American or US Airways. If you’re booked on a codeshare flight, you’ll only be able to upgrade when you check in based on availability.
What is a codeshare? »

Soon after we combine programs, qualifying Dividend Miles Preferred members will receive 500-mile upgrades to use on American flights.
How to calculate 500 mile-upgrades »

Benefiting with your card

** I happen to be a cardmember. If you aren’t, now is a good time to apply as Barclays will not be allowed to issue new cards once the programs are merged.

As a US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard^® cardmember, you’ll begin enjoying your first eligible checked bag free and Group 1 boarding on domestic American flights once we combine programs. This is in addition to the current benefits you’re already receiving on US Airways.

The World’s Most Interesting Car Park – Ankarafantsika NP, Madagascar

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Tara

How many people come to an eco-tourism blog and expect to have a car park recommended as a birding hotspot? Now what if I told you that you could see not only several endemic species of birds but several species of lemur? Yes please, drive on in to the Ankarafantsika NP’s car park!

Let’s start with the birds. These photos were taken over two days, some in the morning, some around lunch time and some in the evening, just whenever we weren’t in the actual park.

White-headed Vanga

Sickle-billed Vanga

Broad-billed Rollers

Crested Drongo

Sickle-billed Vanga

Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher

Magpie-robin

Malagasy Coucal

Madagascar Turtle-dove

Grey-headed Lovebirds

A Madagascar Hoopoe checks out his appearance, maybe he has a hot date?

Satisfied he is looking his best, he’s off and running.

Broad-billed Rollers

Meanwhile, has the Hoopoe been stood up?

A Crested Drongo looks on

A Magpie-robin on a post

The Grey-headed Lovebirds are there throughout the day.

Helmeted Guineafowl

Across the street, an amorous and shameless pair of Vasa Parrots.

Another Crested Drongo

Finally the Hoopoe’s date shows up – fashionably late!

The Sickle-billed Vanga can’t help but be a sticky beak!

And the Hoopoe is alone again, but at least he looks great!

In tomorrow’s post, we meet the lemurs!

Lodge Review: Blue Vanga Lodge, Andranofasika – Ampijoroa Madagascar

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Tara

Blue Vanga Lodge is run by a friendly family in the village of Ampijoroa, about 5 km from Ankarafantsika NP. They accept online bookings which will be replied to by their Majunga office. You must pay cash Ariary or Euros, no credit cards accepted either online or in person.

We arrived with barely enough light to see the track from the main road which was well-signposted. It is a small lodge with 6 brick bungalows for tourists and a bunk room for drivers. There is no parkland nearby and the only birds we saw here were chickens belonging to local farmers. If you want to see Blue Vangas, you need to go to the park. We saw a couple other tourists who also had a private car/driver so I am not sure how people using public transport would get to the park. I did see some mini-buses (taxi-brousse) parked in the village you you could get one headed towards Majunga and just hop out at the park. To get back to the lodge, you could try for a mini-bus with empty seats or walk. A tasty breakfast is provided and they will have cold drinks if you ask after the generator has been running a couple hours. They can also do other meals. For lunch and dinner your choices are basically eat at the lodge, buy food at the market in the village or have lunch at the park.

Beds have mosquito nets and there is a fan but electricity only runs from around 6-10pm.

Nice large bathroom

There’s our jeep parked at the entrance.

Although there weren’t many mosquitoes, there were lots of moths that would get in and even get through the net. They are attracted to laptop or tablet screens, especially after the generator is switched off. The bungalows can get very hot once the fan turns off and I was dying to open a window, but then more moths came in. The next morning, the staff fixed fly screens on the windows (which just happened to be laying around) and the problem was solved! We had cross-ventilation and no moths!

The village is very small. You can see a mini-bus on the right of the red truck.

Basic food supplies – drinks, fruit, veggies and canned food can be bought at the market. We had to do this the 2nd night as I was running out of cash and no place to get any more and I needed to save enough for the petrol back to Tana. We survived!

Ankarafantsika – Boat Circuit

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Tara

After doing a 3 hour hike on the Coquereli Circuit in the morning, we decided to do a more relaxing tour of Lac Ravelobe in Ankarafantsika in the afternoon.

As you can see, the Circuit Bateau on Lac Ravelobe is 20,000 Ariary per person with a 2 person minimum. As it happened, my husband and I were the only ones on the boat besides the boat driver and the guide.

It’s a beautiful, relaxing trip during which we saw lots of water birds – herons, egrets and even a fish eagle! The trip lasts only an hour which was a bit disappointing, I would have preferred to stay out a couple hours. I was hoping for Kingfishers but struck out.