Poyan, NTU, Old CCK Road, CCK Park 05Aug06

Today's destination - Poyan. We accessed it from the Muslim cemetery. Robert and Con's cars arrived first. There were some common ioras, a yellow-bellied prinia and some paddyfield pipits around. Soon after, Danny and Kong's cars reached. As we were walking towards Poyan area, we had a brief encounter with a spotted dove poacher, who claimed to be 'training' the birds... Peck Chan took down the car number and we had a brief stand off with him. We left him behind wondering if he would do anything to the cars.

We took one of the tracks and saw more common ioras, sunbirds, starlings, pigeons. A drongo was making a lot of noise. A black-winged kite glided overhead. Then, more noises, this time rose-ringed parakeets. They were excavating a nest hole in a tree stump. Danny set his scope up and got the only bird photo we took today. We entered the side trail right below where the parakeets were and ended up at a dead end. However, we saw a plaintive cuckoo in its distinctive orange-bellied, grey-headed plumage. Danny heard the bird and I was able to track it down. He also heard a rusty-breasted cuckoo calling. Danny has become the official cuckoo expert in our team :). Also present were a pied fantail, an ashy tailorbird and some red-breasted parakeets. We returned to the main track and carried on. We have dollarbirds, swallows, bee-eaters, munias, weavers, koel. The reservoir is still nowhere to be seen, so we walk further. We came to a little stream. No birds here but there was a monitor lizard swimming in it. However, at this point, we had to backtrack as we could hear 'bangs' in a distance.

Female Rose-ringed Parakeet ©Danny Lau

There was also a huge bee nest which looked like a big sheet of paper. And so we searched for an alternative route. A raptor was flying high up in the sky. It looked like one of those battered war veteran at the raptor watch. After bashing a short distance through the thicket, we hit a well-worn trail, which took us a little uphill. Bingo!

The reservoir was right down the other side of the hill. As we were descending the hill, a bee-eater and a little bronze cuckoo flew in and perched on a bare tree. Just a little further down the hill, we encountered another obstacle in our journey to the reservoir. And so, we u-turned and took another trail as suggested by Con. This trail was easier but it also led to a dead end. However, Robert did show us how he overcame Mt Kinabalu (see photos below). Don't be fooled by Con, he never crossed it. Haha. Undaunted, Robert and Danny decided to tackle the little downhill again. The rest of us stayed behind awaiting the green light from our adventurers. Meanwhile, a brahminy kite flew overhead. Robert and Danny came back with bad news, no through road. So we took a loop back to our starting point.

Our mission failed... But there was always the 30c good old coffee at NTU to cheer us up. So the 6 of us went to NTU canteen 1 for an early lunch. After lunch, Robert got to go. The 5 of us checked out the area as someone reported their birding activities at NTU recently. We took one of the trails and found a male flameback and a female laced woodpecker hanging around the same place. Made us wonder what they were doing together. Noisy laughing thrushes were present. Again we heard the guns of the range and had to turn back. We missed the opportunity to photograph Con in his camouflaged hat. On the way back, Con and Kong saw a little piglet running into the bushes! What was a little piglet doing here, alone??

After bidding Con, Kong and PC farewell, Danny and I continued birding at Poyan. We could not bottom our failure today and hoped to search for another entry to the reservoir. Danny showed me a site that he saw a large-tailed nightjar before, but we could not spot the bird today. The area was interesting because of the bridge there, otherwise the birds were the same. However, we did confirm that there was a changeable hawk eagle around, the call was unmistakable. It was calling and gliding high in the sky. The Oriental magpie robin was also present. Near the Muslim cemetery, I spotted what I thought to be an ashy minivet, but it was too early for this migrant. It comes from Oct to Mar. It was most likely a pied triller. Coincidentally, we were talking about when the migratory season will begin early in the morning. After venturing a little into the forest, we found ourselves in the same situation as before, dead end.

Oh well, we admitted defeat, but our spirits were still strong. After Danny got his car fully-pumped and stocked with Polar curry puffs, we headed to our next stop - Old Choa Chua Kang Rd. The patch of forest opposite Tengah air base was a nice shady walk in a hot afternoon. Many birds were still active. Ioras, sunbirds and pied trillers were plentiful. There was also a family of 4 laced woodpeckers (2 males, 2 females). Also interesting were magpie robins, scaly-breasted munias, waterhens, yellow-vented bulbuls hanging out in a drain. The munias were bathing in the water. A paddyfield pipit was also bathing, but in the sand. A coppersmith barbet showed off its colourful plumage in close range. A magpie robin fooled us for a while with its two-note whistle, until finally it burst into its typical melodious song.

We ended today's birding session at CCK Park, where Con and Marisol were back stalking the slaty-breasted rails. Unfortunately, the birds have broken their routine and were nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, there were the white-bellied sea eagles, collared kingfishers and more ioras to keep us occupied.

Poyan
01. Dollarbird
02. White-throated kingfisher
03. Blue-throated bee-eater
04. Plaintive cuckoo (seen & heard)
05. Rusty-breasted cuckoo (heard)
06. Little bronze cuckoo
07. Violet cuckoo (heard)
08. Asian koel
09. Greater coucal (heard)
10. Lesser coucal
11. Rose-ringed parakeet (digging nest hole)
12. Red-breasted parakeet
13. Swiftlet spp.
14. House swift
15. Spotted dove
16. Zebra dove
17. Pink-necked green pigeon
18. White-breasted waterhen
19. Black-winged kite
20. Brahminy kite
21. White-bellied sea eagle
22. Changeable hawk eagle
23. House crow
24. Black-naped oriole
25. Pied triller
26. Pied fantail
27. Greater racquet-tailed drongo
28. Common iora
29. Asian glossy starling
30. Common myna
31. Javan myna
32. Pacific swallow
33. Straw-headed bulbul (heard)
34. Yellow-vented bulbul
35. Yellow-bellied prinia
36. Common tailorbird (heard)
37. Dark-necked tailorbird
38. Ashy tailorbird
39. Olive-backed sunbird
40. Paddyfield pipit
41. Baya weaver
42. Javan Munia
43. Scaly-breasted munia

NTU
44. Common flameback
45. Laced woodpecker
46. Rock pigeon
47. Cattle egret (from the birdpark, shedding its breeding plumage)
48. Golden-bellied gerygone (heard)
49. White-crested laughing thrush
50. Scarlet-backed flowerpecker
51. Plain-throated sunbird
52. Eurasian tree sparrow

Poyan
53. Oriental magpie robin

Old CCK Road
54. Sunda woodpecker
55. Coppersmith barbet
56. Collared kingfisher
57. Rufous-tailed tailorbird

Juvenile White-bellied Sea-eagles at CCK Park ©Con Foley