Poyan, Upper Peirce 8Aug13

From KH

Today, Con, Danny and I set out to find Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo and Blue-winged Pitta at Poyan. Our mission was in jeopardy right from the start due to thundery shower. Fortunately, with Northvale strategically situated within Poyan, we were in safe hands!

Danny and I heard the Blue-winged Pitta, but only briefly and it refused to show. We hypothesized that it must be incubating, but we'll never know until we find the other pieces of this jigsaw puzzle.
After that we heard/saw many "trash" cuckoos (Banded Bay, Asian Drongo, Plaintive and Rusty-breasted) but not our treasured one. If only we could turn back the hands of time to 9 July 2005, Con would be there to point out this bird to us.

Over lunch, Con issue a new mission to us - locate the Black-nest Swiftlet nests on the water tank of Upper Peirce Reservoir. Apparently, I had exchanged comments with Boon Leong on his wikipedia flight shot years ago, but it completely slipped my mind! Danny and I gladly took the mission only to find no trace of any nest... Upon reaching home, a quick check on the internet revealed we were almost 5 years late!

Nevertheless, it was a fruitful trip as we set a new early date for Whiskered Tern, with not one, but six birds! They were quite actively feeding at the reservoir, but always on the opposite end. When we were at the water tank end, they were at the carpark end; and when we reached the carpark, they hung out at the water tank end!

Previous early and late dates respectively: 15 Sep - 15 Feb.

Also of note were half a dozen Blue-rumped Parrots flying by and calling overhead as we were tern-watching.