Daily Archives: 22/09/2020

Bird News from Nial Moores with Park Hae-Jeong (Hwaseong KFEM), together on various dates with e.g. KFEM’s Kim Choony, staff from the EAAFP Secretariat, Hwaseong KFEM staff and volunteers, and even a documentary team…

Another seven or so part-days spent at the Hwaseong Wetlands Flyway Network Site as part of the EAAFP-Hwaseong City Wetlands Project, with birding highlights including single Eastern Marsh Harrier, Pied Harrier, Black Kite, Gull-billed Tern and Whiskered Tern, one or two Little Stint and apparently five juvenile Nordmann’s Greenshank, along with a sprinkling of autumn land-birds including three species of pipit and four species of Pyllosc all obviously on the move.

With a mix of meetings and fieldwork, in addition to the daily encounters with several of the more expected but still globally threatened Yellow Sea specials (e.g. Far Eastern Curlew, Great Knot, Saunders’s Gulls, Black-faced Spoonbills and Chinese Egrets), selected species of note included:

Tundra Bean Goose Anser serrirostris. Personal first of the autumn on 18^th, increasing to two by 20^th.

Temminck’s Stint Calidris temminckii. One on 20^th.

Red-necked Stint Calidris ruficollis. Highest count was 1,910 (all juveniles!) on 19^th.

Dunlin Calidris alpina. Highest count was 6,875 on 20^th.

Little Stint Calidris minuta. One or two on 9th; one presumed on 19th and one on 20th.

Nordmann’s Greenshank Tringa guttifer. One or two seen (more or less) daily, with a peak of five on 20^th , all of which were juveniles (including two which were wonderfully approachable, especially for such a typically wary species).

Gull-billed Tern Gelochelidon nilotica. One reported by Lee Ki-Sup on 18^th. Presumably the same bird, a First-winter, was still present on 19^th and 20^th.

Whiskered Tern. One on 8^th and one (still in full breeding-plumage) was seen over rice-fields on the 20^th.

Black-faced Spoonbill Platalea minor. A high count of 254 on 8^th, when one rather striking looking individual, with a red eye-crescent above and an orange crescent below the eye (slightly more prominent on one side of the head than the other), and rather more extensive black below the bill than seems typical for this species, was present in “Pond 13”. On 18th, 479 were also counted in the Asan Bay Reclamation Area.

Eurasian Bittern. Very oddly, one was heard booming from suitable habitat for 1-2 minutes in 17^th. This is the first record here during this project (which started in late June); the species very seldom booms in the ROK, as there are no breeding records; and I have never heard of this species booming in autumn or on migration.

Pied Harrier Circus melanoleucos. One over the road just outside of the FNS on 18^th.

Eastern Marsh Harrier Circus spilonotus. One on 8^th, superbly photographed by “새덕후”.

Black Kite Milvus migrans. A juvenile was seen (and poorly photographed) on 20^th.