Dr. Bernhard Seliger with Dr. Choi Hyun-Ah (Hanns-Seidel-Foundation and Birds Korea)
The latest in a series of surveys carried out for Gimpo City brought again a nice mix of species. In particular, the following observations were of interest:
Black-Faced Spoonbills: Seven, including two sitting on nests breeding on Yudo Islet, together with a mix of Great Egrets, Intermediate Egrets and Grey Herons, and immediately adjacent to a large colony of Great Cormorants.
The colony of cormorants was still very active, with around 890 Great cormorants counted on the Island and large groups roaming around for food, with additionally 135 birds counted.
Chinese Pond Herons: Four solitary birds in total in the Siam Wetland site (Eastern part of the survey area) and the Yudo site.
Mandarin Duck: Two drakes on the Siam Wetland site and a couple on the Yudo (Western) site. Probably birds are nesting in the adjacent small mountains.
Shorebirds, which had been regular in March and April, have mostly left the area, besides a group of ten Dunlin and two Common Greenshanks.
In the large and mostly undisturbed rice field areas we counted 203 Great Egrets, 77 Intermediate Egrets, 43 Little Egrets, 129 Eastern Cattle egrets, 65 Grey Herons and one Black-crowned Night heron, with two more breeding on Yudo Islet. Other birds included Common and Black-capped Kingfisher (thanks for Dr. Nial Moores for identifying the latter from recorded calls), Black-naped oriole, Oriental Dollarbird, Korean Bush warblers, Blue-and-white Flycatcher, and Oriental Reed Warblers.
Given the extensive area of rice fields and adjacent villages and houses, there were very few swallows, with only one Barn swallow and a group of ten Red-rumped swallows counted.
