Tag Archives: Cornell

The Spoonies Have Landed! Part 4 (October 6)

Birds Korea and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Geum Estuary & Saemangeum

Under overcast skies with occasional rain showers, the main team visited the Geum Estuary – capturing some excellent footage of a Spoon-billed Sandpiper coming in at high tide: superb. Dr. Moores revisited the northern part of Saemangeum in the afternoon instead. To the backdrop of dumper trucks and other heavy machinery busy dropping rocks into the tidal-flat, a small area of tidal-flat (with a tidal-range of only a few cms) held 1850+ Red-necked Stint and a few hundred other shorebirds,  including 195 Kentish Plover, 35 Dunlin and 10 Common Redshank.  With high tide outside of Saemangeum, 963 Far Eastern Curlew were counted coming in from the Geum, most carrying on to a narrow strip of tidal-flat near the airport (where 150 Black-tailed Godwit were already present). Also present in the same area of Saemangeum were three Black-faced Spoonbill, at least one juvenile Little Stint, and best of all four Spoon-billed Sandpiper (with three of these magical birds watched feeding together)!  What will tomorrow bring?