Birds Koreans already likely know that we are working on an SER-Microsoft supported collaborative restoration project, which is being developed through our MOU with the Busan Nakdong River Project Management Office.
Among the many component parts of this project is the need to improve understanding of the Eastern Taiga Bean Geese which winter here – and along the lower Nakdong River.
On December 9th, I therefore spent from just before sunrise to mid-afternoon in Maekdo (now largely closed to the public in order to reduce the risk of spread of Highly pathogenic Avian Influenza) and across the river in Samnak Eco-park – more than half of which has been changed to heavily managed parkland, with a dog park, and several crowded Park Golf-courses.
During the day, Ramsar-defined internationally important counts were made of both Eastern Taiga Bean Goose (>350, >4% of the Korean Non-Br Population) and Whooper Swan (1,131 or about 2% of the East Asia Pop) at Maekdo; and of Eastern Taiga Bean (1,300, or 16% of the Korean Non-br population) in the wetlands at the southern end of Samnak Eco-park.
Other observations of note in Maekdo included several nationally common but globally threatened Korean Water Deer; 1-2 White-tailed Eagle; a single globally Vulnerable Greater Spotted Eagle; a single globally Near Threatened Ferruginous Duck and two hybrids – one thought to be from a Ferruginous x Baer’s pairing and the other from a pairing of Ferruginous x Common Pochard; two Dusky Warbler (rare in the southeast at any time of the year, and very uncommon in winter in the ROK); and of greatest surprise, 4-5 Barn Swallow together with a single Sand Martin – my first mid-winter observation of this species in the ROK.
The southern end of Samnak also held a single Ferruginous Duck, and even less expected a single Chinese Pond Heron – again a rare species in the southeast at any time of the year.
