Bird News form Barry Heinrich
I got my new toy today, an 80-400mm lens, and seeing as the rain had stopped, I took the opportunity to walk down to the coast along Nam Cheon to try it out.
The first birds I saw were two Japanese Wagtails. They nest under the highway bridge on the south side of Ganseong. I took a few photos of them with my new toy. There were Oriental Reed Warblers everywhere in the long grass along the creek and a few Siberian Stonechats, but none of them would sit where I could get photos of them. A couple of Striated Herons were around too, but I couldn’t get close to these sharp-eyed birds either.
Then I saw a shrike with a pale grey head and body with just a small patch of rufous on the flanks, a black line through the eye and a black shoulder. I wasn’t sure what it was and tried to get closer but shrikes are sharp-eyed birds too and it wouldn’t let me approach. Luckily, it flew to a bare stick where I was able to get some photos using my scope and camera adaptor. It turned out to be a a male Bull-headed Shrike.
Continuing towards the coast I get close to a couple of Eurasian Tree Sparrow and got some photos of one with my new toy. There was a Mandarin Drake and some Eastern Spot-billed Ducks along the creek as well, including one female with 9 ducklings.
Just inside the mouth of the creek on the sand bank I found two Swinhoe’s Egrets. Hiding behind the pine trees so the soldiers couldn’t see me I got some photos of them using my scope. There were 3 Little Ringed Plovers in the same area.
I had a quick look out to see through the security fence and saw some Black-tailed Gulls, 2 Black-headed Gulls and a Great Crested Grebe.
Heading back up the creek I saw a Eurasian Hobby on top of one of the poles beside the road. I walked past it to get the Sun behind me and had just enough time to take a few photos of it before it flew away. It was quite a nice evening walk.
Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo
Japanese Wagtail Motacilla grandis