Bird News from Dr DongUk Han (ECO Korea), Dr. Hyun-Ah Choi and Dr. Bernhard Seliger (both Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea, Birds Korea lifetime members)
A nice spring-morning survey along the Han River from Goyang to Paju, in particular in Janghyang Wetland, together with the wonderful citizen monitoring team of ECO Korea, led by Dr. Han DongUk, brought the following results:
In Janghyang wetland area:
- 71 White-naped cranes roosting in Janghyang Wetland in the morning. All of them were migrants staying during mid-winter in Izumi, Japan. While many fed along the banks of a flooded rice paddy, a habit they seem to have learned in Izumi, by the mid-morning they all had flown of to rice paddies.
- 2 Ruddy Shelducks
- Around 10.000 Black-tailed gulls
- 2 White-tailed Sea Eagle
Isanpo Tidal area:
- 185 Swan Goose
- 5 White-tailed Sea Eagle
- 2500 Black-tailed gulls
The citizen monitoring is an ongoing endeavor since 2004. By the afternoon, the count team counted on the whole stretch more than 16.500 Common Pochards, 12.500 Black-tailed gulls and 10.000 Vega gulls plus 2500 Mallards.
One issue of concern is the planned construction of a new town on the other side of the road. Eco-Korea proposes as buffer zone between the residential areas and the road. If not, high rises may directly look over the wetlands, with the great danger of reducing further necessary habitat and resting zones…
