Bird news from Dr. Bernhard Seliger (Hanns Seidel Foundation and Birds Korea), Felix Glenk and Isabelle Winter (HSF Korea)
Birding in large groups can be difficult, but in the right locations with the right people, “social” birding can also be great fun, and educative. As part of a trip with discussions with various international environmental organizations to Songdo, Incheon, also a short survey of Namdong reservoir and Gojang wetland (just South of Songdo) was taken. We were joined in the event by the wonderful team of EAAFP, including Doug Watkins, Vivian Fu and Hyeson Do and some of their interns, as well as Andreas Reumann and Solongo Kurelbatar from Gren Climate Fund. There were still hundreds of shorebirds, most of them probably on the verge of migration, in the tidal flats. With the incoming higher tide, great views of Far Eastern Curlews, Grey Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones in full breeding plumaged, Eurasian Oystercatchers and Saunders’s Gulls were possible.
Following is the bird list for both sites (big thanks to Vivian Fu of EAAFP).
Songdo–Namdong Reservoir
2 Northern Shoveler
2 Gadwall
28 Eastern Spot-billed Duck
1 Mallard
2 Little Grebe
2 Rufous Turtle Dove
2 Common Moorhen
3 Eurasian Coot
3 Common Sandpiper
3 Black-tailed Gull
6 gull sp. — Mongolian gull
25 Great Cormorant
4 Grey Heron
2 Great Egret
75 Black-faced Spoonbill
15 Oriental Magpie
6 Oriental Reed Warbler
50 Barn Swallow
6 Brown-eared Bulbul
1 Manchurian Bush Warbler
10 Vinous-throated Parrotbill
4 Eurasian Tree Sparrow
2 Oriental Greenfinch
Number of Taxa: 23
Songdo–Gojan Tidal Flat, Incheon
8 Eastern Spot-billed Duck
1 Mallard
3 Eurasian Oystercatcher
80 Grey Plover
15 Whimbrel
50 Far Eastern Curlew
3 Bar-tailed Godwit
30 Ruddy Turnstone
100 Dunlin
57 Terek Sandpiper
1 Common Greenshank
50 Saunders’s Gull
50 Black-tailed Gull
10 Little Tern
20 Common Tern
2 Great Cormorant
31 Grey Heron
42 Great White Egret
2 Little Egret
12 Black-faced Spoonbill
1 Common Kestrel
Number of Taxa: 21