Bird news from Nial Moores (Birds Korea) and Marshall Iliff (eBird)
Counts and all species lists are posted / will be posted on eBird.
On 11th, an early start at Junam Reservoir found half-a-dozen Pheasant-tailed Jacana and a good spread of freshwater shorebirds and ducks, with highlight an always distant First Calendar-year female Baer’s Pochard (CR) associating with a group of 2-3 hybrid Baer’s x Ferruginous and one possible Ferruginous Duck.
In the afternoon, among many highlights at the Hwaseong Wetlands (where we met up for an hour with Hwaseong KFEM Director and Birds Korea member Jung Hanchul) were large numbers of Black-faced Spoonbill, great views of foraging Far Eastern (EN) and Eurasian Curlews (NT), and an adult Snow Goose which came in to roost late in the evening, together with 30,000+ Greater White-fronteds and Tundra Bean Geese.
On 12th, the whole day was spent on Yubu Island, walking out with the falling morning tide, and waiting (together with 25-30 other people) for the evening high tide. Obvious highlights included two or three Spoon-billed Sandpiper (CR), probably 3,000 Great Knot (EN) and 180+ Red Knot, 2,200+ Far Eastern Oystercatcher (NT), a single globally Endangered Nordmann’s Greenshank (MI only) and great looks at a beautiful spread of shorebirds, including Mongolian Plovers (soon to be known as Siberian Plover with the split of mongolus / stegmanni from the recently-cointed Tibetan Plover – which is more closely related to and structurally closer to Greater Sand Plover).
On 13th, birds of interest in Gunsan city included at least 4 Red-billed and one “other” starling (either Chestnut-cheeked or Daurian), and in a fairly sprawling park a rather late Black-naped Oriole (NM only), and small numbers of both Chestnut and Tristram’s Buntings. A quick stop en route to Seosan found a group of nine Swan Goose in the Geum Estuary, and at Seosan Lake A best were six Lesser White-fronted Geese seen, with at least one additional bird heard. Like so many other species, the gorgeous but globally Vulnerable species is undergoing an extremely rapid rate of decline including in the east of the range.