Dr. Bernhard Seliger (Hanns Seidel Foundation, Birds Korea)
Cheolwon is certainly one of the biodiversity hotspots of the Korean Peninsula. Here, the number of cranes (mostly White-naped cranes and Red-crowned cranes) continually increased in the last two decades, partly due to feeding and providing an appropriate habitat, partly also due to the loss of habitat in other places. I arrived early at dawn from Seoul, suffering a little bit from a drop of temperatures of almost 10 degrees between Seoul and Cheolwon.
Starting at Baekmakoji, a war memorial – the rice fields of Cheolwon were hotly contested in the Korean War – I managed inadvertently to enter the Civilian Control Zone. In that area, while the big roads have the usual roadblocks and military checks, this is not the case on the smaller agricultural roads. There were even no signs not to enter in the places I have been, but finally, after two hours, some soldiers picked me up – very politely – and chaperoned me back out of the CCZ. The difference in density of cranes inside and outside the CCZ is really staggering – inside, almost every paddy had a family of White-naped cranes or Red-crowned cranes or both one, outside they were far more dispersed. It as especially nice to walk a little bit along Sangnyucheon stream, a little stream with the embankment teaming with small birds, mostly buntings and tits, and where I also could see a Leopard cat and a hunting Hen Harrier plus a Merlin.
Outside the CCZ, the new facility along Hantang to observe cranes (at the steep price of 15.000 KRW per person) is now operational – when I came in the early afternoon, there were already around two hundred White-naped cranes and two dozens of Red-crowned cranes feeding, plus several hundreds of ducks, mostly mallards, but also around sixty Baikal teals. The Dokyo reservoir, now with a new remotely-operated access by the military (again, with very polite soldiers), had still a small open patch with assorted ducks, and a single White-tailed eagle. Finally, following the Hantan-river towards Goseokjeong, some nice views of Whooper Swans in the river.
It was a great start for the New Year with the wonderful environment and birds of Cheolwon.
You can see the full bird list at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S207609591
