Uiwang Reservoir, March 24

Bird News by Subhojit Chakladar

I surveyed a part of the Uiwang Reservoir (Southern and Western edges) on foot. Though it was bright and sunny, the wind was quite strong, which made it somewhat difficult to photograph and observe the birds that were towards the middle of the lake.

After a spell of rain towards the end of the week, the rice fields adjoining the reservoir were flooded. Apart from the usual Spot Billed Ducks, there were Eurasian Teals (2), Coots and Gadwalls (~20). There were isolated clusters of waterfowl scattered throughout the lake, almost always in mixed flocks. Close to the island and reed beds in the center of the lake, there were Mallards and around 20 pairs of Northern Shovelers. The Grebes had acquired summer plumage with the Great Crested Grebes (at least 10 pairs in the part of the lake surveyed) engaging in occasional courtship dances. There were 4 Little Grebes on the western part of the lake, also in summer plumage. White Wagtails (leucopsis) were struggling to fly in the strong winds, as were 3 Grey Herons and a single Great Egret.

Towards late afternoon, a group of Bean Geese noisily flew overhead. In the rice fields on the western side, a Common Buzzard was hunting for its dinner. There were Great Eastern Tits, Marsh Tits and Yellow-throated Buntings in the trees.

I also had a distant views of a Starling but looking in the direction of the setting sun, made it difficult to ID it with certainty. I took a number of images. It had a moustache with lighter cheek patches, crest and chin. The flanks and underparts were also considerably lighter than the wings. The mantle and scapulars were not uniformly dark. Because I was at an odd angle to it, I could not see the whole profile of the bird. The legs had a somewhat orange hue but it could be due to the light. Are there any lighter morphs for White-cheeked Starling? Or is it another species? Some images of the bird are shown below.

Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis. Photo © Subhojit Chakladar.

Great Crested Grebes Podiceps cristatus. Photo © Subhojit Chakladar.

Can you identify this starling? Photo © Subhojit Chakladar.

Unidentified Starling? Photo © Subhojit Chakladar.

Unidentified Starling? Photo © Subhojit Chakladar.

2 comments on “Uiwang Reservoir, March 24

  1. Hi Subhojit,

    Well spotted, it’s a Red-billed Starling (Spodiopsar sericeus). My guess is that it’s probably the same one photographed there from January 13th- February 26th 2010. See below:
    http://www.kwbs.or.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=qna&wr_id=2155&sca=&sfl=wr_name%2C1&stx=%B0%FB%C8%A3%B0%E6&sop=and

    There is usually an overwintering flock somewhere along the east coast but it is rare for them to overwinter singly and inland like this. Maybe this individual has become resident at Uiwang?

    Nice work counting the pairs of Grebes- there are not many places in ROK that they actually breed. One question, did you scan the far centre of the lake, near the reedy island? Usually there are some Garganey there at this time.

  2. Hi Tim

    Thanks for the ID. Well, I’m not sure if its resident but there was very strong winds from the west the whole of Saturday. So it could be that this bird strayed away from the flock and drifted inland but that’s just a guess. I saw it quite close to sunset time, so don’t really know if there were other birds. I did a brief scan of the far center with binoculars but no Garganey.
    Yeah, the Grebes are great to watch when they put up a show and with so many pairs around, its almost non-stop.

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