{"id":11943,"date":"2014-04-03T00:04:47","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T15:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=11943"},"modified":"2014-04-10T00:11:04","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T15:11:04","slug":"geum-estuary-saemangeum-april-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=11943","title":{"rendered":"Geum Estuary & Saemangeum, April 2 – 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Nial Moores and Mike McCarthy<\/strong><\/p>\n

A quick visit to Saemangeum for research by one of the UK\u2019s leading environmental journalists \/ writers Mike McCarthy (e.g.\u00a0Independent<\/i>\u00a0journalist and author of the wonderful book \u201cSay Goodbye to the Cuckoo<\/i>\u201d) was memorable for the company, conversation and also contrast between the natural abundance of the tidal-flats in Seocheon (Geum Estuary) and the decay of Saemangeum with all of its vast dead-scape of grass, concrete and rust.<\/p>\n

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Mike McCarthy at the Geum, 2 April 2014, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Megapark Saemangeum Seawall, 3 April 2014, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Megapark Saemangeum Seawall, 3 April 2014, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Green Saemangeum, 3 April 2014, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Saemangeum, 3 April 2014, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Simpo, Saemangeum, 3 April 2014,\u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mangyeung Estuary, 3 April 2014,\u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/center>At low tide at the Geum barrage, a\u00a0Common Starling<\/b>\u00a0(personally, a species encountered more frequently this spring than in any previous year) was the highlight, along with a scattering of\u00a0Far Eastern Curlew<\/b>. Bird life was much more abundant on the once-again-threatened Seocheon tidal-flats, with a high-tide roost there of\u00a0c<\/i>.13,000 shorebirds containing 2,000\u00a0Great Knot<\/b>\u00a0(globally Vulnerable), 2,500\u00a0Far Eastern Curlew<\/b>\u00a0(globally Vulnerable), 3,000\u00a0Dunlin<\/b>, 500\u00a0Grey Plover<\/b>\u00a0and 5,000(+)\u00a0Bar-tailed Godwits<\/b>. Within the\u00a0Bar-tailed<\/b>\u00a0flock, one\u00a0menzbieri<\/i>\u00a0was detected in among the crowds of spring-plumaged\u00a0baueri<\/i>\u00a0and also one striking leucistic bird: does anyone in New Zealand or Australia know this individual from the boreal winter? Also present there were 20+\u00a0Saunders\u2019s Gull<\/b>\u00a0(globally Vulnerable) and at least four\u00a0Swan Goose<\/b>\u00a0(globally Endangered).<\/p>\n

We found many fewer birds in Saemangeum (where most time was spent along the outer seawall, visiting the various roadside \u201cparks\u201d, and at Simpo, in between the increasingly-canalized Dongjin and Mangyeung rivers). There were a few trucks road-building on former tidal-flats, but there appeared to be less construction activity than in most other parts of the country. Most of the tidal-flats are now covered in reeds and other grasses \u2013 a vast area populated more by\u00a0Far Eastern Cisticola<\/b>\u00a0(dozens heard in song) than any \u201ccity of the future\u201d. The only shorebirds we found were 40-45\u00a0Far Eastern Oystercatcher<\/b>, a dozen roosting\u00a0Far Eastern Curlew<\/b>\u00a0and a small squadron of\u00a0Kentish Plover<\/b>. More numerous were\u00a0Great Cormorants<\/b>\u00a0(200+) and especially\u00a0Greater Scaup<\/b>\u00a0with a single raft of 1,900 (fringed loosely by\u00a0c<\/i>. 15 breeding-plumaged\u00a0Black-necked Grebe<\/b>) out near the seawall. In among the scaup, a few smaller, darker-backed males seen at range, and one smallish-looking female caught wing-flapping \u2013 showing obvious contrast on the upperwing:\u00a0Lesser Scaup<\/i>\u00a0or variation within\u00a0Greater<\/i>? Other birding highlight was a group of three\u00a0Bohemian Waxwing<\/b>\u00a0seen dropping in at Simpo from up-high.<\/p>\n

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Far Eastern Curlew<\/b>\u00a0Numenius madagascariensis<\/i>, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Leucistic\u00a0Bar-tailed Godwit<\/b>\u00a0Limosa lapponica<\/i>, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Interesting Scaup (showing upperwing) in a flock of\u00a0Greater Scaup<\/b>\u00a0Aythya marila<\/i>, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bohemian Waxwing<\/b>\u00a0Bombycilla garrulus<\/i>, \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Nial Moores and Mike McCarthy A quick visit to Saemangeum for research by one of the UK\u2019s leading environmental journalists \/ writers Mike McCarthy (e.g.\u00a0Independent\u00a0journalist and author of the wonderful book \u201cSay Goodbye to the Cuckoo\u201d) was … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[95,73],"class_list":["post-11943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-sightings","tag-geum-estuary","tag-saemangeum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11944,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943\/revisions\/11944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}