{"id":14178,"date":"2015-01-31T00:26:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T15:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=14178"},"modified":"2015-01-31T00:26:08","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T15:26:08","slug":"hwapo-cheon-wetland-and-nakdong-estuary-january-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=14178","title":{"rendered":"Hwapo Cheon Wetland and Nakdong Estuary, January 24"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Johan Kok<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I first read about Hwapo Cheon on the Birds Korea blog I have been excited about visiting this wetland.\u00a0 I took some time off on Saturday and headed out to Hwapo Cheon with my wife.\u00a0 What a fantastic experience.\u00a0 The birds were out in force with large numbers of Bean Geese <\/strong>and Greater White<\/strong>–fronted Geese<\/strong> in the rice fields upon our arrival.\u00a0 They were everywhere all day long, flying overhead, feeding in the rice fields and resting on the water.<\/p>\n

\"Hwapocheon\"<\/a>Geese in flight at Hwapo Cheon \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/p>\n

\"Hwapocheon-4\"<\/a>Geese at Hwapo Cheon \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/p>\n

\"Bean<\/a>Taiga Bean Goose<\/strong> Anser fabalis<\/em> \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/center><\/p>\n

We started our walk with sightings of most of the common species like Large<\/strong>–billed<\/strong> Crow<\/strong>, Brown<\/strong>–eared<\/strong> Bulbul<\/strong>, Yellow<\/strong>–throated<\/strong> Bunting<\/strong>, Eurasian<\/strong> Tree<\/strong> Sparrow<\/strong>, Oriental<\/strong> Turtle<\/strong> Dove<\/strong>, Eurasian<\/strong> Magpie<\/strong> and\u00a0Daurian<\/strong> Redstart<\/strong>.\u00a0 A lone Eastern<\/strong> Buzzard<\/strong> kept a watchful eye from near the railway line just as we had our first view of a Cinereous<\/strong> Vulture<\/strong> flying low across the wetland behind the visitor center and landing on an open patch in the reeds.<\/p>\n

A walk along the wetland revealed large numbers of geese and ducks.\u00a0 I scanned through what was mostly Mallard<\/strong> and managed to locate a single male Baikal<\/strong> Teal<\/strong>.\u00a0 I only had brief views and managed to snap a distant photo, but I was very happy none the less.\u00a0 We saw a good number of ducks throughout the day including Mallard<\/strong>, Gadwall<\/strong>, Common<\/strong> Shelduck<\/strong>, Eastern <\/strong>Spot<\/strong>–billed<\/strong> Duck<\/strong>, Northern<\/strong> Pintail<\/strong> and Falcated<\/strong> Duck<\/strong> as well as two Whooper<\/strong> Swan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Hwapocheon-3\"<\/a>Various waterfowl at Hwapo Cheon \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/p>\n

\"Whooper<\/a>Whooper Swan<\/strong> Cygnus cygnus<\/em> \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/center><\/p>\n

The list of birds kept growing and we added Great<\/strong>–spotted<\/strong> Woodpecker<\/strong>, Common Pheasant<\/strong>, Grey<\/strong> Heron<\/strong>, Great<\/strong> Egret<\/strong>, Little<\/strong> Egret<\/strong>, Brambling <\/strong>and White<\/strong> Wagtail<\/strong>.\u00a0 The spectacular sight of circling vultures came as the air heated up and the Cinereous<\/strong> Vultures<\/strong> started to take flight.\u00a0 The numbers in the air kept growing and at one point I counted 27.\u00a0We\u00a0had great views of the geese and vultures as they flew low overhead while we walked near the visitor center.<\/p>\n

We left early in the afternoon with the plan to visit the Nakdong estuary at Eulsok-do.\u00a0 This turned out to be a bit ambitious and we did not manage to get any further than the Eco-center and its immediate area, before time forced us to return to Ulsan.\u00a0 We still managed to spot a variety of birds including Northern<\/strong> Pintail<\/strong>, Northern<\/strong> Shoveler<\/strong>, Eurasian<\/strong> Widgeon<\/strong>, Whooper<\/strong> Swan<\/strong> and distant views of two probable Eurasian<\/strong> Spoonbills<\/strong> resting on one leg with their heads tucked away under their wings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Yellow-throated<\/a>Yellow-throated Bunting<\/strong> Emberiza elegans<\/em> \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/p>\n

\"Daurian<\/a>Daurian Redstart<\/strong> Phoenicurus auroreus<\/em> \u00a9 Johan Kok <\/p>\n

\"Cinerous<\/a>Cinereous Vulture<\/strong> Aegypius monachus<\/em> \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/p>\n

\"Cinerous<\/a>Cinereous Vulture<\/strong> Aegypius monachus<\/em> \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/p>\n

\"Hwapocheon-5\"<\/a>Geese on rice fields near Hwapo Cheon \u00a9 Johan Kok<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Johan Kok Since I first read about Hwapo Cheon on the Birds Korea blog I have been excited about visiting this wetland.\u00a0 I took some time off on Saturday and headed out to Hwapo Cheon with my … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[310],"class_list":["post-14178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-sightings","tag-hwapo-cheon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14178","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=14178"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14196,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14178\/revisions\/14196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}