{"id":15353,"date":"2015-05-05T20:07:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T11:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=15353"},"modified":"2015-10-08T21:12:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T12:12:27","slug":"suncheon-area-april-14-may-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=15353","title":{"rendered":"Suncheon Area, April 14 \u2013 May 5"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"7<\/a>

White’s Thrush<\/strong> Zoothera aurea<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9<\/strong> Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"bluethroat3\"<\/a>

Bluethroat<\/strong> Luscinia svecica\u00a0<\/em>\u00a9<\/strong> Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"1<\/a>

Suncheon Bay at dawn\u00a0\u00a9<\/strong> Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"3<\/a>

Siberian Rubythroat<\/strong> Calliope calliope<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9<\/strong> Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"4<\/a>

Ochre-rumped Bunting<\/strong> Emberiza yessoensis<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9<\/strong> Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"5<\/a>

Long-tailed Tit<\/strong> Aegithalos caudatus<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9<\/strong> Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"6<\/a>

Red-rumped Swallow<\/strong> Cecropis daurica<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9<\/strong> Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

Bird News from Matt Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n

A peaceful bit of coastal reedbeds near the Suncheon Bay park becomes a bit less peaceful every week, with construction creeping in from two sides, and a noticeable increase in noisy bike-tour groups in the short time I have been here.\u00a0 In spite of this, the area has been fairly productive for birds lately, with winter birds clearing out, and migrants and summer visitors moving through.<\/p>\n

Mid-April saw the first Stejneger\u2019s Stonechats<\/strong> (8) and Eastern Cattle Egrets<\/strong> in the area, and a pair of Garganey<\/strong> were spotted on the mudflats.\u00a0 On April 28th<\/sup>, a lone Little Tern<\/strong> was seen successfully dive-bombing for fish, Stonechat numbers were down to three, and at least four noisy Oriental Reed Warblers<\/strong> were heard singing their discordant tune from the reeds.<\/p>\n

In the early morning of April 30th<\/sup>, on a small farm track next to a reedy ditch and a flooded field, I flushed a small dark snipe.\u00a0 It flushed almost silently (I thought I heard a light gasping sound, but it may have been the wings hitting grass) only when I almost stepped on it, and flew relatively straight and slowly, to a spot perhaps 30 feet away.\u00a0 I got a quick binocular look at it, and made out a small dark pointy tail, and lighter braces on the back.\u00a0 I could not re-locate the bird in the short stubble, in spite of being quite close to where it landed.\u00a0 Later in the day I re-sighted the Eurasian Bittern<\/strong>, as it did a lazy circuit around its reedy pond.<\/p>\n

In the vain hope of re-finding the mystery snipe, I returned to the spot before dawn the following day, with predictable results.\u00a0 The day was not a loss by any means, as there were definite signs of movement in the area.\u00a0\u00a0 Small groups of Ashy Minivets<\/strong> were heard overhead several times heading inland, and three Striated Herons<\/strong> were found on a wooded hill.\u00a0 Six Pacific Golden Plovers<\/strong> paced a stubbly field, with a probable Little Whimbrel<\/strong> spotted nearby.\u00a0 A Siberian Rubythroat<\/strong> was briefly encountered on a small trail.<\/p>\n

The highlight came in a small scrubby wetland \u2013 my first and long-awaited Bluethroat<\/strong>, a very special experience.\u00a0 A faintly-coloured male was first spotted singing from atop a small tree.\u00a0 It was convincingly plagiarizing snippets of Brown-eared Bulbul, White Wagtail, and Oriental Reed Warbler songs, among others!\u00a0 After shifting singing perches several times, it was chased off by a brighter-toned male, which took up the chaotic crooning.\u00a0 A third, even more colourful male was soon seen singing from a nearby reed.\u00a0 Within an hour after the first sighting, they seemed to clear out, and were not seen again later in the day, or week.<\/p>\n

On May 4th<\/sup> a dozen Chinese Penduline Tits<\/strong> still lingered in the reeds, and several groups of 10-20 Brown-eared Bulbuls<\/strong> were seen flying around the coast, and they had the feel of \u2018movement\u2019 to them.\u00a0 The highlight of the morning came in the form of an Ochre-rumped Bunting<\/strong> which was quite confiding at first, offering good views of the characteristic peachy wash on the rump and back.<\/p>\n

For the past few weeks Eurasian Curlew<\/strong>, Common Greenshank<\/strong>, \u00a0and Whimbrels<\/strong> have been seen on the flats, in numbers ranging between 40-100, depending on the tides, along with twenty to thirty Godwits<\/strong>, mostly Black-tailed<\/strong> with a few Bar-tailed<\/strong> mixed in earlier in April.\u00a0 On May 4th<\/sup>, three Mongolian Plovers<\/strong>, six Terek Sandpipers<\/strong>, and a dozen Grey Plovers<\/strong> were seen on the mudflats.<\/p>\n

Holiday travel logistics conspired to keep me away from Yellow Sea islands over the long Birdathon weekend, so I planned on heading back to Geomundo, south of Yeosu.\u00a0 The boats were cancelled due to heavy fog, so I went to Dolsan-do, a charming and sleepy island connected to southern Yeosu by bridge.\u00a0 In a town on the southwest side, ten Red-rumped Swallows<\/strong> were very picky where they nested, only using the eaves of one seaside minbak.\u00a0 Next to a mountain road, three tiny juvenile Long-tailed Tits<\/strong> perched motionless on a low twig, with no adult bird in site.\u00a0 Perhaps newly fledged?\u00a0\u00a0Ashy Minivets<\/strong> could be heard flying just over the treetops, and the songs and calls of Pale Thrush<\/strong>, Oriental Cuckoo<\/strong>, Grey-capped Greenfinch<\/strong> and Asian Stubtail<\/strong>\u00a0rang through the mountain forest.\u00a0 A Grey Nightjar<\/strong> called from the same hills after sundown.<\/p>\n

On the hills and mountains around Suncheon, Ashy Minivets<\/strong> were heard flying across valleys on several occasions during April.\u00a0 On April 27th<\/sup> on Jukdobong Hill, several confiding White\u2019s Thrushes<\/strong> gave some great views as they hopped along trails, and a pair of Common Kingfishers<\/strong> appeared to be nesting in a dense thicket of bamboo.\u00a0 Two Asian Stubtails<\/strong> were heard on a nearby mountain.<\/p>\n

On a mountain hike west of town on May 5th<\/sup>, the woods were echoing with the haunting songs of several Oriental<\/strong> and Indian Cuckoos<\/strong>, as well as two Brown-headed Thrush<\/strong> – do they normally sing on migration? \u00a0A Yellow-browed Warbler<\/strong> was also heard, and an Oriental Dollarbird<\/strong> was seen perched next to a road.<\/p>\n

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

Bird News from Matt Poll A peaceful bit of coastal reedbeds near the Suncheon Bay park becomes a bit less peaceful every week, with construction creeping in from two sides, and a noticeable increase in noisy bike-tour groups in the … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":15354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-15353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-sightings","tag-suncheon-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15353","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15353"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15373,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15353\/revisions\/15373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}