{"id":16480,"date":"2015-08-05T11:06:26","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T02:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=16480"},"modified":"2015-10-08T21:11:56","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T12:11:56","slug":"suncheon-june-17-august-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=16480","title":{"rendered":"Suncheon, June 17 – August 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It has been a hot and humid summer in Suncheon, but by no means has it been slow on the bird front.\u00a0 It seemed like three of the four pairs of nesting Chestnut-cheeked Starlings<\/strong> had left the area by June 17th<\/sup>, with only one female spotted attending what sounded like several young.\u00a0 On July 10th<\/sup>, one adult male was seen attending a nest, perhaps with a single juvenile inside.\u00a0 By July 15th<\/sup>, the sole Chestnut-cheeked Starling seen was a juvenile, finally out of the nest, flying to a group of nearby trees and back to the nest repeatedly.\u00a0 Perhaps in the vain hopes of being fed?\u00a0 On July 26th<\/sup>, with Tim Edelsten, we were surprised to see an adult male and a juvenile\/female type, at a site several kilometres away from the main nesting area.\u00a0 Could these have been members of the late-nesting family at the original site, or different birds altogether?<\/p>\n

At Suncheon Bay on July 15th<\/sup>, after a tropical storm passed east of the area, I made out two terns in the morning gloom.\u00a0 A Whiskered Tern<\/strong> moving into non-breeding plumage, and a more sluggish tern with a heavy-looking black bill that looked good for Gull-billed Tern<\/strong>.\u00a0 When I returned the next day for a further look, a single Little Tern<\/strong> and two buoyant Whiskered Terns<\/strong>, all in crisp summer plumage, were spotted over the mudflats.\u00a0 Also of note on that day was a single Black-faced Spoonbill<\/strong>, a\u00a0Yellow Bittern<\/strong>, increasing shorebird numbers, and several Black-headed<\/strong> and Saunders\u2019s Gulls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most surprising July sighting at the bay was a Eurasian Bittern<\/strong> on July 10th<\/sup>, which would appear to be one of the first summer records for this species in the ROK.\u00a0 Is this the same bird that has been sighted here throughout the late winter and spring?\u00a0 Why is it apparently spending the summer at this site?<\/p>\n

Small numbers of Greater Painted Snipe<\/strong> have been seen but mostly heard throughout this period, at three separate sites, on six different dates.\u00a0 At least a dozen Terek Sandpipers<\/strong> on June 17th<\/sup> seemed a notable summer record.\u00a0 A Eurasian Hoopoe<\/strong> was also seen that day at the bay, and again on July 19th<\/sup>.\u00a0 On July 10th<\/sup>, about ten\u00a0Pacific Swifts<\/strong> were spotted, as well as a similar number of Barn Swallows<\/strong>, with three Red-rumped Swallows<\/strong> mixed in.\u00a0 By August 3rd<\/sup>, the Oriental Reed Warblers<\/strong> at the bay had all gone quiet.\u00a0 This silence may perhaps be related to the scruffy and vulnerable juveniles seen clumsily trying out their wings among the reeds.<\/p>\n

\"whiskered\"<\/a>

Whiskered Tern<\/strong> Chlidonias hybrida<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"cc<\/a>

Chestnut-cheeked Starling<\/strong> (juvenile) Agropsar philippensis<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"spoonbill\"<\/a>

Black-faced Spoonbill<\/strong> Platalea minor<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

\"tern5<\/a>

Possible Gull-billed Tern<\/strong> Gelochelidon nilotica<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Matt Poll It has been a hot and humid summer in Suncheon, but by no means has it been slow on the bird front.\u00a0 It seemed like three of the four pairs of nesting Chestnut-cheeked Starlings had … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":16482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-16480","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\/16480","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=16480"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16492,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16480\/revisions\/16492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}