{"id":17167,"date":"2015-11-24T15:37:30","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T06:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=17167"},"modified":"2017-10-29T17:36:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T08:36:39","slug":"goseong-coast-seabird-survey-november-20-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=17167","title":{"rendered":"Goseong Coast Seabird Survey, November 20-22, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird news from Nial Moores<\/p>\n

A return to Goseong County to continue conducting counts of seabirds as part of a joint project with the Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea<\/a> (HSF) to research biodiversity in the inner border region of Korea. On the 20th<\/sup>, with swell and wave heights reaching at worst 2m and at best <1m, weather was (finally) sufficiently \u201ccalm\u201d to take Captain Choi\u2019s boat out from Daejin Harbour, when again joined by Choi Hyun-Ah from HSF who recorded our position at 10-minute intervals (which should allow us eventually to map bird distribution along this especially important part of the coast).<\/p>\n

\"td-rs_boat_\"<\/a>Leaving the harbour… \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

\"td-RS_Nov20_DSC04692\"<\/a>Goseong Coast looking north; with much of Kumgang Mountain and the coastline of the northern part of the county just visible \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

\"td-rs-lookingsouth_nov20\"<\/a>Goseong County, looking south with the Daejin lighthouse in the foreground \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

Using superb Swarovski optiks, I again counted on the 20th from the highly-recommended January Pension in Daejin for two hours in the early morning and for one hour at dusk from the lighthouse. On the 21st<\/sup>, I\u00a0 counted for several hours in the morning, from 15 minutes before sunrise on and off until 13:00, during which time a major movement of birds got underway, with several thousand birds per hour passing south between c. 0815 and at least midday. The most numerous species were Black-legged Kittiwake<\/strong>, Ancient Murrelet<\/strong>, Vega Gull<\/strong>, Rhinoceros Auklet <\/strong>and Red-throated Loon<\/strong>. This movement also included several hundred Common Gull<\/strong>, including one very short-billed bird with a lot of white in the primaries (digiscoped too poorly to identify to taxon or to post here) and several flocks of Eurasian Wigeon<\/strong> and other dabbling ducks.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon of 21st, I then walked and surveyed along the coast from Daejin via<\/em> Hwajin Po, where there were a few dozen Great Cormorant<\/strong>, 20+ alba<\/em> \u201cwestern<\/strong>\u201d Great Egret<\/strong>, 20+ Smew<\/strong> and 200+ Tufted Duck<\/strong>, finishing at Goseong headland.<\/p>\n

\"td-rs-alba\"<\/a>“Western<\/strong>” Great Egret<\/strong> Ardea alba alba<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"td-rs-smew_redhead-9\"<\/a>Smew<\/strong> Mergellus albellus<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

\"td-rs-tufted_DSC04877\"<\/a>Tufted Duck<\/strong> Aythya fuligula<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

\"td-rs-hwajinpo_DSC04883\"<\/a>Hwajin Po \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

On the 22nd<\/sup>, survey was attempted again for two hours in the morning from the January Pension, in pouring rain and poor visibility.<\/p>\n

More detailed reports are being prepared for Hanns Seidel. In addition to low numbers of typical winter specials (e.g. Harlequin Duck<\/strong>, American Scoter<\/strong> and Glaucous Gull<\/strong>), most notable species \/ counts included:<\/p>\n