{"id":17205,"date":"2015-12-02T11:54:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T02:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=17205"},"modified":"2015-12-05T19:30:55","modified_gmt":"2015-12-05T10:30:55","slug":"seosan-november-28-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=17205","title":{"rendered":"Seosan,\u00a0November 28-29"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Matt Poll, Jason Loghry, and Subhojit Chakladar<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Seosan_MP\"<\/a><\/center>
Seosan\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/center>\"bittern<\/a><\/p>\n

Eurasian Bittern<\/strong> Botaurus stellaris<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p>\n

\"LongBilledDowitcher_02_SC<\/a> Long-billed Dowitcher<\/strong>\u00a0Limnodromus scolopaceus\u00a0<\/em>\u00a9 Subhojit Chakladar<\/p>\n

\"Dowitcher3_MP\"<\/a> Long-billed Dowitcher<\/strong> Limnodromus scolopaceu<\/em>s \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p>\n

\"SnowGoose_01_SC<\/a> Snow Goose<\/strong> Chen caerulescens<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Subhojit Chakladar<\/p>\n

\"LesserWhiteFrontedGoose_SC<\/a> Lesser White-fronted Goose<\/strong> Anser erythropus<\/em> (left)\u00a0<\/em>\u00a9 Subhojit Chakladar<\/p>\n

\"kestrel_MP\"<\/a> Common Kestrel<\/strong> Falco tinnunculus<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p>\n

\"whoop<\/a> Tundra Swan<\/strong> Cygnus columbianus<\/em> (left) with\u00a0Whooper Swan<\/strong> Cygnus cygnus\u00a0<\/em>\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p>\n

\"lapland<\/a> Lapland Longspur<\/strong> Calcarius lapponicus<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p>\n

\"Mandarins_SC\"<\/a> Mandarin Duck<\/strong> Aix galericulata<\/em> \u00a9 Subhojit Chakladar<\/p>\n

On November 28-29, three good friends met up for a grueling yet amazing weekend of birding at a huge site still full of birding potential, in spite of signs of trouble everywhere (concrete…construction…).\u00a0 We ended up logging 66 species for the weekend, with several surprises among them.\u00a0 Saturday was dim and overcast, with chilly temperatures hovering around freezing, and snow from earlier in the week still covering most of the landscape.<\/p>\n

On a weekend with many highlights, some bird encounters nevertheless stood out as noteworthy.\u00a0 We soon caught up with one of our target species, as 300-400 Lapland Longspurs<\/strong> shimmered restlessly across the landscape in undulating flocks, before coming to land in the fields.\u00a0 They vanished amidst the stubble and skulked among the furrows like mice upon landing, never giving very close looks.\u00a0 Soon after that encounter, we spotted two Tundra Swans mixed up with at least a hundred Whooper Swans, and we spent a long time comparing the two similar species.<\/p>\n

Several hours later, in a memorable and serendipitous birding moment, we pulled the car over next to a man-made pond to have a brief snack, as the rain started up again.\u00a0 While we were eating, all three of us casually looked to the right at the same time and saw a motionless shorebird on a spit of mud several metres from the car.\u00a0 Looking like a \u2018Grey-tailed Tattler with issues\u2019 at first glance, we stared at the bird in silent confusion for several seconds before starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together.\u00a0 It had to be…but it couldn\u2019t be…it WAS…a Long-billed Dowitcher<\/strong>!\u00a0 A most welcome and unexpected encounter with this less than annual vagrant.<\/p>\n

Other notable target birds we spent time with included a Chinese Grey Shrike<\/strong>, a Lesser White-fronted Goose<\/strong>, and three Eurasian Bitterns<\/strong>.\u00a0 Geese were everywhere this weekend, with at least 5,000 Bean<\/strong> and Greater White-fronted Goose<\/strong> seen in and over the fields at all times.\u00a0 The most abundant raptor was Eastern Buzzard<\/strong>, with at least 19 seen over the weekend – several reddish individuals among them. \u00a0A handful of\u00a0Common Kestrels<\/strong> and Northern Goshawks<\/strong> were seen patrolling the fields, as well as three Hen Harriers<\/strong>.\u00a0 Multiple flocks of 30-60 Grey-capped Greenfinch<\/strong> and Brambling<\/strong> were seen near villages and lightly wooded areas, and lone Dusky<\/strong> and Naumann\u2019s Thrushes<\/strong> in the same tree was an interesting sight.\u00a0 Yellow-throated<\/strong>, Rustic, and Black-faced Buntings<\/strong> were also present in most scrubby areas.<\/p>\n

On the 29th<\/sup>, the skies were still overcast, and the temperatures were warmer (with most of the snow melting) with intermittent rain.\u00a0 The day was also a much quieter one, bird-wise.\u00a0 In the late morning, a Snow Goose<\/strong> was spotted with several hundred Bean<\/strong> and Greater White-fronted Geese<\/strong> near Seosan Birdland.\u00a0 None of the busloads of visitors to this tourist trap took note of the spectacle of wild geese within a stone\u2019s throw of the parking lot.\u00a0 The visitors we saw were more interested in frightening a caged one-winged Cinereous Vulture<\/strong> and quivering Northern Goshawk<\/strong> by dancing (to the music being pumped out of speakers) and shouting in front of the cages, then laughing when the birds got agitated.\u00a0 These birds, along with a captive Eurasian<\/strong>\u00a0Eagle Owl<\/strong> and Peregrine Falcon<\/strong> among others, were a pitiful and depressing sight indeed.\u00a0 For those interested in \u2018birding\u2019, several oversized fibreglass Hooded Cranes had been planted in a field for guests to look at through scopes.\u00a0 An enclosure next to Birdland held a large number of\u00a0Mandarin Ducks<\/strong> in cramped quarters, for some reason.\u00a0 This situation definitely merits further investigation.\u00a0 All in all, this place felt like a poorly thought out and grim attempt to soak up tourist money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Matt Poll, Jason Loghry, and Subhojit Chakladar Seosan\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll Long-billed Dowitcher\u00a0Limnodromus scolopaceus\u00a0\u00a9 Subhojit Chakladar Long-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus scolopaceus \u00a9 Matt Poll Snow Goose Chen caerulescens\u00a0\u00a9 Subhojit Chakladar Lesser White-fronted Goose … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":17208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[184],"class_list":["post-17205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-sightings","tag-seosan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17205","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=17205"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17278,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17205\/revisions\/17278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}