Further notable observations included:<\/p>\n Swan Goose<\/strong> \uac1c\ub9ac Anser cygnoides<\/em>. Zero at the Geum Estuary again. Recent construction in the hinterland right next to the main preferred area seems to have been too much for the wintering flock.<\/p>\n Snow Goose<\/strong> \ud770\uae30\ub7ec\uae30 Chen caerulescens<\/em>. One adult at Seosan on 15th.<\/p>\n Baikal Teal<\/strong> \uac00\ucc3d\uc624\ub9ac Anas formosa<\/em>. Five or six at Junam on 13th and 19th (including one that might have been a female with half of its facial pattern male-like) ; one on a northern river on February 15; and about 90,000 at the Geum on February 16 (apparently including one bird with a transmitter!).<\/p>\n Green-winged Teal<\/strong> \ubbf8\uad6d\uc1e0\uc624\ub9acAnas carolinensis<\/em>. A First-winter male carolinensis<\/em> at the Geum on 16th<\/sup> showed several features that suggest (limited?) crecca<\/em> influence. Although it was obviously smaller and darker than most of the Eurasian Teal<\/strong> that it was with, and showed a decent foreflank stripe, it also showed a paler spot on both side of the scapulars. Based on images, although \u201cit would not be noticed in California for any reason\u201d, i.e. it would likely be identified as a Green-winged Teal if seen within its expected range, structurally it looks a \u201clittle odd\u201d (Tristan McKee, in lit<\/em>. Feb 20); and Peter Pyle added \u201cI do look a lot for crecca<\/em> among 100’s of GWTE I see each winter and have not seen any in the past few years with a hint of the horizontal scapular stripe as on your bird. I also think that the thin white line separating the green from the red in the auriculars is stronger than I see in carolinensis<\/em> here, especially for a first-winter male, which I agree it is. So I guess I would lean toward hybrid for it rather than a carolinensis <\/em>showing these two crecca-like features. There is a small population breeding in the Aleutian Islands (named “nimia<\/em>” by some) which can show features like this. Other differences in the plumage could be as much due to age as taxon.\u201d (PP in lit<\/em>., Feb 20).<\/p>\n Scaly-sided Merganser<\/strong> \ud638\uc0ac\ube44\uc624\ub9ac Mergus squamatus<\/em>. Twenty or so on the main northern river on 14th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup>; and three on a river in the southwest on 17th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Oriental Stork<\/strong> \ud669\uc0c8 Ciconia boyciana<\/em>. Two at Seosan on 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Cinereous Vulture<\/strong> \ub3c5\uc218\ub9ac Aegypius monachus<\/em>. About 60 were east of Jinju and 250+ were in Goseong (Gyeonsangnam) on 18th<\/sup>. At the latter site, feeding birds were inadvertently flushed by BC as he approached to get better images. The vultures did not return to feed for the next hour or so, prompting much guilt and self-reflection. As BC stated, the birds were unnecessarily stressed and disturbed and opportunities for photography were also reduced, again unnecessarily. Any visitors to feeding stations (or any habitat) please keep the birds\u2019 welfare first \u2013 even vultures and eagles can easily be flushed.<\/p>\n Steller\u2019s Sea Eagle<\/strong> \ucc38\uc218\ub9ac Haliaeetus pelagicus<\/em>. An adult was at Seosan on 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Hooded Crane<\/strong> \ud751\ub450\ub8e8\ubbf8 Grus monacha<\/em>. About 50 were at Seosan on 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Saunders\u2019s Gull<\/strong> \uac80\uc740\uba38\ub9ac\uac08\ub9e4\uae30 Chroicocephalus saundersi<\/em>. A flock of 330 were at the Geum estuary on the 16th<\/sup>. The only individual that stayed separate from the roosting flock on the water was a leg-flagged Bird (DB in black on a white flag\u00a0 on the left tibia) which was also carrying a very obvious transmitter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Relict Gull<\/strong> \uace0\ub300\uac08\ub9e4\uae30 Ichthyaetus relictus<\/em>. A First-winter was at the Geum Estuary on the 16th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Red-billed Starling<\/strong> \ubd89\uc740\ubd80\ub9ac\ucc0c\ub974\ub808\uae30 Spodiopsar sericeus<\/em>. Two were with White-cheeked<\/strong> (70+) and Common Starlings<\/strong> (8+) near Mangyeung on the 17th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n White Wagtail<\/strong> \uac80\uc740\ud131\ud560\ubbf8\uc0c8 Motacilla alba<\/em>. At least three ocularis<\/em> were at Goseong on 18th<\/sup>. There are very few records of this taxon in the winter period. The same small group also included a bird that although leucopsis<\/em>-like is probably better considered as an intergrade with lugens<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (As always, all images by NM digiscoped through a truly superb Swarovski scope…!).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Selected Bird News from Nial Moores with William (Billy) Clarke During a week of unusually mixed weather (including extremely mild weather in Busan with either sun,\u00a0 rain or fog; and fog, snow and subzero conditions on the west coast for … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":17721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-sightings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17723","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17723"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17732,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17723\/revisions\/17732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"vtparrotbill_rs_DSC09800\"](\"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/vtparrotbill_rs_DSC09800.jpg\")
<\/a>Vinous-throated Parrotbill<\/strong> Sinosuthora webbiana<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n<\/a>Japanese White-eye<\/strong> Zosterops japonicus<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Mixed thrush flock with both Naumann’s<\/strong> Turdus naumanni<\/em>\u00a0 and Dusky Thrushes<\/strong> T. eunomus<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n<\/a>Eurasian Hoopoe<\/strong> Upupa epops<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n<\/a>Baikal Teal<\/strong> Anas formosa<\/em>: typical-looking female (above) and part of the Geum River flock (below) \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>First-winter male Green-winged Teal<\/strong> Anas carolinensis<\/em> apparently with Eurasian Teal<\/strong> Anas crecca<\/em> influence, with Eurasian<\/strong> and Baikal Teals<\/strong> \u00a9 Nial Moores.\u00a0 Note: the possibility of disputed subspecies “nimia<\/em>” for now seems unsupported by the observation in Madge and Burn’s “Wildfowl” that nimia<\/em> average larger than nominate and is resident.<\/p>\n<\/a>Scaly-sided Merganser<\/strong> Mergus squamatus <\/em>\u00a9 William Clarke
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>Oriental Stork<\/strong> \ud669\uc0c8 Ciconia boyciana <\/em>\u00a9 William Clarke
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>Cinereous Vulture<\/strong> Aegypius monachus <\/em>\u00a9 Nial Moores
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Saunders\u2019s Gull<\/strong>\u00a0 Chroicocephalus saundersi <\/em>(above \u00a9 Nial Moores; below \u00a9 William Clarke)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>White Wagtail<\/strong> Motacilla alba ocularis <\/em>(above, First-winter \u00a9 <\/em>William Clarke; below, presumed adult male in non-breeding plumage \u00a9 Nial Moores)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Presumed intergrade First-winter leucopsis<\/em> x lugens\u00a0<\/em>\u00a9 Nial Moores (above) and William Clarke (below).\u00a0 While ID of White Wagtails to taxon is always something of a challenge, note the strong trace of an eye-line towards the rear of the ear coverts\/ auriculars which should be absent in leucopsis <\/em>or complete in lugens<\/em>; the rather extensive black on the breast, reaching the breast sides (recalling lugens<\/em>); and the still-dark centres to several of the greater coverts (expected in leucopsis<\/em> but not in lugens<\/em>).<\/p>\n