{"id":21230,"date":"2018-10-20T16:20:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-20T07:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=21230"},"modified":"2018-10-23T23:40:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T14:40:53","slug":"baekryeong-island-october-8-9-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=21230","title":{"rendered":"Baekryeong Island, October 8 \/ 9-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Nial Moores, with Kim Su-Kyung on 15th and 16th<\/p>\n

From inside the afternoon ferry from Incheon to Baekryeong Island on 8th, best were a loon sp., 78 Streaked Shearwater<\/strong>, one dark shearwater sp., two Black-legged Kittiwake<\/strong>, 30 Taimyr Gull<\/strong>, seven Pomarine Jaeger<\/strong>, a probable (very distant) South Polar Skua<\/strong> and at least 33 Finless Porpoise<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On Baekryeong itself, I logged approximately 125 bird species during one full day of uninterrupted field work and seven half days\u00a0 (with much potential field time yielded to additional work commitments and meetings, including – happily – much of a day assisting Dr Kim Su-Kyung as she conducted a rapid assessment of the ecological health of several drainage ditches). Weather was clear and bright on most days with northerly or northwesterly winds on several days, especially strong following a tremendous thunderstorm and a rapid fall in temperature overnight on 9th-10th.<\/p>\n

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\"\"The view at dawn looking from Jincheon on Baekryeong toward the Hwanghaenam coast of the DPRK \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

Highlights included an approachable Pied Harrier<\/strong> (on 9th<\/sup> and 11th<\/sup>), several groups of Chestnut-flanked White-eye<\/strong> (with the highest day count 35+ on 9th<\/sup>),\u00a0 two Yellow-breasted Bunting<\/strong> (on 9th<\/sup>) and 1 or 2 Pine Bunting<\/strong> (on 9th<\/sup>, 14th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup>); 40 Amur Falcon<\/strong> (on 10th<\/sup>); a juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle<\/strong> (on 11th<\/sup>) and what now appears most plausibly to have been a Crested Serpent Eagle<\/strong> (on 14th<\/sup>); \u00a0single Watercock <\/strong>(on 12th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup>); a Japanese Leaf Warbler<\/strong> heard (on 12th<\/sup>); Little Owl<\/strong> (heard on 13th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup>);\u00a0 presumed Siberian Chiffchaff<\/strong> (heard only on 13th<\/sup>); two Lesser White-fronted Goose<\/strong> (on 15th<\/sup>); 650+ Eastern Great Tit <\/strong>(on 15th<\/sup>) potentially indicating the start of a major irruption); and a presumed dark morph Booted Eagle<\/strong> (on 17th<\/sup>).<\/p>\n

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\"\"Pied Harrier<\/strong> Circus melanoleucos <\/em>\u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

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Crested Serpent Eagle<\/strong>\u00a0Spilornis cheela<\/em> \u00a9 Nial Moores.\u00a0 Following the posting of the top two images on my facebook page with a request for help with the ID, leading experts Phil Round and Yoav Perlman both independently suggested Crested Serpent Eagle<\/strong>, based on the ” extensively pale gape and whacking broad wingbar in the base of the flight feathers” and the bird’s shape (PR: Oct 20th); and “Two-toned remiges and huge white tail base<\/span><\/span><\/span>” (YP: Oct 20th). Checking through the additional un-posted images, one (the bottom image) shows that the broad white stripe continues on and along the base of the primaries – a very strong feature of Crested Serpent Eagle <\/strong>and one that rules out any other raptor likely to occur in East Asia.\u00a0 I am the first to admit that I (foolishly!) did not even consider this species – although there were several features that should have strongly pointed me in that direction, namely: the bulging secondaries, the broad hand,\u00a0 and the mid-length tail; the strikingly extensive amount of yellow on and around the bill; the apparently almost-all dark plumage (somewhat blacker on the head, along the secondaries, the tip of the primaries and in the tail-bar, and browner-toned on the underbody); and the pattern of white on the underwing – including across the secondaries, and also across the bases of the outer primaries; with an additional fainter line \/ markings close to or on the bases of the primaries – and even on the tail (in the field I noted that there was a pale band on the tial, perhaps pale grey, but I did not think this was at all obvious in the images…). According to Park Jong-Gil’s Identification Guide to the Birds of Korea<\/em>, there are about five previous records in Korea, including one specimen, and one sight-record from Socheong (if memory serves correctly, seen by now-Dr Kim Sung-Hyun in October in about 2001 on a day of very strong northerly winds).<\/p>\n

As in most early-mid Octobers on Baekryeong, diversity was good and many areas felt very “birdy”. At the same time,\u00a0 most species were challenging to see well (if at all!) because of the still extensive habitat, often strong winds and ever-presence of raptors.\u00a0 Largely as a result, I succeeded in logging only quite small numbers of most tropical migrants , e.g. only singles of three species of former \u201clocustella\u201d warbler, maximum day counts of 2-3 each of Asian Brown<\/strong>, Mugimaki<\/strong> and Taiga Flycatchers<\/strong>, a high count of only 20 Stejneger’s Stonechat<\/strong> and only 2-3 Pallas\u2019s Leaf Warbler<\/strong> and two Radde\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0 (latter two species as usual in Dumujin) . Even the peak counts of the more typically abundant and visible migrants were fairly low compared to some very big days logged in other years: e.g. maxima of 126 Yellow-browed Warbler<\/strong> (on the 12th<\/sup>), 330 Olive-backed Pipit<\/strong> (on the 11th<\/sup>), 580+ Brambling<\/strong> (on the 16th<\/sup>) and 120+ Black-faced Bunting<\/strong> (on the 12th<\/sup>).<\/p>\n

\"\"Stejneger’s Stonechat<\/strong> Saxicola stejnegeri \u00a9 <\/em>Nial Moores<\/p>\n

\"\"Asian Brown Flycatcher<\/strong> Muscicapa dauurica \u00a9 <\/em>Nial Moores<\/p>\n

\"\"Olive-backed Pipit<\/strong> Anthus hodgsoni\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a9 Nial Moores<\/p>\n

Selected records follow:<\/p>\n