{"id":21243,"date":"2018-10-22T12:28:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T03:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=21243"},"modified":"2018-10-22T22:27:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T13:27:27","slug":"two-weeks-in-gangneung-october-7-20-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=21243","title":{"rendered":"Two weeks in Gangneung, October 7-20, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Northern Shrike<\/strong>\u00a0Lanius excubitor<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Northern Shrike<\/strong>\u00a0Lanius excubitor<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Amur Falcon<\/strong> Falco amurensis<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Amur Falcon<\/strong> Falco amurensis<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Red-billed Starling<\/strong> Spodiopsar sericeus<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Red-billed Starling<\/strong> Spodiopsar sericeus<\/em>\u00a0(juvenile begging) \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Red-billed Starling<\/strong> Spodiopsar sericeus<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Stejneger\u2019s Stonechat<\/strong> Saxicola stejnegeri<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Japanese Wagtail<\/strong> Motacilla grandis<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Eurasian Spoonbill<\/strong> Platalea leucorodi<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Daurian Jackdaw<\/strong> Corvus dauuricus<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Dunlin<\/strong> Calidris alpina<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Grey Plover<\/strong> Pluvialis squatarola<\/em> (top) with\u00a0Pacific Golden Plover<\/strong> Pluvialis fulva<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Common Moorhen<\/strong> Gallinula chloropus<\/em> \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Fields near Gyeongpo-ho \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Lotus pond at Gyeongpo-ho \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Lotus pond east of town \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

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Destroyed scrubby wetland habitat \u00a9 Matt Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

It is wonderful to be back birding in a country that has become so familiar to me, albeit in the unfamiliar province of Gangwon-do. After two weeks in Gangneung, I\u2019ve come across plenty of promising habitat, and some interesting birds already \u2013 bring on winter!<\/p>\n

While it has been amazing getting re-acquainted with the birds of Korea, it seems that when it comes to calls and certain IDs, I\u2019ve forgotten twice as much as I ever knew! I must work on my pipit and bunting calls especially\u2026and raptor IDs while I\u2019m at it. Thankfully I have good friends wiser than I that can help me game out and confirm certain IDs (thanks Dr. Moores and Mr. Edelsten). Here\u2019s hoping I can go birding with all of my local birding friends soon.<\/p>\n

On October 7, the opiation of jetlag was a perfect excuse to wake in the pre-dawn murk to beat the bushes of my new patch. The seven-hour walk took me along the Namdaechon, then north along the coast to Gyeongpo Lake, ending in the farm fields west of the lake. It was summery hot, and the Namdaechon was swollen with post-Typhoon Kong-rey rains.
\nThe squawky flock of\u00a0Red-billed Starlings<\/strong>\u00a0(70+ in two locations, with 52 in the main group) was an eyebrow-raiser, especially the begging juvenile birds in tow. The species, considered a vagrant in Korea just two decades ago, seems well-established in Gangneung, with sizeable flocks seen regularly in several parts of town.\u00a0A Eurasian Spoonbill<\/strong> in the fields, several Japanese Wagtails<\/strong>, Arctic<\/strong> and Oriental Reed Warblers<\/strong> along the river were also notable, on a 47 species day.<\/p>\n

A walk along the river on October 9 turned up a lovely Stejneger\u2019s Stonechat<\/strong>, and a mystifying brown duck that turned out to be an eclipse\u00a0Falcated Duck<\/strong>, a configuration I had not encountered before.<\/p>\n

The following Saturday (October 13) featured another walk along the Namdaechon, where I met a kindly Korean birder. We drove to Gyeongpo Lake together, and he told me of quite a few interesting Gangneung bird records.\u00a0It was fairly quiet on the bird front though, with highlights being my Gangneung first Western<\/strong>\u00a0Opsrey<\/strong> and Common<\/strong>\u00a0Coots<\/strong>, and flyover\u00a0Far Eastern Skylarks<\/strong>. Later that afternoon, eleven\u00a0Red-billed Starling<\/strong>s\u00a0were seen near my house, and I saw my first Gagneung\u00a0Long-tailed Tits<\/strong>\u00a0from my bedroom window \u2013 all dark-headed, no\u00a0caudatus<\/em> yet.<\/p>\n

Sunday October 14 was spent wandering through fields east of town, in search of signs of migration, and\/or the birds of winter. Notable birds included a single\u00a0Amur Falcon<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Daurian Jackdaw<\/strong>, and a field jammed with almost 30 snipes\u00a0\u2013 mostly Common<\/strong>, with a few\u00a0Pin-tailed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When my Korean birding buddy said we would be checking out the Namdaecheon on Tuesday (October 16) morning, I had visions of a leisurely survey of the gulls and ducks on the river here in town. I didn\u2019t realize he meant the Namdaechon in Yangyang, which is an hour up the coast. We ended up birding hard for over six hours! On the way north, we hit plenty of great little hidden spots, and while it was a relatively quiet bird morning, my mouth was watering at the list of species he mentioned seeing at each spot. It\u2019s going to be a solid winter!<\/p>\n

On a down note, when we got to a scrubby\/marshy \u201cEurasian Woodcock<\/strong>\u201d spot he had not checked out in a while, we were confronted with a sterile, tread-tracked dirt wasteland, where no doubt apartments, bike paths, or factories will soon stand. He stared at it for a silent, heavy minute, then shook his head and muttered \u201cAll destroyed, all destroyed.\u201d An upsetting, if grimly familiar scene in Korea. Highlights included my Gangneung first Pacific Golden<\/strong> and Grey Plovers<\/strong> (side by side for handy comparison!), Meadow Bunting<\/strong> (looked like the wiegoldi<\/em> subspecies, I think\u2026), Azure-winged Magpies<\/strong> (lovely), and single examples of Rook<\/strong> and Carrion Crow<\/strong>. The mystical purple sheen on that latter species is real, I can vouch for it.<\/p>\n

On Friday, October 19, a lazy exploratory ramble in the hills behind my farmhouse produced the tits and woodpeckers I had hoped I might see there, and plenty of habitat that looks promising for winter birds \u2013 I\u2019m especially going to be keeping an eye on the huge pines.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s (October 20) \u2018big walk\u2019 (River-coast-Gyeongpo Lake-farm fields) did not disappoint! Under fresh cerulean blue skies, there were some welcome wintery arrivals, in spite of summery afternoon temperatures in the low 20s.\u00a0On small bamboo\/brushy islands in the river, Chinese Grosbeaks<\/strong> and roving flocks of Brambling<\/strong> (and even a Eurasian Bullfinch<\/strong> tucked in!) lent a finchy feel to the start of the walk. Personal Gangneung firsts included a Pallas\u2019s Reed Bunting at the river mouth, some shy Rustic Buntings<\/strong> at Gyeongpo, and Northern Shovelers<\/strong> in the fields.\u00a0At Gyeongpo Lake, the lake itself was mostly populated with a large raft of 75+ Common Coots<\/strong>, and still not much in the way of diving duck diversity or numbers.<\/p>\n

As I was headed out of the touristy bit of the lake park, I heard a Bull-headed Shrike giving an animated alarm call. When I looked towards the source of the disturbance, I saw a Bull-headed Shrike<\/strong> making a hasty retreat, and the silhouette of a shrike that was larger and more menacing than a Bull-headed<\/strong>. At extreme distance and with bad lighting, I could make out the grey upperparts of what I first suspected was a Chinese Grey Shrike<\/strong>, but as I got closer, the wings looked \u2018off.\u2019 When I got as close as I could get without jumping fences, I noted the wings lacked the extensive white of a Chinese Grey<\/strong>, and the white rump and vermiculations popped through the binoculars. It changed perches, showing no white trailing edge to the wings. Could it be\u2026a Northern\u00a0Shrike<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

When an elderly couple, out-of-bounds and foraging for herbs, flushed the bird, my heart sank, but then it flew straight for me! It perched nearby for 30 seconds, allowing me to get some better record shots, then flew east, and could not be re-found. But yes, it\u2026could<\/em> be a Northern\u00a0Shrike<\/strong>! The species has been recorded perhaps less than 15 times in South Korea. Take a deeper dive into the issues separating Northern\u00a0Shrike<\/strong> from Steppe\/Saxaul Shrike<\/strong> (Lanius pallidirostris<\/em>) here, with these ID notes from Dr. Nial Moores: http:\/\/www.birdskorea.org\/Birds\/Identification\/ID_Notes\/BK-ID-Grey-Shrike.shtml<\/p>\n

In the fields west of the lake, frustrating flocks of restless pipits and skylarks proved challenging to identify, as they flushed from far out \u2013 the perils of birding rice fields without a car. I was able to discern that many of the pipits (out of more than 35) were Buff-bellied<\/strong>, with at least two Red-throated<\/strong> mixed in. The day ended with an Upland Buzzard<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On my river walks, I keep finding what I suspect is Amur Leopard Cat<\/strong> spoor \u2013 I dearly want to get better looks at this gorgeous and enigmatic species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is wonderful to be back birding in a country that has become so familiar to me, albeit in the unfamiliar province of Gangwon-do. After two weeks in Gangneung, I\u2019ve come across plenty of promising habitat, and some interesting birds … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":21282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[692],"class_list":["post-21243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-sightings","tag-gangneung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21243","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=21243"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21288,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21243\/revisions\/21288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}