{"id":2926,"date":"2012-02-01T11:03:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T02:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2012-02-01T11:38:25","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T02:38:25","slug":"summary-of-a-recent-bird-trip-around-south-korea-part-1-west-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=2926","title":{"rendered":"Summary of a recent bird trip around South Korea – Part 1: West Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird Report by Martin Sutherland and Kim Sona<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

This is a summary of a month-long visit to South Korea between 12th December, 2011 and 10th January, 2012. As usual, we were based at Kim Sonas\u2019s family home in Waegwan, Kyongbuk province.<\/p>\n

The trip involved three excursions around various parts of the country and exploration of the countryside around Waegwan itself.<\/p>\n

This summary is presented in four parts:<\/p>\n

Part 1: West coast
\nPart 2: East coast and north
\nPart 3: Southeast coast, and,
\nPart 4: Waegwan area. <\/p>\n

December 19th to 23rd, 2011: West coast from Gomso Bay up to Namyang Lake.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We started by following the Geum River from Ganggyeong to the tidal barrage at Gunsan. Wildfowl numbers much lower than expected and there was no of any Baikal Teal<\/strong>. Numbers were also low on the estuarine side of the barrage. Highlights were 80+ Saunder\u2019s Gulls<\/strong> flying upriver at dusk and a few Eurasian Oystercatchers<\/strong>. A drake Mandarin Duck<\/strong> was the only one of the trip. <\/p>\n

We soon headed west along the south side of the river and across the Saemangeum Barrage to Gosapo and Gomso Bay. From the barrage we found a concentration of at least 4000 Greater Scaup<\/strong> and, on the seaward side at the southern end, a flock of 180 Eurasian Oystercatchers<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

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Greater Scaup Aythya marila<\/em> female, Saemangeum, 21st December, 2011<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Greater Scaup Aythya marila<\/em> male, Saemangeum, 21st December 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Eurasian Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus<\/em>, Saemangeum, 20th December 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reaching Gomso Bay we had two Black-faced Spoonbills<\/strong> fly over and a flock of 11 Swan Geese<\/strong> off the seawall. The following day, 21st, we worked Gomso Bay again until late morning. Highlights included four Oriental Storks<\/strong> in a tidal creek but there was no sign of the spoonbills. A large flock of 1200+ corvids<\/strong> on fields by a landfill were apparently mostly Rooks<\/strong> with a few crows<\/strong> admixed. No sign of any Jackdaws but a flock of 16 Common Starlings<\/strong> was of interest. Heading north again we found single Upland Buzzard<\/strong> and Black Kite<\/strong> at Gosapo.<\/p>\n

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Oriental Storks Ciconia boyciana<\/em>, Gomso Bay, 21st December 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Common Starlings Sturnus vulgaris<\/em>, Gomso Bay, 21st December, 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

22nd December: Seosan.<\/strong> We spent the whole day here. The highlight was another two Oriental Storks<\/strong> while other birds included three Eurasian Spoonbills<\/strong>, two White-tailed Eagles<\/strong>, a Merlin and two Peregrine Falcons. There were also at least 5000 Bean Geese<\/strong> and smaller numbers of White-fronted Geese<\/strong> but few duck and not a Baikal Teal<\/strong> to be seen.<\/p>\n

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Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus<\/em> (adult), Seosan, 22nd December, 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus<\/em> male, Seosan, 22nd December 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

December 23rd: Namyang and Asan Bays.<\/strong> A depressingly devastated area: we found the area around Namyang Lake the most productive. Another large flock of corvids, this time mostly rooks, held 40+ Daurian Jackdaws <\/strong>while a single Eurasian Bittern<\/strong> dropped into reeds along the lake shore. A large flock of at least 1000 Ruddy Shelduck<\/strong> was also noted. <\/p>\n

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Daurian Jackdaws Coloeus dauuricus<\/em> and Rooks Corvus frugilegus<\/em>, near Namyang Lake, 23rd December 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ruddy Shelducks Tadorna ferruginea <\/em>, Namyang Lake 23rd December 2011.<\/center><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird Report by Martin Sutherland and Kim Sona This is a summary of a month-long visit to South Korea between 12th December, 2011 and 10th January, 2012. As usual, we were based at Kim Sonas\u2019s family home in Waegwan, Kyongbuk … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[181,182,180,183,184],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-sightings","tag-asan-bay","tag-gomso-bay","tag-namyang-bay","tag-namyang-lake","tag-seosan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2968,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions\/2968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}