{"id":30159,"date":"2025-02-14T15:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T06:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=30159"},"modified":"2025-02-14T15:16:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T06:16:44","slug":"geese-and-raptors-and-still-a-red-tailed-shrike-at-han-river-estuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=30159","title":{"rendered":"Geese and raptors (and still a Red-tailed Shrike) at Han River Estuary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr. Bernhard Seliger (Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea, Birds Korea)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another survey along the Han River, however \u2013 due to the absence of a Korean colleague \u2013 no chance to enter the CCZ (Civilian Control Zone \u2013 obviously, being a foreigner one cannot enter that zone alone, though this is no problem when entering places like the unification observatories). The morning started slow with a non-starting engine of my car (overnight the battery passed out), making me start an hour and a half later than planned. Anyway, much of the Han River was full of drifting ice (which almost disappeared until the evening), and many birds could be seen in the few open water areas, often pretty degraded streams, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Siam-Ri rice field area, when I arrived around 9 a.m., there were around 2500 geese (mostly Tundra Bean Geese, plus Greater White-Fronted Geese). A small number of Taiga Bean Geese were there, too, and a kind young Korean birder directed me kindly to the place where a single Cackling Goose, here a vagrant, could be found. It was the Branta hutchinsii leucopareia <\/em>subspecies, here the most frequently seen. Suddenly, there was movement from all over, and another 2000 geese flew in, with all of them huddling together in two narrow fields only. When they were settled, a Peregrine Falcon could be seen on one of the lampposts overlooking the Han River (to detect North Korean intruders\u2026). Amazing, how this one raptor could so efficiently bring together all geese in the amount of a few minutes. Geese were lucky, however, since he took off direction Seoul city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shrikewise, there was still in exactly the same place as a few weeks ago, the first documented Korean Red-tailed shrike. Also, further along the rice fields, a Chinese grey shrike reappeared. As for raptors, some White-tailed eagles, quite a few Eastern buzzards and a single Upland buzzard, a Hen harrier, a Eurasian sparrowhawk and some Common kestrels as well as in both survey areas a Merlin. Most of the smaller streams were frozen, but slowly melting, and in one a Mandarin drake was seen as well as three Eurasian spoonbills in another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see the whole itinerary and bird lists at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/ebird.org\/checklist\/S213051837<\/a> (Siam-Ri)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/ebird.org\/checklist\/S213054839<\/a> (Gaegok-Ri)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gimpo City spread the bird area with disinfectant, probably because of Avian Influenza, though the ribbon on the car said it was due to African Swine fever. I wonder if there are any side effects of the disinfectant\u2026Concrete trenches, which were prepared some weeks ago, were now all put into place and in some places it will be really next to impossible for frogs and toads, which soon will wake up, to return from the mountains to rice fields. Good luck! As usual, it was worth going there, and we can only hope the area will thrive for nature and birds. This is mainly a political question. But the fact that there seems to be a much greater interest of Korean birders now in the area, might be a good sign. Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, on and off with Birds Korea, does now surveys in this area since 2018. In this time, while some of the biodiversity has been lost due to the industrialization of the landscape, every survey confirmed the importance of the area. This is more important, since it is not covered in the national survey systematic by the NIBR, and birds here (for the whole area easily between 10.-20.000 geese) do not go into the annual waterbird census. We hope these surveys do create more attention for the area, and also we hope that one day there is a chance to use the rich biodiversity of this area to come to an agreement with the North on a joint protection of the Han River estuary, and in extension, the whole border area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pic 1: A Cackling Goose Branta hutchinsii leucopareia<\/em> , vagrant in Korea, with a Greater White-Fronted Goose Anser albifrons <\/em>to the right and several Tundra Bean Geese Anser serrirostris<\/em> in front. It had been reported for some weeks here. (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pic 2: Suddenly, all geese, first widespread, huddle together in two narrow fields, and two thousand more geese fly in. A raptor approaching? (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pic 3: Here he is\u2026a Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus<\/em>. Not sure, if he was happy to scare all the geese, but after some soul-searching, he flew away without an attempt to further hunt over the Han River. (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pic 4: A Red-tailed shrike Lanius<\/em> phoenicuroides<\/em>, the first ever documented here on the Korean Peninsula, still at exactly the same place it had been some weeks ago. Fortunately, after some minutes it flew to another branch of the bush \u2013 if not, I might have thought they had stuffed it and fixed it there permanently. (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pic 5: Eastern Great Tit or Asian Tit in e-bird, Parus minor.<\/em> Isn\u00b4t it lovely? Passerines started to practice songs, Oriental Magpies fixed their nests, and most of the Cormorants were gone, presumably to Yudo islet (where I could not enter, being non-Korean) for breeding. Despite the two last cold weeks, spring is coming! (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pic 6: A Merlin Falco columbarius<\/em>, an uncommon winter visitor. This time, in both areas one was seen. (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pic 7: Gimpo City sprayed the area with disinfectant. Fighting Avian Influenza and African Swine fever is very important for people and animals. But I wonder how effective these measures are, and what the potential side effects are. Has there ever been a cost-benefit analysis of spraying vast areas of land? (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pic 8: In the slowly unfreezing streams, waterbirds assembled, as these two Eurasian spoonbills Platalea leucorodia<\/em>. Soon, the yellow-tipped spoonbills will go North, and their smaller brethren, the Black-faced spoonbills, come back from the South. (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Bernhard Seliger (Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea, Birds Korea) Another survey along the Han River, however \u2013 due to the absence of a Korean colleague \u2013 no chance to enter the CCZ (Civilian Control Zone \u2013 obviously, being a foreigner one cannot … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":30167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30159","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\/30159","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30171,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30159\/revisions\/30171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}