{"id":30581,"date":"2025-05-12T09:56:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T00:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=30581"},"modified":"2025-05-12T09:56:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T00:56:58","slug":"waders-galore-in-gimpo-han-estuary-may-7-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=30581","title":{"rendered":"Waders galore in Gimpo, Han Estuary, May 7, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Dr. Bernhard Seliger and Dr. Hyun-Ah Choi, Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea and Birds Korea)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early May, when the rice fields just start to get filled with water, it is the best time to observe waders in the rice fields of Korea. One-tenth of the Korean territory transforms into wetlands.\u00a0 This time, almost every field which already had water inside, also had a couple of waders inside. While the numbers are nowhere near to those in coastal areas, it is still great to see them running around and searching for food between the young rice plants or in plain water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights were 21 Golden Pacific Plovers and more than 80 Wood Sandpipers. Others include a single Long-toed Stint and Whimbrel, three Far-Eastern Oystercatcher, Little Ringed-Plovers, more than 80 Common Sandpipers, 80 Common Greenshanks, a single Common Snipe and ten Black-faced Spoonbills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breeding activity on Yudo Islet was still strong, though through the green it was more difficult to see and count the birds, but at least 500 Great Cormorants and dozens of Gray Herons and Great Egrets were there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New arrivals in the last weeks included Eastern Cattle Egrets, a Black-crowned Night Heron, Chinese Pond Herons, and in the forests an Indian Cuckoo, Dollarbirds (Broad-billed Roller), Manchurian Bush Warblers, and Asian Brown Flycatchers. Surprisingly, there were also still two flocks (in total 31) with Taiga and Tundra Been Geese. Also, there were 16 Mandarin Ducks \u2013 probably they breed in the hills overlooking the Han River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do surveys in the Gimpo Han Estuary area since 2018, but this variety and number of waders in rice fields had not been encountered before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see the full bird lists here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siam wetland area: https:\/\/ebird.org\/checklist\/S234508770<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around Yudo islet: https:\/\/ebird.org\/checklist\/S234508755<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pacific Golden Plovers Pluvialis fulva\u00a0 \uac80\uc740\uac00\uc2b4\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola \uc54c\ub77d\ub3c4\uc694\u00a0 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Little Ringed Plover Thinornis dubius<\/em> \uaf2c\ub9c8\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus \ud669\ub85c\u00a0\u00a0 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chinese Pond Heron\u00a0 Ardeola bacchus \ud770\ub0a0\uac1c\ud574\uc624\ub77c\uae30\u00a0 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Blackfaced Spoonbill Platalea Minor \uc800\uc5b4\uc0c8\u00a0 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Egrets (here Great Egrets Ardea alba \uc911\ub300\ubc31\ub85c   and Eastern Cattle Egrets Bubulcus coromandus \ud669\ub85c ) love to follow the plowing tractor (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still in Korea! Two flocks with 26 Tundra Bean Geese Anser serrirostris \u00a0\ud070\uae30\ub7ec\uae30\u00a0\u00a0 and 5 Taiga Bean Geese Anser fabalis \u00a0\ud070\ubd80\ub9ac\ud070\uae30\ub7ec\uae30\u00a0 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Asian Brown Flycatcher Muscicapa dauurica \uc1e0\uc194\ub531\uc0c8\u00a0\u00a0 (\u00a9 Bernhard Seliger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

(Dr. Bernhard Seliger and Dr. Hyun-Ah Choi, Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea and Birds Korea) In early May, when the rice fields just start to get filled with water, it is the best time to observe waders in the rice fields of Korea. … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":30584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30581","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\/30581","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=30581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30591,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30581\/revisions\/30591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}