{"id":3060,"date":"2012-02-01T20:41:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T11:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=3060"},"modified":"2012-02-01T20:43:14","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T11:43:14","slug":"summary-of-a-recent-bird-trip-around-south-korea-part-4-waegwan-area-kyongbuk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=3060","title":{"rendered":"Summary of a recent bird trip around South Korea \u2013 Part 4: Waegwan area, Kyongbuk"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is the final part of the summary of our month-long visit to South Korea between 12th December, 2011 and 10th January, 2012 and involves the region around Kim Sonas\u2019s family home in Waegwan, Kyongbuk province. We birded parts of this area almost every day when not off touring, a total of nine dates. <\/p>\n

The most striking thing was how the Four Rivers Project has further degraded the Nakdong river here, compounded by even more road construction and other schemes along its banks. On previous visits I have regularly watched this stretch of river, and tried to do so again on the first two or three days, but it has become so poor that river watching soon became just occasional cursory scans from the bund near the family house. All my local birding subsequently took place in the forested hills and streams to the east of the river.<\/p>\n

The bird community in these forests appeared little different to previous visits. White-backed, Great Spotted, Grey-headed<\/strong> and Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers<\/strong> were all frequently noted, Eastern Buzzards<\/strong> and Eurasian Sparrowhawks<\/strong> and most common resident species appeared to be in reasonably good numbers. <\/p>\n

Singles of Cinereous Vulture<\/strong>, Hazel Grouse<\/strong> and Pallas\u2019s Rosefinch<\/strong> were all species I had not previously recorded in the area. Many winter migrant species were, however, noticeably few: not a single thrush, few Siberian Accentors<\/strong> and just one Siskin<\/strong>. Olive-backed Pipits<\/strong>, Bramblings<\/strong> and Rustic Buntings<\/strong> were not uncommon.<\/p>\n

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Hazel Grouse Tetrastes bonasia<\/em> (female) near Waegwan, 7th January 2012.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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White-backed Woodpecker Dendrocopos leucotos<\/em> (female), Waegwan, 1st January 2012.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major<\/em> (male), Waegwan, 19th December 2011.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Siberian Accentor Prunella montanella<\/em>, near Waegwan, 8th January 2012.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Winter Wren Troglodytes hiemalis<\/em>, near Waegwan, 24th December, 2011.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea<\/em>, Waegwan, 7th January 2012.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Varied Tit Parus varius<\/em>, Waegwan, 18th December 2011.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

Numbers of birds in the farmland habitats seemed poor with fewer Skylarks and Buff-bellied Pipits than normally noted, definitely fewer Magpies and fewer and smaller bunting flocks. <\/p>\n

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Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica<\/em>, Waegwan, 20th December 2011.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Vinous-throated Parrotbill Paradoxornis webbianus<\/em>, near Waegwan, 18th December 2011.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

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Yellow-throated Bunting Emberiza elegans<\/em>, male, Waegwan.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

On December 24th we visited the Hooded Crane<\/strong> area at Haepyong, near Gumi: another depressing experience. The whole \u2018crane sanctuary\u2019 area was a massive construction site. After much searching we finally found just four Hooded Cranes<\/strong> on the shore of an island just downriver from the new dam. <\/p>\n

On Christmas Day, just north of Daegu, a couple of Eurasian Hoopoes<\/strong> was an unexpected find. <\/p>\n

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Eurasian Hoopoe Upupa epops<\/em>, near Daegu, 25th December 2011.<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird Report by Martin Sutherland and Kim Sona This is the final part of the summary of our month-long visit to South Korea between 12th December, 2011 and 10th January, 2012 and involves the region around Kim Sonas\u2019s family home … 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":[192,86,191,190],"class_list":["post-3060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-sightings","tag-daegu","tag-four-rivers-project","tag-haepyong","tag-waegwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060","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=3060"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3087,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}