{"id":7243,"date":"2013-01-06T18:50:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T09:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=7243"},"modified":"2013-04-16T20:01:15","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T11:01:15","slug":"songdo-5-6th-january-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=7243","title":{"rendered":"Songdo, January 5-6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Spike Millington<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday I thought I would try to overgrown area of Incheon Golf Course in the hope of connecting with Eurasian Bullfinch, which everyone seems to be seeing everywhere. This always a very birdy area and was alive with thrushes, at least 100, maybe twice that many, feeding on berries. Most were Naumann’s<\/strong> type but there were some adult Duskies<\/strong> and the usual intergrades. At one point a male Goshawk<\/strong> raced in, trying to surprise the birds (it surprised me!). There were many finches with 50 Hawfinches<\/strong>, 30 Bramblings<\/strong> and 20 Oriental Greenfinches<\/strong>, in addition to 3-4 Pallas’s<\/strong> and 6 Long-tailed Rosefinches<\/strong>. A group of 6 Bean Geese<\/strong> circled over and a Bull-headed Shrike<\/strong> was my first for a while. A male Daurian Redstart<\/strong> was trying to find food in the snow, as were a couple of Yellow-throated Bunting<\/strong>. A fat Grey-headed Woodpecker<\/strong> seemed to be having better luck in a dead tree. As for Bullfinches, not a peep!<\/p>\n

Later in the morning I went over to the Sorae mudflats, now largely ice-bound. High tide was quite distant, but I estimated 600 Curlews<\/strong> and about the same number of Dunlin<\/strong>. There were quite a few interesting-looking gulls but just too far away to identify. The only close ones were 3 Common<\/strong>, 1 Black-headed<\/strong> and a feeding Saunder’s<\/strong>. The channel next to the new causeway had open water and many ducks were crammed in there. I counted 600 Pochard<\/strong> and 400 Shoveler<\/strong>, with 300 Mallard<\/strong>, 50 Pintail<\/strong>, 100 Common Shelducks<\/strong>, 5 Tufted Ducks<\/strong>, 2 Greater Scaup<\/strong>, 4 Goldeneye<\/strong> and 1 splendid drake Smew<\/strong>. A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers<\/strong> were fishing further out. 10 Grey Plover were feeding on the exposed mud with 30 Dunlin. Nearby Namdong Reservoir was almost completely frozen, but some Spot-billed Ducks<\/strong> and Common Teal<\/strong> were on the stream. More thrushes and another Daurian Redstart were in the berry bushes here, which were invaded by a large troop of 50 Vinous-throated Parrotbills<\/strong>. A couple of Eastern Buzzards<\/strong> waited hopefully along the reservoir edge. Along the edge of the park were a few Bramblings<\/strong> and Greenfinches<\/strong> and 5 Yellow-throated Buntings<\/strong>. Great<\/strong>, Coal<\/strong> and Marsh tits<\/strong> were in the pines, along with a Chinese Nuthatch<\/strong>. Most surprising were 2 Olive-backed Pipits<\/strong> bobbing along under the cypress hedge. I was surprised to see these birds in mid-December – I was even more surprised to see them today in these record low temperatures and snow cover.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, a stroll around Michuhol Park, a small urban park, yielded groups of 6 and 4 Pallas’s Rosefinches<\/strong>, feeding on the seeds of an ornamental plant at the edge of the park. A Long-tailed Rosefinch<\/strong> was a park tick for me. Otherwise, it was the usual resident (at least in winter) Great<\/strong>, Coal and Varied Tits<\/strong>, 2-3 Chinese Nuthatches<\/strong>, 2 Naumann’s Thrushes<\/strong> and a Brambling<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird News from Spike Millington On Saturday I thought I would try to overgrown area of Incheon Golf Course in the hope of connecting with Eurasian Bullfinch, which everyone seems to be seeing everywhere. This always a very birdy area … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-sightings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7243","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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7243"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8312,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7243\/revisions\/8312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}