The Deskbound Birder: Saunder's Gull

Showing posts with label Saunder's Gull. Show all posts

Thursday, 30 January 2020

South Korea and Taiwan - 30th January (Day 5)

We started the day back at Area A of the Seosan Reclamation mainly with the hope of getting better views of Amur Leopard Cat at dawn which Trev missed yesterday. On arrival, and in the same place as yesterday, was a Leopard Cat hunting in the open and we all managed to get great views this time around. Driving on, Trev picked up more eye-shine and a second Leopard Cat. After watching thousands of White-fronted Goose and Been Goose flighting from their roost on a roadside lake we spent the rest of the morning birding a reed-lined embankment through Area A where the highlights were six Baikal Teal, great views of Pallas's Reed Bunting, Zitting Cisticola and a rather fleeting view of Ochre-rumped Bunting. My eBird checklist for the causeway area can be viewed here.

Pallas's Reed Bunting - Seosan Reclamation (Area A), South Korea

Black-faced Bunting - Seosan Reclamation (Area A), South Korea

Zitting Cisticola - Seosan Reclamation (Area A), South Korea

It was time to get on the road and after scanning from the road bridge where we obtained distant views of the same Pallas's Sea-eagle as yesterday and counted at least 24 Black-necked Grebe we began the 1.5 hour drive south-eastwards to Seocheon. My eBird checklist for the bridge can be viewed here.

Great-crested Grebe - Seosan Reclamation (Area A), South Korea

Pallas's Sea-eagle - Seosan Reclamation (Area A), South Korea

We arrived in the Seocheon area at around 13:00 and headed straight for the main area for our target. A dark Peregrine of the subspecies calidus showed well perched atop a telegraph pole alongside the road. We wound our way along narrow concrete tracks flanked by small scale rice paddies. We arrived at the bund marking the northern bank of the Geum River and slowly edged our way up it. The river came into sight and in front of us was the amazing scene of at least 450,000 Baikal Teal in one seething flock in the middle of the river. This flock representing a large proportion of the global population of this species highlighting how vulnerable this species. We spent around 30 minutes with this flock as it swirled around the river, the noise generated being reminiscent of a distant jet engine. My eBird checklist for the location can be viewed here.

Peregrine of subspecies calidus - Geum River Area, Seocheon, South Korea

Baikal Teal - Geum River Area, Seocheon, South Korea

We then headed west along the river and after a pot-noodle lunch from a local store we birded a couple of spots alongside the river close to the town of Dangseon-si. There were good numbers of duck, wader and gull here, the highlights being Saunder's Gull and an adult Glaucous Gull. My eBird checklists for these locations can be viewed here and here.

Whooper Swan - Geum River Area, Seocheon, South Korea

Saunder's Gull (1st winter) - Geum River Area, Seocheon, South Korea

We then headed north-west of Seocheon towards the small village of Dasa-Ri where a shallow tidal bay supported large numbers of waders, wildfowl and gulls. The overall appearance of the bird community could have been any mudflat in the UK with Eurasian Wigeon, Common Shelduck, Curlew and Black-headed Gull. It was only with close study of the gulls that it was clear we were not in the UK with Black-tailed Gull, Common Gull of the subspecies kamtschatschensis, Lesser Black-backed Gull of the subspecies taimyrensis, Vega Gull and Mongolian Gull - this really was a gull nerds paradise. But again, there was no sign of the hoped for Relict Gull.

Shelduck, Wigeon and Black-headed Gull - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Common Gull of subspecies kamtschatschensis - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Black-headed Gull and Common Gull of subspecies kamtschatschensis - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Common Gull (1st winter) of subspecies kamtschatschensis and Black-tailed Gull - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Mongolian Gull - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Mongolian Gull (1st winter) - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Vega Gull - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Lesser Black-backed Gull of subspecies - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Lesser Black-backed Gull (left) of subspecies taimyrensis and two Mongolian Gull - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Black-tailed Gull - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

Black-tailed Gull (1st winter) - Dasi-Ri, Seocheon, South Korea

After spending some time looking for Swan Goose in the rice paddies with no success we headed back to the Geum River just in time to see the flock of Baikal Teal head out for the night to forage, surely one of the most spectacular sights in the natural world.

Baikal Teal - Geum River Area, Seocheon, South Korea

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)

South Korea

26th January (Day 1 and 2) – International flight then Han River area.

28th January (Day 3) – Songdo Tidal Flats and Korea National Arboretum.

29th January (Day 4) – Seosan Reclamation.

30th January (Day 5) – Seosan Reclamation then Geum River.

31st January (Day 6) – Yubu Island, and Han River.

Taiwan

1st February (Day 7) – Fly Seoul (South Korea) to Taipei (Taiwan) then Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

2nd February (Day 8) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

3rd February (Day 9) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

4th February (Day 10) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve.

5th February (Day11) – Dasyueshan Forest Reserve then Huisin Forest Reserve.

6th February (Day 12) – Huisin Forest Reserve then Blue Gates Trail.

7th February (Day 13) – Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area.

8th February (Day 14) – Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area then Firefly Lodge.

9th February (Day 15) – Alishan.

10th February (Day 16) – Alishan, Kenting National Park and Pintung University.

11th February (Day 17) – Pingtung University then international flight.

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

South-east China - 24th April (Day 4)

We were up at 05:00 and after packing our bags commenced the short drive to the Dongtai sandflats area for our final birding session at this superb site. After breakfast of bread, bananas and sweet coffee we walked the kilometre or so across the sandflats to the waters edge. The main goal was to try to improve on our views of Spoon-billed Sandpiper. At the waters edge we walked southwards closely following the waters edge and scanning the vast flocks of superb summer plumaged Red-necked Stint as they busily fed on unseen morsels. Close investigation of the sand surface revealed many tidy polychaete worm trails, molluscs and crustaceans which fuel the birds on their north bound journey and make this site of major importance. Amongst the stint were lesser numbers of Greater Sandplover, Lesser Sandplover, Great Knot, Red Knot, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Dunlin and Curlew Sandpiper all resplendent in their summer finery and all with the same aim of feeding and moving northbound to the Siberian tundra to breed. Alas, after two hours of searching there was no sign of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and we decided to head to the seawall scrub to search for passerine migrants. We worked our way westwards but the strong winds hampered our efforts and we saw relatively little, new species that we had not seen here yesterday were Oriental Reed-warbler, Chinese Grosbeak and Green-backed Flycatcher. On the lagoons were Pintail, Garganey and Shoveler as well as Eastern Spot-billed Duck, Black-faced Spoonbill and Saunder’s Gull.

Boarding the bus we headed one hour to the south to Yankou and the fabled Magic Wood which I had last visited on 9th November 2016. This rather unattractive area with bird park, modern hotels, golf courses, imposing wind turbines and littered with waste plastic and polystyrene makes one wonder why it is evidently such a popular spot for Chinese tourists. We birded the avenue of trees that is the Magic Wood seeing relatively little, the highlights being a cracking White’s Thrush, two Dusky Thrush, Silver-throated Tit, Yellow-browed Bunting and at least six Chinese Grosbeak. After a superb lunch of various Chinese dishes which included sweet and sour pork, liver in a black bean sauce, spicy cauliflower, sweet and sour aubergine and pork strips we began the five-hour drive south to Minjiang.

We arrived at Nanhui just as it was getting dark and birded the area around the hotel but it was probably a little late and we saw little but for a few common species such as Barn Swallow, Long-tailed Shrike, Dusky Warbler and Crested Myna.