Birding in Seoul , South Korea

Seoul Birdwatching

By Michael De Rosa

Several weeks ago I was in Seoul for a chemical conference. Seoul is best known for its food, palaces, and shopping. It also has a lovely riverside park that attracts local birds and migrants. Through an online contact, with a member of the Korean Wild Bird Society, I was able to arrange a Saturday morning walk along the Tancheon Ecosystem Landscape Conservation Area with Byongwoo, a Korean birder. The Tancheon is a tributary of the Han River that flows through Seoul. Seoul is a city of 20 million and has an extensive Metro System. We arranged to meet at the Suseo station (line 3) exit #4. Exit numbers are important as some stations can have more than 10 exits, each one leading to a different destination. With signs and announcements in English, getting around is relatively easy. But we had neglected to arrange where we were to meet—so of course while I waited outside the station, he waited inside. The path is a short walk from the Metro station. He indicated we would walk about 4.5 km, and that it was a bit early for fall migrants. The path skirts the river, and there are places where you can get close to the water. During our three-hour walk we would see 19 of the 47 species that have been recorded along the trail. We shared the path with walkers and bikers. It was also the only place I saw a dog being walked.

We saw the following: Spot-billed Ducks (various places along the river); Upland Buzzard; Eurasian Magpies (many and noisy-they over winter and then head back west); Grey Heron (several, closely related to the Great Blue Heron); Yellow-throated bunting (brief views of a group of three); Eurasian Tree Sparrow (large flock-abundant through out Seoul); Black-backed Wagtail (several); Japanese Wagtail; Common Teal (Our Green-winged Teal is sometimes considered a subspecies); Long-billed Plover; Mallards; Great Cormorants (several groups resting on the river side and trees); Common Kestrel (hovering and then on a power pylon); the very lovely Daurian Redstart (several in bushes along trail); Rufus (Oriental) Turtle Dove (very common in Seoul); Brown-eared Bulbul; Great Tit; Carrion Crow; Herring Gull (flying over river).

Food is a very important part of Korean life. As you walk around it seems that everyone is either eating, or selling food. And if they are not eating, they are drinking coffee. Byongwoo invited me to lunch where I gave him a bird book. We eat at the Mandoo Restaurant-that he described as serving Korean-style Chinese dumplings. Lunch was fish cake soup, Kim pap (Korean sushi), Mandoo dumplings, and Teobbaki. This last is a staple dish made with rice cakes (in the shape of cylinders) mixed with various ingredients and sauces. In Seoul there is an entire museum devoted to rice cakes. From the restaurant he walked me back to the Metro.

We shared the path with bikers & walkers

 Great Cormorant

 Great Tit

 Eurasian Magpie

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Daurian Redstart

Spot-Billed duck

Japanese Wagtail

Grey Heron

An old friend-last bird I saw before we headed back

River side view

Joshua Tree National Park

                                                                      by Gary Becker

          
          While on our stay in Indio, California we took several side trips to surrounding parks. We made two trips to Joshua Tree National Park on separate days and were surprised by the difference in habitat on each occasion. On our first trip we entered the park through the northwest entrance apply named Joshua Tree Visitor center. Turns out this section of park was in the Mohave desert and loaded with its namesake(the Joshua tree). 
 

Susan and Joshua Tree

          On our second trip we entered through the southeast entrance(Cottonwood Visitor center) and found no Joshua trees. Seems we were no longer in the Mohave desert but rather the Colorado desert which is below 3000 feet above sea level and lies within the much larger Sonoran desert which spans southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico.       
         Common to both areas however are the enormous pilings of smooth rocks. These rock piles began underground as a result of volcanic activity. Magma(which was to become granite) rose from deep within the earth and intruded into the overlying rock.

          As the magma cooled and crystalized underground cracks formed both vertically and horizontally. The granite continued to lift upward where it came in contact with ground water. Chemical weathering caused by the ground water worked on these angular granite blocks widening the cracks and rounding their edges. 

Flash floods eventually washed away the ground surface and exposed the huge eroded and smoothed boulders which settled one on top of another creating the impressive rock piles.

          The Joshua trees are not really trees but species of yucca. With their twisted spikey branches they look like a Dr. Seuss creation. In these arid areas we saw cactus wren, rock wren, Gambel's quail, ravens and  red tailed hawks.
 

Cactus Wren

Rock Wren

Gambel's Quail

          There were several species of reptile including what I believe were the desert iguana and the zebra-tailed lizard. Predictably the better birding was in the wet areas and so we sought them out. My only life bird on the trip was the rufous-crowned sparrow which we found in a wonderful watering hole called Barker Dam. 
 

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

          The dam was built in the early 1900's to hold water for the cattle and mining use. Today the cattle are gone and the mines closed but this small rain-fed reservoir attracts lots of park wildlife. Besides the sparrow I found lesser goldfinch, Say's and black phoebe's, phainopepla, Cedar waxwing, Townsend's warbler,yellow-rumped warblers, scrub jay and Western bluebird all in this rather small area. 
 

Phainopepla

Lesser Goldfinch

 

Western Scrub Jay

          It was certainly the highlight of the first day's tour along with the Key's View Vista which is an overlook at 5185 feet in the middle of the park with views all the way to Palm Springs and the san Bernadino mountains.

 

The high flying twosome - Gary and Susan

          When we made a return trip several days later we entered through the Cottonwood visitor center at the southeast entrance. The Joshua trees were gone but replaced by cholla cactus, ocotillo, green-backed palo verde trees and smoke trees. 

Cholla

          I can't say that we added any new birds on the visit but the landscape was gorgeous and the hiking exhilarating and definitely left us vowing to return.

Palm Springs Trip Report

                                                                Authored by Gary Becker

        Two weeks ago my wife Susan and I spent a wonderful week in the Palm Springs area of southern California. We stayed at the Wyndham Resort which included the Terra Loga golf courses. There was a lot of acreage to bird and hike starting on our own back deck. The first morning Susan sprinkled some Cheerios on the deck railing and floor and within minutes we were attracting Brewer's Blackbirds and great-tailed grackles. 

 

Great-tailed Grackles

        Cliff swallow nests were under the eves of many of the buildings but it appears the swallows and swifts had moved on. 

        The lazy river pool right next to our condo attracted a group of 20+ mallards every morning.  In spite of the pool guys vacuuming activities the birds didn't budge until the human guests arrived and started their daily ritual of walking the lazy river against the current as part of an hour long aerobics ritual. Susan and I occasionally joined the group but most days we walked the golf course and grounds for an hour or two. Several ponds and waterfalls attracted a host of birds including a large flock of coots, snowy and great egrets, green herons, killdeer, spotted sandpiper, and black-crowned night herons.

Black-crowned Night-Herons

 

Coot

       There were 2 courses but one was closed for sodding so we could walk there without running into golfers. On the other we walked the back nine early before the golfers caught up with us. We always ran into several of the resident roadrunners in our walks and one in particular could be reliably spotted on the first tee and approached within a few feet. 

 

Roadrunner that missed his Tee Time

       

Say's Phoebe

There were four Anna's hummingbirds hanging out in the shrubs at the end of our building and several verdin tending to their surprisingly large nests(for such a small bird) in some trees nearby. Say's and black phoebes were regularly seen along with yellow-rumped warblers, white crowned sparrows, house finches, house sparrows, blue gray gnatcatchers, white-winged doves and mourning doves, and the ubiquitous ravens. 

 

Black Phoebe

         Raptors were few in number: only a single kestrel and several redtails. I did not see any crows the entire week there and it was not until we traveled over to Arizona the following week that I encountered American crows.

        A pair of Crissal's thrashers, a pair of Inca doves, Abert's towhee, loggerhead shrike, and ash-throated flycatcher were all great one time sightings. 

 

Crissal Thrasher

 

Loggerhead Shrike

Anna's Hummingbird

       We were busy with side trips every day and were pretty exhausted by the end of the week. We spent two days at Joshua Tree National Park, made two trips via the Palm Springs aerial tramway to the San Jacinto state park, and visited a desert oasis owned by the Nature Conservancy. These were beautiful areas and I would like to share some photos with the bird club.                      

GRAY SQUIRRELS ARE ENTERTAINING

                                                     Authored by John McGonicle

               

                              Acrobatics Nearly Beyond Belief From Bushytails

Gazing absent mindedly recently from the window in my living room, my eyes suddenly focused near the base of the large oak tree in the front yard. Three squirrels took shape, leaving a small, nagging question. I could not decide whether the squirrels were the wrong size or wrong color. I picked up my nearby binoculars for a better look; the squirrels were clearly gray.

        

Gray Squirrel

           Adult red squirrels are very small, but I wondered why a spring litter of gray squirrels were still so small. From my bookshelf I selected several reference books and found the answer.       

          Gray squirrels, it turns out, do not have one litter of young per year, they have two. The first litter is born from February to April, and the second litter, the little ones now out and about, are born in July and August. With two months to finish weaning and put some size and muscle on, my squirrels are just right to be chasing each other up and down the trees and across the lawn. While I watched, though, they did not seem inclined to travel far from the tree trunk that offered them some degree of safety aloft. 

          Squirrels have many predators, and not all of them are wild. Cats regularly kill squirrels. Suburban squirrels also must elude foxes, hawks and the occasional quick, aggressive dog. Squirrels in rural areas must escape from weasels, snakes, bobcats, coyotes and other predators that are always on the prowl.

          Being wild creatures themselves, gray squirrels occasionally eat bird’s eggs and young birds. Primarily, though, squirrels eat nuts of multiple kinds, various seeds, grains, fruits, buds and more. Before my two large maple trees died I often watched squirrels feed on their seed pods that look like one-third of a helicopter’s rotor blades. I can remember tossing those pods in the air as a kid to watch them spiral to the ground.

          Interestingly, the maple trees’ spiraling, flying seed pod serves the special purpose of spreading those seeds to allow maples to spread and grow. Gray squirrels sometime cache maple tree seed pods underground to eat later, but instead the seed pods occasionally grow into trees.

          I love having squirrels on my property, the more the merrier. I marvel that many of those that feed birds hate squirrels for eating the birdseed they leave for their feathered friends. First, it seems only fair to share some seed with the squirrels. Second, all those people need do is change to bird feeders squirrels cannot reach. 

          Just for fun it might be worthwhile to have a bird feeder or two that squirrels have a chance to feed from, just use cheaper seeds. Watching the acrobatic antics of squirrels trying to defeat bird feeders can be outrageously funny, and certainly worth some bird seed. 

          Another reason I like squirrels on the property is because watching their climbing and jumping ability makes one shake his head with appreciative wonderment. There appears to be no end to their physical abilities. I have rarely seen a squirrel overestimate its ability by making a long leap and missing. Factually, squirrels can run up to 14-miles-per-hour, and jump six feet between trees or branches. Believe it or not, those pretty, bushy tails actually help squirrels balance when necessary.

          It is likely that my squirrels do not travel outside an acre of where my oak tree stands. Some travel up to several acres, but usually if plenty of food is available they stay pretty close to home.

          One thing I have never seen in my neighborhood is a melanistic, or black squirrel. They are not common in our region, though I had a friend that lived just off the Schuylkill Expressway near Philadelphia that had at least a half dozen melanistic squirrels on his street. They are also relatively common in northern Pennsylvania. An area of Lycoming County I frequented long ago housed many of them. Fact is the jet black squirrels are beautiful, and I would love to see them locally. 

 

"Black" Gray Squirrel

          I love the hint of autumn in the air, and autumn is my favorite time of year. Autumn means winter is coming, but gray squirrels hold no fear of winter. They do cache food for tough times, and they do tend to move inside a den in a tree cavity to help stay warm and safe in winter.

          My oak tree has long held a large, leafy squirrel nest, and I am sure it is put into use regularly – just not during winter.

                                                

Flying Squirrel

A trip across the pond.

Authored by George Wrangham

Red Grouse or Willow Ptarmigan

          I photographed this Red Grouse on the high moors above Wensleydale in North Yorkshire ten days ago.  This lucky individual had so far escaped the ritual slaughter that opens on The Glorious Twelfth of August every year.  But I must admit that Grouse does taste awfully, awfully good, especially when hanged for two or three days after shooting.  When I was a student at Cambridge (King's College) it was a great point of kudos for undergraduates to hang a pheasant or a brace of partridges from the windowsills: it denoted that one was one of the huntin', shootin' and fishin' set.

          The other best bird I saw but regrettably was in no position to photograph was a female Goosander, a large species of Merganser which dwarfed the Mallards resting with it on a small wooden dock on the Steinbergersee in Bavaria. 

 

Female Goosander

          In England the estuary of the River Exe in Devon yielded Black-tailed Godwits tip-tilting high on the mud since their bills are long indeed and they point them vertically downward for prey, and Greenshank and Redshank. London's green spaces were filled to capacity with Magpies and the countryside with Carrion Crows, both of which were distinctly uncommon birds in my childhood when gamekeepers did their best to extirpate them.  
 

The original Robin

          Adorable European Robins, Great Tits, Chaffinches, Gold Finches and Blackbirds (a species of thrush with the identical habits and alarm call of the American Robin) were abundant -- also those Starlings, House Sparrows and city Pigeons for whose introduction into the New World all Americans are eternally grateful.

Rook

Pelagic trip out of Half Moon Bay, CA

        Sharon and I went on a three week long trip to California to visit my son Chris at Edwards Air Force Base in late August and early September. Our first full day there, we headed for Bonelli Lake Park in San Dimas (of Bill and Ted fame). My objective was to find the Arctic Loon that had been present for at least four months. We arrived at the park and I dropped off the family at the swim beach and went in search of my quarry. Well after a 45 minute search of the lake and almost giving up the hunt, I spotted the loon. It was hiding in a small corner, out of sight from the main lake. Although not in breeding plumage I was thrilled with my first life bird of the trip.

Arctic Loon at Bonelli Lake Park

     After staying two weeks with Chris and the gang, Sharon and I drove seven hours north to Half Moon Bay which is south of San Francisco. The temperature there was 69 degrees which was awesome after 102 degrees at Edwards AFB. We made the trip here because I had scheduled a pelagic trip with Debi Shearwater of Shearwater Journeys. 

My new home for the day

       I boarded the boat at 7am and we were off on our adventure. The boat pulled away from the docks and navigated out to the jetties around the harbor where we picked up Whimbrel, Surfbirds, Black Turnstones, Brandt's and Double-crested Cormorants, and Wandering Tattler plus a Common Murre.

Poor photo of Black Turnstones

      Once we cleared the harbor, the Western & Heerman's Gulls started to follow the boat. 

Western Gull with Half Moon Bay in background

      As we got further away from shore we ran into a fog bank which helped in viewing, as it eliminated the glare from the sun off of the water. The fog eventually cleared but a haze remained all day enabling great viewing conditions. Soon we started finding the Pacific coast alcids, some really cool looking birds. Common Murres were seen by the hundreds and Rhinocheros Auklets were common.

Rhinocheros Auklet transforming to winter plumage

 

Common Murre

       Of course everyone's favorite alcid is the puffin and we got to view the Pacific Ocean version when a Tufted Puffin came into view off the starboard bow.

Tufted Puffin

        It didn't take long after leaving the dock until we reached the offshore waters where the true pelagics are found. 

About 30 minutes after leaving the harbor we started seeing Sooty Shearwaters. These were the most common shearwaters that we would see today, probably around a thousand birds were seen. Well this got everyone's adrenaline rushing. I started thinking about the one bird that I wanted the most and that was the Flesh-footed Shearwater, a rare visitor from Australia and New Zealand. Although I never got a photo of the bird it was one of the last birds we saw on the trip. Usually a deep, warm water bird we found one on the way back to the harbor as we were finishing up the trip. The guides were shouting when they spotted it and I ran to the stern to get a good but fleeting look at the bird as it flew off into the haze.

      Past the Sooty Shearwaters we started running into other species. We found a flock of birds on the water that contained Sooty's but in among them was my first lifer of the trip, a Buller's Shearwater, actually three of them. This was my first lifer of the trip. We would find more of them as the trip progressed.

Buller's Shearwater (Photo from Internet)

       Among the participants on the trip was a husband and wife from England who came to find one bird in particular and that one bird was any species of Albatross. Well their wish was granted many times over when he spotted a Black-footed Albatross flying in from the port side. These birds are just magnificent flyers as they glide over the water with amazing agility and ease. Then they land right next to the boat. Very cooperative birds making for good photos. Although I only had a point and shoot camera I was able to capture a few images.

Black-footed Albatross

Black-footed Albatross, Western Gull and Steller's Sea Lion

       Next we encountered a very large raft of petrels on the ocean about a mile ahead of us. We slowly drifted towards them so as not to flush them and started laying out an oil slick behind the boat. As we approached the flock was very nervous and began to flush.    

Mixed Flock of Petrels

       The flock contained about 1200 birds and were mostly Ashy Storm-Petrels and about 30 Black Storm-Petrels, both of which were lifers. 

Ashy-Storm-Petrel (Internet Photo)

Black Storm-Petrel - larger than Ashy (Internet Photo)

       We eventually got to study these birds quite well and than moved on and were encountering small rafts of shearwaters lingering on the water. The guides spotted a Manx Shearwater but lost it in a crowd of other birds and I never saw that guy. 
      We had spotted a small raft of Sooty's and Pink-footed Shearwaters in the distance when someone shouted out "Skuas". Almost right in front of the bow were two South Polar Skuas resting on the water and than they took off so we could get good looks at the large white wing patches and very short tails.

South Polar Skua (not my photo)

        This was my fourth lifer on this pelagic trip and as stated earlier we lucked out and had a quick fly by of a Flesh-footed Shearwater on the way back to shore. Before the trip, I was hoping for five lifers but was thinking I would be happy with three, but as luck would have it I did get my five life birds. This will always be a trip to remember, my first Pacific coast pelagic. It was great fun and I got to meet a lot of great folks also.