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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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 Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 8:58 pm Post subject: I'm a Bird Nerd-- are you? |
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In Canada, fall and spring were pretty exciting times for birdwatching: all sorts of weird visitors traipsing and hopping through backyards.
Since I came to Korea, my birdwatching has been limited to sparrows, magpies cranes, pigeons, doves and a couple other critters I can't put a name to, but there are apparently some spots in Korea where you can get a great view of the fall migration.
For example, the 2nd Tunnel at the DMZ is quite near a popular stop-over for our avian friends. I'd like to go out to one of these spots before it gets too cold. Is there anyone on this board that craves a little contact with nature, and wouldn't mind some time spent with this frog? |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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Say hello to your new friend....... I have been birding about 15 years...travelled all over korea in search as well..I have 212 different species for S.K., (out of about 490 ever recorded here).
Still, that required plenty of hard work to get up to...
PM me if you or anyone are keen on birding sometime (although I have to get a new telescope first)- or even if you just want advice on where to go in S. korea.
In the meantime, check out:
http://www.birdskorea.org/ |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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| rapier wrote: |
Say hello to your new friend....... I have been birding about 15 years...travelled all over korea in search as well..I have 212 different species for S.K., (out of about 490 ever recorded here).
Still, that required plenty of hard work to get up to...
PM me if you or anyone are keen on birding sometime (although I have to get a new telescope first)- or even if you just want advice on where to go in S. korea.
In the meantime, check out:
http://www.birdskorea.org/ |
Holy Moly! Or as my students would say "Waaa! Aassa!" (will that get beeped?) I've never used a telescope, actually. I wouldn't call myself a birder, just a keen bird-nerd. Well, rapier, if you'd take me under your wing, I'd be much obliged.
When I read that first line, I heard Pacino's voice: "Say hello to my little friend!" |
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J.B. Clamence
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 2:27 am Post subject: |
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| rapier wrote: |
| Say hello to your new friend....... |
Is that supposed to be done with a Tony Montana Cuban accent? 
 |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:28 am Post subject: |
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Dear Korean bird watchers. You'd know. I heard that the pheasant is indigneous to Korea. The pheasants shot in England on hunts are introduced. Seen lots of pheasants here, who look right at home.
And are there Eagles in Korea? I've seen lots of Eagles in Canada. Driving down from Yeongwal, a stretch of secondary highway running alongside a raging sort of river, with canyon walls, but it may have been a big hawk.
There used to be a kind of parrot in Korea. I've seen them in old pictures. I think it was green. Is that so? Who killed all the parrots? |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:40 am Post subject: |
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| captain kirk wrote: |
Dear Korean bird watchers. You'd know. I heard that the pheasant is indigneous to Korea. The pheasants shot in England on hunts are introduced. Seen lots of pheasants here, who look right at home.
And are there Eagles in Korea? I've seen lots of Eagles in Canada. Driving down from Yeongwal, a stretch of secondary highway running alongside a raging sort of river, with canyon walls, but it may have been a big hawk.
There used to be a kind of parrot in Korea. I've seen them in old pictures. I think it was green. Is that so? Who killed all the parrots? |
yes..the ring necked pheasant (phasianus colchicus) is native all over Eurasia...fairly common in Korean woodlands..colorful bird.
Eagles? I've only seen the White-tailed sea eagle, over the estuary in winter up near imjingak.took a day to get rewarding views of that, but magnificent as it dive bombed all the winter geese up there. Following that, The Stellers sea eagle is recorded every winter, (less than 10, at only selected sites through he whole country. The lesser spotted eagle winters down here, once again in similar small numbers, and occasionally the Eastern imperial eagle and Golden eagle are seen, usually as single vagrants on passage to somewhere else, maybe 1 or 2 a year, of each.
To see them..you need a proper telescope..and know the few good areas of unspoilt habitat left remaining..and the right time of year to find them. Generally, scarce. Like most birds in korea, due to the destruction of the wild, natural areas they need to live in.
Parrots? Never been recorded in korea, ever. except as a cage bird. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:25 am Post subject: |
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Some kind of 'parroty-looking' bird. Have to check that out. Though I might be thinking of Taiwan. Hmm.
I saw what looked like a 'nuthatch' the other day. Soft grey on the back. Habit of walking up and down treetrunks pecking for insects, like a woodpecker. Sometimes walking upside down down a treetrunk. Looked about the same as the ones in Canada.
There's a really elegant kind of bird I've seen here. I'll try to describe it. It has long, white tailfeathers and looks really sleek. By sleek I mean long, thin, sharp wings. It's a songbird. When it flies it swoops and dips, perches. There's some contrast in its colouring.
I've also seen yellow, little birds. Bright yellow, striking.
I've heard a bird that 'meowed' like a cat. This was in the woods, and I got close enough to know the sound was coming from THAT bird. Maybe a 'mockingbird'? I had to wonder why a bird would mimic the sound of a cat? Scare off other birds and get the seeds, maybe. Would the mockingbird be grey/brown?
I've seen the 'san gah chi', or mountain magpie quite alot. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:44 am Post subject: |
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Pheasants. Or 'gwong' in Korean (or is that grouse). Well pheasants have go to be the most ungainly flyers. They're a real, droopingly elegant spectacle. Flushed, squawking as it cranks away, tailfeathers lolling behind looking like work to lug around. How could nature create such a vulnerable creation? How it squawks as it 'escapes' flying not far away. If you can't see it (doubtful) you can sure hear where it's going.
I've 'told' kids that the crow, which Koreans dislike, is the smartest of birds. I don't know if that's true, do you?
Ravens. I haven't seen any in Korea I don't think, but in Canada, lots. They live to be seventy, I've heard. Once I was out treeplanting and one flew low overhead, checking me out. Lots of intelligence in that eye, glance. |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 2:54 pm Post subject: |
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| captain kirk wrote: |
I've heard a bird that 'meowed' like a cat. This was in the woods, and I got close enough to know the sound was coming from THAT bird. Maybe a 'mockingbird'? I had to wonder why a bird would mimic the sound of a cat? Scare off other birds and get the seeds, maybe. |
Sounds like you're talking about a bird I once spotted in Canada called... wait for it .... a catbird. It was a fabulous mimic, but every few phrases, it just went ahead and said "Meow". I listened to it tease the starlings for a while, but I couldn't find it for ages...
Apparently, they usually sit pretty deep in a hedge, but the easiest way to get a look at them is to give a little "Meow" yourself! They'll likely stick their head out to get a gander at who's in the neighborhood.
Maybe that's why they meow-- nothing to do with cats, but just a way for these chameleon-songed bird to recognize each other. |
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fidel
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Location: North Shore NZ
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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Several years ago when I was living in Munjeong Dong apartments, I used to watch a small flock of big yellow and red birds nesting in the rear trees out the back of my apartment. Don't know what kind of birds they were, but they were beautiful.
There are stacks of Pheasants living down the Yangjae Stream area in Gangnam, I often flush them out when I'm walking. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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| captain kirk wrote: |
Some kind of 'parroty-looking' bird. Have to check that out. Though I might be thinking of Taiwan. Hmm.
I saw what looked like a 'nuthatch' the other day. Soft grey on the back. Habit of walking up and down treetrunks pecking for insects, like a woodpecker. Sometimes walking upside down down a treetrunk. Looked about the same as the ones in Canada.
There's a really elegant kind of bird I've seen here. I'll try to describe it. It has long, white tailfeathers and looks really sleek. By sleek I mean long, thin, sharp wings. It's a songbird. When it flies it swoops and dips, perches. There's some contrast in its colouring.
I've also seen yellow, little birds. Bright yellow, striking.
I've heard a bird that 'meowed' like a cat. This was in the woods, and I got close enough to know the sound was coming from THAT bird. Maybe a 'mockingbird'? I had to wonder why a bird would mimic the sound of a cat? Scare off other birds and get the seeds, maybe. Would the mockingbird be grey/brown?
I've seen the 'san gah chi', or mountain magpie quite alot. |
Where do you live captain? The birds change a little bit from Seoul to pusan.. Pusan has its own little climatic zone just slightly different to the rest of S.K, and so some birds are commoner there than up here in Seoul.
It can only be a nuthatch, (first bird), small bright yellow birds are usually Great *beep*..in pusan area, could be white-eyes.. The elegant bird with long white tail sounds almost certainly a paradise flycatcher..
There's an english language field guide to birds here, you can pick up at Kyobo in Gwangwhamun which is good, "The birds of Korea". |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 2:36 am Post subject: |
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I live in Ulsan but will be up in Seoul in five weeks and will look for 'The Birds of Korea' at Kyobo, Gwangwhamun.
The Paradise flycatcher I saw around Gochang, along with the little yellow birds.
The nuthatch was down here.
Around Gochang, in the Autumn, I was driving the motorbike the ninety minutes from Kwangju one evening/late afternoon and across the sky was a shifting band of migrating ducks, like the band of an aurora crosses the sky, not in the distant high atmosphere but lower.
The 'hahk' on the 500w coin. Does it migrate? |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:36 am Post subject: |
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| captain kirk wrote: |
I live in Ulsan but will be up in Seoul in five weeks and will look for 'The Birds of Korea' at Kyobo, Gwangwhamun.
The Paradise flycatcher I saw around Gochang, along with the little yellow birds.
The nuthatch was down here.
Around Gochang, in the Autumn, I was driving the motorbike the ninety minutes from Kwangju one evening/late afternoon and across the sky was a shifting band of migrating ducks, like the band of an aurora crosses the sky, not in the distant high atmosphere but lower.
The 'hahk' on the 500w coin. Does it migrate? |
"the birds of Korea" is not a bad guide. But remember how extremely few birdwatchers there are in Korea, or any knowledge of birds or the environment whatsoever. Which is why they needed to borrow the illustrations from a Japanese book, and the Korean names gracing the books cover are decorative only: the real work for the book was done by foreigners committed to conservation who went unmentioned at the books publication- but Koreans insisted that they take the credit...anyway...
Paradise flycatchers are just one bird that is much easier found in the southern part of S.K, pretty hard to find one anywhere near seoul.
Ducks are similar..some species are common up north but not south, and vice versa. Ducks in the autumn could be one of several species..wintering ducks arrive in force around October, in flocks..the more common ones are the Spot-billed (most numerous), pintail, teal, mallard,shoveller and Pochard. Likely, you saw one of those types.
About migration: the vast majority of species in Korea are migratory, just pass through here on their way to somewhere else, or spend the winter here then depart. Only about 40 species are truly resident in S.K. Used to be more, but widespread habitat destruction has taken its toll. Of the 490-odd species ever recorded here, a relatively high percentage are scarce, rare or vagrants, only ever seen in very small numbers or bizarrely recorded once...
The Crane on the 500won coin is the symbol of Japan and Korea. However its numbers have been much reduced nowadays from what they were. Many times in korea you will see pictures of the red-crowned crane- but few Koreans will ever see one now. I managed to see 3 on the mudflats of Gangwha once..but most that visit here stick to the unspoiled area of the DMZ. They don't breed here, only visit for the winter.
Many people think the graceful white birds to be seen everywhere in the rice paddies are cranes: no- they are egrets. The crane is a much bigger and more specialised bird.. 3 species visit Korea for the winter, the red crowned, Hooded, and white-naped- all in low numbers now, at a few select sites...
But hopefully conservation and birdwatching will increase in Korea in time to preserve the last remaining important areas of habitat before its all gone- not least they have to be sure to preserve the DMZ and samangeum... |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:02 am Post subject: |
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I actually had a bird book when I lived around Kochang, two years out in the country. It wasn't 'The Birds of Korea', then, because it had excellent photos. It was expensive, 35,000 won. Got it at Kyobo in Seoul. The text is in hangul.
I always thought the bird on the 500w coin was a 'hahk' and that hahk means crane. Nope. Less than two years ago I was in Tawain teaching. The red topped crane is very important there, symbolic. The officetel the teachers were staying in was named after them. And inlaid in the polished, stonework floors were cranes. The national newspaper kept tabs on them, a certain Taiwanese area they stayed at for awhile.
I've asked the kids if they'd heard owls. Because when I lived out near Kochang there was one hooting at night on the nearby mountain. For a week or so, every night. I've seen owls in the daytime in Canada, quite alot. Great Horned owl, once a very big grey looking one. Found owl feathers which are very soft, unlike the feathers of a hawk which are rough. Soft to cut down flight noise. In the day they just want to be left alone. Too close and they leap from their perch and swoop a short distance away, perched and 'dozing'. |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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Bird identification question!
Around my town near Yongin, and in the woods near Anyang, I've seen and heard a bird that I can't classify, and it's starting to drive me bonkers.
It has a distinct and frequent SQUEAK! and it flies in a swoop-flutter-swoop-flutter pattern. It's been very hard to get a peek at it, because it tends to alight very high, but since the trees are starting to clear, I've had a couple glances.
The first peek at it seemed to reveal a pointed, white-edged tail, rather like a dove. I got another look at it in profile (on a different occasion; hopefully this is the same bird) and it resembled an American robin or a phoebe more than a dove. It seemed to have an upright posture and a medium, pointed beak.
Clear as mud? |
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