captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:40 am Post subject: Natural Korea; Great Gray Herons. |
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Isn't it easy to think Korea is just a concrete jungle during the week? Weekends a different story; it's easy to get out of town. I went out on the dirtbike looking for trails and saw something National Geographic-ish. Looking at it was like watching a nature documentary on TV. Waiting for the commentator to start talking about it.
From a kilometer away, on the secondary highway, were what looked like very strange trees. Tall, with graceful limbs. Never saw any like it and took sideroads to where the farmer's village dwellings meet the small mountain chain.
The trees were normal, they'd just been removed of their leaves most of their tops and in them perched (don't know if this is the correct name) Great Grey Herons. These are large birds, about twice the size of the usual white crane sort of thing one sees in rice fields. Big wide wings, stately flight, neck in an 'S' when they fly.
All close together in the treetops denuded, I assume, by them. A certain area, a cluster of trees. This being visible from a kilometer away. I'd guess, and I'm not a birdwatcher really, there were about five hundred.
You know the Independence Hall just outside Cheonan? Well a km or so from that is the Korean National Youth Centre. Across the valley plain from that is the area where the Great Grey Herons are. |
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