Au revoir, Gangneung

Dusky Thrush Turdus eunomus

Stejneger’s Stonechat Saxicola stejnegeri

Black-faced Bunting Emberiza spodocephala

Buff-bellied Pipit Anthus rubescens

Buff-bellied Pipit Anthus rubescens

  I’ve just wrapped up my Gangneung sojourn – ‘twas the fifth Korean province I’ve lived in, crazy. I’ll miss Gangneung’s scruffy pride, and my old-school farming neighbourhood, which was being carved into by new apartment construction sites as I left. If I return one day, I have a feeling, that, like my return to Gimpo 12 years after living there, it may be unrecognizable to me. Or perhaps it would be like a recent return to Jeju, where I came away feeling wounded inside at the voracious rate of ‘development’ there. The grass is always greener in the past, I suppose, especially when the grass of today is concrete. What?
  Anyhow, I leave with a surprisingly heavy heart – I would have enjoyed experiencing Gangneung’s other two seasons, bird-wise (especially the locally nesting Watercocks, grrrr). As always, I learned a lot about Korea’s birds, as I tried to stuff the gaps in my knowledge, one mistake at a time. I made some progress with gulls, but don’t ever ask me about gonydeal angles, or anything goofy like that, heh heh. Seems I’m not as dialed into the finer points of pipit/wagtail identification as I had convinced myself I was, among other things.
  Well, time to head south…then north, one island at a time! Here’s hoping I head into this spring a bit better prepared to deal with the ‘stimulation overload’ I experienced when I first got to Gageo Island in late April of 2013. One bird at a time.

Gangneung, April 1-6, 2019
  Quiet in the ‘house hills’ on April Fool’s Day. The following day on the river, a first-of-year Common Sandpiper, and six more Red-billed Starlings spotted skulking in low trees at the river’s edge. Where do these birds nest? I’ve seen several species of starling in Korea nesting in hollow metal telephone poles, but I’ve never seen Red-billed nesting, so who knows.

  On the third, I walked the lake for the last time. A mix of only several hundred waterfowl is all that remains on the lake, and almost no gulls left. Of note, two Mandarin Ducks spotted, a half dozen Little Ringed Plovers, a lone Far Eastern Skylark in the fields, a single Barn Swallow, two Dusky Thrush, a female Black-faced Bunting in a spot where I hadn’t seen any all winter (spring movement?), nine Pallas’s Reed Buntings, and my first Common Reed Bunting for Gangneung (my 158th and final species for Gangneung).
  At the tail-end of the walk, I encountered two Buff-bellied Pipits – one showing the familiar pink-orange legs, while the second had dark legs not typical for Buff-bellied. I flipped through the pages in my mental field guide to potential rare species such as Water Pipit, but after puzzling through with a little help from friends, it seems most likely it was just a Buff-bellied with unusually dark legs.

  The next day, I did my final river walk and logged 35 species. A vicious wind ripped through town all day and later into the night, which unfortunately led to the spread of devastating wild fires north and south of Gangneung that night. Two more Mandarin Ducks and only a single Barn Swallow were seen at the start of the walk. Four Red-billed Starlings were again observed skulking low along the river bank, including one pair seen acting territorial around a large bush where I saw similar activity two days earlier. The case for riverside nesting seems to be strengthening. Too bad I won’t be around to confirm this hypothesis, as I too must follow the winds of spring. A lone male Stejneger’s Stonechat was another hint at the torrent of migration that will pass north through Korea this month. Ah, I haven’t observed any Siberian Accentors in town since March 16th.

  At dawn on my last day in Gangneung, I was woken by the staccato burring song of a Dusky Thrush from the hills behind my house. That’s it that’s all.