South by Southwest

Northern Boobook (Brown Hawk Owl) Ninox japonica

Styan’s Grasshopper Warbler Helopsaltes pleskei
© Leslie Hurteau

Ring-necked Pheasant Phasianus colchicus

Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus

Little Egret Egretta garzetta

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius

Brown-headed Thrush Turdus chrysolaus

Grey-capped Greenfinch Chloris sinica

Olive-backed Pipit Anthus hodgsoni

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina

Bee careful

Southwest Jeju (Andeok, Sanbangsan, Seotal, Ilgwa, Yongsu) May 7, 2023

  Went for a thorough ramble round the best little corner of Jeju Island with my birding buddy Leslie. So many memories were reactivated as we hit each spot. I used to love cruising around the area on my old bucket of bolts motorcycle back in the day, with the smell of crops, fertile soil, and ocean spray blasting through my helmet. The land of garlic drying by the side of the road. It's been good to recharge the tanks with a bit of adventure sauce, I was running low.

  I met Leslie on a pelagic in 2019, and he’s moved to Jeju in the meantime. Give him his crown, he is the unchallenged birding king of Jeju. He hustles hard, and he knows his shit! I’ve enjoyed checking on his updates over the past couple of years – he has an uncanny nose for finding rarities, and he no doubt makes local birders nervous, heh.

  What’s the saying about three warblers in one bush? Pretty sure there’s a saying. Anyway, we were cruising slowly around Sangmo-ri, when Leslie heard something coming from some bushes that fringed a guest house. The lad with the golden ear. We stopped, and when we heard a laser beam song, Leslie called a grasshopper warbler. But which one? Styan’s? Middendorf’s? Have I mentioned that I suck at Korean warblers?

  Under a light rain, we staked out the row of bushes for about an hour, and we were left scratching our heads. Leslie thought the song sounded good for Middendorf’s Grasshopper Warbler, but some of the glimpses of warbler we were getting were not quite adding up. And some of them were. The views were distant, incomplete, and very brief. In the end, after much chin rubbing, research, and third opinions, it turns out the bird was a Styan’s (formerly Pleske’s) Grasshopper Warbler. After sorting through pics, I was appalled, but not surprised, to find that I had been photographing three species of warbler (Black-browed Reed, and Oriental Reed Warblers), all of which were popping in and out of the same bush. Styan’s!

  As we cruised around Yongsu towards the end of the day, I was struck by the abundance of Red-billed Starlings and Light-vented Bulbuls. They’ve both become well-established on Jeju. Way back in 2009, there were only a handful of records of each.

  Also of note: a Siberian Rubythroat at Seotal Oreum, an exhausted Northern Boobook at the Ilgwa Myna spot, and overall, a decent sampling of spring birds. We tallied 68 species in 12 hours. A lot of good banter and gossip was exchanged throughout the day, and hopefully I can bird with Leslie before I leave the island.

https://ebird.org/tripreport/125855