The Busan Drunk Bird Flu

  
  Observe if you will…a tale about a sinister flu that starts in East Asia, and spreads from animals to humans. I wrote it in…OCTOBER! Neer-neer-neer-neer, neer-neer-neer-neer…(Twilight Zone riff)

https://coffinbell.com/the-busan-drunk-bird-flu/

(To read my other published birding tales, click on this handy clickety-click and scroll down:
http://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/search/label/Writing%20stuff-published%20stories)

Weekend Whitethroat

Hanging out with the uni bird club kids - the coolest folks in Korea

Long-tailed Shrike Lanius schach

Long-tailed Shrike Lanius schach

Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca

  Late last Saturday, I got news of a Lesser Whitethroat sighting in Busan. Being a fairly mega bird for Korea, I found myself on an early Sunday morning bus before I knew what was happening. At the spot where it was found by a group of university bird club members (perhaps there is hope for Korea), the first bird of note was a smart Long-tailed Shrike. An uncommon bird, and always awesome to observe. A worryingly short distance away from the shrike, the Lesser Whitethroat appeared next to a trail, flitting confidently through the small trees. It was lucky I saw the bird so soon after the initial sighting, as it wasn't seen the following week. Hopefully a recent spell of cold, wet weather is responsible for the absence, and not the lethal-looking shrike.

Last bird of the year

Smog-veiled Suncheon Bay

Pine Bunting Emberiza leucocephalos

   It's December 31st again, and I've managed to sneak in a cheeky birding session this morning, which is becoming something of a personal tradition for this date. After a hairy pre-dawn motorcycle ride out to the bay (frozen fingers, frosty visor, and terrifying black ice), I shuffled around a hazy landscape in which no sounds resounded except for the glorious complaints of Hooded Cranes.
  After a couple of quiet hours, and just as I muttered "What a slow bloody bird day!" to myself, I spotted three LBJs perched immobile at the top of the 'Long-eared Owl' tree. On the large side for buntings and strangely perched in a tree (as opposed to skulking restlessly in the scrub) they had me confounded until I was able to creep in closer. The warm chest had me thinking Meadow Bunting, but a glimpse of a Tree Sparrow-like white cheek clinched it...Pine Bunting! PINE BUNTING! A very long-awaited life bird for me, and one that I had long since given up all reasonable hopes of seeing. I spent a few glorious minutes watching them in the gloomy light before they flew off, seemingly towards the very horizon. Happy New Year indeed!

Here's what I wrote last year on this date:

"There are no suitable adjectives. Snowy *#@%ing Owl. 
 A perfect way to end the year. Interestingly, my birding buds in Korea, JP and Subs, also ended out their years with owlifers. Situational symmetry. I just realized that for the last few years, I've been birding hard on December 31st. In 2013 I was in Seoul searching unsuccessfully for Hazel Grouse, and the last day of 2012 saw Dr. Moores and I freezing in the name of a Long-tailed Shrike at Igidae. Here's hoping that 2015 will bring us all more awesome birds, and hopefully less bad news about bird habitat, as well as every other damn thing."

Snowy Owl Found

Spot it?

Freezing my arse off, leaning on a barbed wire fence = best New Year's Eve ever

The best view of a Snowy Owl you're likely to get, unless you bring a pillowcase full of mice...

Snowy Owl Bubo scandiacus

Snowy Owl Bubo scandiacus

Dan's crude iPhone + binoculars digiscope attempt

OSO#1 - I think it was also a Snowy...

  I've been waiting to use that obvious and satisfying title for far too long. Dan and I have tried to find this ghostly gargoyle for years, with zero success. Yesterday we cruised around St.Hubert Airport for a couple of hours, scanning the surrounding fields intently. We held one huge advantage this time when compared to past attempts - most of the snow around Montreal has melted over the past week, rendering the Snowy Owl's perfect camouflage much less effective.
  As usual, we pulled over to examine quite a few OSOs (Owl Shaped Objects), only to have them reveal themselves to be stumps, signs, or plastic bags. As we came around the end of the runway, we spotted a good-looking OSO in a promising spot - on a mound of earthen debris at the edge of the runway. We squinted at it for a good 20 minutes from every available angle, but it didn't move. "It's an air vent," then, several seconds later "It moved! It moved! Wait, no..."
  We gave up and headed down the road a bit, vowing to return to OSO#1, when we spotted another OSO on the other side of the road. Same shtick: "I see eyes! Shit, no, I don't see eyes," This was definitely one of my rare 'My-kingdom-for-a-scope' moments, as we were battling with significant distance, and the vicious winds that made it feel like -20 C. We stared at this static blob for a bit then checked out some other fields.
  When we returned 30 minutes later, OSO#1 still had not moved, and we owlucinated on owl-s-d for several more minutes before moving on to OSO#2. "It...moved? It moved! SNOWY *#@%ing OWL!" We were slightly excited. We watched it from the fence line, as it hopped up to the top of the mound for sentry duty, until all 40 digits were frozen solid. Spectacular bird. Massive. Stately. There are no suitable adjectives. Snowy *#@%ing Owl.
  A perfect way to end the year. Interestingly, my birding buds in Korea, JP and Subs, also ended out their years with owlifers.
  Situational symmetry. I just realized that for the last few years, I've been birding hard on December 31st. In 2013 I was in Seoul searching unsuccessfully for Hazel Grouse, and the last day of 2012 saw Dr. Moores and I freezing in the name of a Long-tailed Shrike at Igidae. Here's hoping that 2015 will bring us all more awesome birds, and hopefully less bad news about bird habitat, as well as every other damn thing.

Igidae, Busan, December 31, 2012

Varied Tit Sittiparus varius

female Eurasian Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula

Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus

Goldcrest Regulus regulus

Grey-capped Greenfinch Chloris sinica

mysterious 'rufous-gorgeted' Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus

  I had the pleasure of spending the last day of 2012 with Dr. Moores, a remarkably intelligent birder/conservationist, and all-around good bloke. We scoured Igidae at a leisurely pace, and while we didn't run into anything super rare, we had a great day getting to know a lot of the more common birds a bit better. It started to get frigid by day's end, and indeed, a large system of cold weather is pushing through Korea over the next week. We'll see if any birds come down with the system...

Nakdong, Dadaepo, and Junam Reservoir, December 23, 2012

Looking in different directions...

Gimhae, the day before

'Scenic' Gimhae

Dead cormorant

Skeletal cormorant

Squadron of cormorants at dawn

Swan Goose Anser cygnoides

Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus

immature Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus

White-tailed Sea Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla

Brambling Fringilla montifringilla

  It was a great day of birding with friends new and old, and close to 75 species seen. A frigid, windy dawn and several great species awaited us at the Nakdong River. A distant, shimmering scope view of two Steller’s Sea Eagles was a great way to start the day - their stocky and imposing presence was evident even at a distance. Also along this stretch were several Eurasian Curlew, a Eurasian Oystercatcher, and a healthy assemblage of gulls.
  Closer to Dadaepo, a Light-vented Bulbul was spotted mixed in with a large flock of Brown-eared Bulbuls roiling through the treetops. This represents the first record of Light-vented Bulbul for the Busan area, more evidence of a species steadily colonizing the ROK. Dadaepo was fairly quiet, with several Eurasian Bullfinch and Pale Thrush in evidence.
  At Junam, we quickly spotted nine Swan Geese, a great sight to watch as they broke through ice in the fields to feed. Also of note at Junam were nine White-naped Crane, two White-tailed Sea Eagle, and several rotund Brambling.

Igidae, Busan, November 17, 2012

Good spot for a picnic

Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis

adult winter Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus

juvenile Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus

male Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus

female Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius

Warbling (Japanese) White-eye Zosterops japonicus

Goldcrest Regulus regulus

Grey-capped Greenfinch Chloris sinica

Eurasian bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula 

Bipalium (Hammerhead Worm) Bipalium kewense

Bipalium (Hammerhead Worm) Bipalium kewense

  I woke up very early a couple of weeks ago to check out Igidae - it was 5am on a dark, rainy and cold Saturday morning - the kind of situation that makes one wonder if birders really are touched in the head. Anyway, the rain finally tapered off as the sun rose over this forested bit of land jutting into the sea, and it actually turned into a great, crisp autumn day to go birding.  
  Things started well as I dipped on a Long-tailed Shrike that had been hanging out near some apartments. My favourite bird of the day ended up being a worm! I spotted several 'hammerhead worm' (Bipalium) working the trails in the early morning. These flatworms feed on snails and earthworms, and have the ability to regenerate into two worms if cut in half. Very cool.
  Overall it was a day filled with small birds, and I got some great long looks at Goldcrests and Eurasian Bullfinch, among others. I was hoping to spot something crazy like a Yellow-bellied Tit, but it wasn't meant to be.
  In other news, a Brown Booby was spotted at a major touristy beach in Busan. It looked pretty disheveled in the picture. Looking at the range maps for this bird, I have to wonder why it isn't spotted (noticed?) more regularly along Korea's southern coast.

Japanese Robin (!) - November 20, 2012

spot the Japanese Robin Erithacus akahige

Japanese Robin Erithacus akahige

  I spent a wonderful few hours of crisp birding in a quiet valley near Gohyeon. The valley has been quite productive for birds over the past month, probably due to its remoteness and consequential very light foot traffic on the trail. After a relatively quiet trip back down the trail, I spotted a small dark bird flutter from the stream up to the bank. I first assumed it was yet another Eurasian Wren, but it was noticeably quiet, and something about it didn’t add up. I got a look at it with the binos and was more than pleased to realize that I’d finally crossed paths with a gorgeous but shy Japanese Robin. I'd been hoping to see one of these exceedingly rare and skulking birds for years! I'm surprised I got a picture at all considering the low light and the fact that I was shaking with excitement! Good bird.
  The wacky part about it is that I woke up at 5 a.m. this past rainy and cold Saturday to head to Igidae, Busan in the vain hope of seeing this bird. No luck. Then today I saunter through a valley embarrassingly close to my apartment on my lunch break and see one! That's how the bird gods work I suppose...

The places

Mines...they really don't want us birding back there!

  All in all though, I can't really complain! Birding on Geoje and Busan has led me to some gorgeous spots...