Narcissus Flycatcher

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina (first-summer male - note olive-brown patches and less vivid throat - Mara Island, South Korea, April 2009)

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina (male, Mara Island, April 2009)

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina (first-summer male - Jeju Island, May 2009)

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina (male, Jeju Island, April 2010)

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina (first-summer(?) male - Jeju Island, April 2010)

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina (male - Jeju Island, April 2010)

Narcissus Flycatcher Ficedula narcissina (male - Jeju Island, April 2011)

  Hard to think of a better name for such a gorgeous bird. They do kind of swagger like they know it, too! Their Korean name, 'Hwanggeumsae' translates to 'Yellow-gold bird'. Aptly named again.
  For a few magic weeks in late April to early May, I used to spot these unmistakable glowing birds at several choice locations in my patch on Jeju Island. One of them was a quiet riverside park, where several males (never the drab olive females) could always be found loitering in the trees over the river. The Narcissus winters down in Borneo, and breeds in Japan, only passing through Korea's southeast briefly. Here's hoping we get some here on Geoje this spring!

Mammals of Korea (a few more)

Roe, a deer, a female deer - Jeju Island, March 2009

Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus, Jeju Island, March 2009

Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus, Jeju Island, March 2009

Mysterious windowsill rodent head (perhaps a Dsinezumi Shrew?)

  I found some shinier pictures of Roe Deer from near the summit of Mount Halla on Jeju Island (at 1950m, the highest peak in South Korea). Additionally, I came across a picture of a rodent head on a windowsill. I had a very strange student at the time who was being raised by his grandparents on a pig farm, and I suspect he brought the head in and put it there, and watched the ensuing uproar (girls screaming and standing on chairs, as they do) with twisted glee. From the muzzle, it looks possibly like a shrew.
  Ok, back to birds. Although I do have some good pics of 'Reptiles of Korea'....

Mammals of Korea (just a few)

Mystery bat (Far Eastern Myotis Myotis bombinus?) + two crickets - Jeju Island, October 2009

Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus - Jeju Island, March 2011

Siberian Weasel Mustela sibirica (almost) - Jeju Island, April 2011

Short-beaked Common Dolphin Delphinus delphis (surfing) - Jeju Island, March 2011

Short-beaked Common Dolphin Delphinus delphis - Jeju Island, May 2011

Short-beaked Common Dolphin Delphinus delphis - Jeju Island, May 2011

Manchurian Sika Deer Cervus nippon mantchuricus  (note the anger) - Ilsan, February 2008

Siberian Chipmunk Eutamias sibiricus - Ilsan, April 2008

Red Squirrel Sciurus vulgaris - Geoje Island, January 2012

Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus - Jeju Island, May 2011

Temminck's Mole Mogera wogura - Ilsan, April 2008

Norway Rat Rattus norvegicus - Jeju Island, September 2010

  Here are a few of the mammals I've come across during my Korean bird-ventures over the years - still waiting to see a Raccoon Dog! I'd also like to see a Water Deer, in all its fanginess.

  The Manchurian Sika Deer was notable for two reasons. Firstly, they're supposed to have been extirpated in the wild in that part of Korea, so perhaps this one escaped from a deer farm. Secondly, this big boy mock charged me, and wouldn't let me pass for a good five minutes, in spite of my frantic arm-waving and whooping. A close shave, and I'm not too proud to admit that I was scared like a small child during that particular episode.

  The Norway Rat was notable because it made a Korean woman scream like a maniac and stand on a chair. I didn't think things like that actually happened in real life.

Blue Rock Thrush

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius (immature male - Jeju Island, January 2009)

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius (female - Jeju Island, January 2009)

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius (scruffy male fledgling - Jeju Island, May 6, 2009)

Blue Rock Thrush (my spirit guide, after all) being artfully applied to my back during a charity beach volleyball tournament...

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius (female - Deokjeok Island, March 2008)

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius (immature male, note the scaling - Jeju Island, South Korea, September 2009)

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius (male - Jeju Island, April 2009)

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius (immature male -Jeju Island, February 2009)

  I have been on Geoje-do for almost a month now, and I've yet to see a Blue Rock Thrush. This strikes me as odd, as this island seems to possess a solid array of suitable coastal habitat. On Jeju-do, I saw these active and outgoing birds perched very regularly year round, even in parks and in the city, and once hunting in the indoor parking garage at a Home Plus (a large department store)!
  I'm getting a motorcycle soon, so hopefully I'll find where these guys are hiding on Geoje as my range expands.

Montreal, December 4th, 2011 - Leftover birds

American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos - suicide?

Barred Owl Strix varia - high-five!

Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus

Brown Creeper Certhia americana, creeping (and creepily similar to the Eurasian Treecreeper)

Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens

Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus

female House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus (and White-breasted Nuthatch Sitta carolinensis posterior)

male House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus

Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis

Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus, almost

Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos (we were sure this was the Solitaire at first)

Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis

  Here are a few pics of some of the other birds we met along the way. The Barred Owl was exciting - it was in a park, and it looked sleepy and grumpy, like me. There were plenty of owl-snack-sized squirrels nearby, all fat, happy, and delicious. Not that I tried one, I'm just saying.

The face-freezing quest for the Townsend's Solitaire - Montreal, December 4, 2011

Birds, nerds, and the dead

Thanks Gilles!

Townsend's Solitaire Myadestes townsendi

Townsend's Solitaire Myadestes townsendi

Townsend's Solitaire Myadestes townsendi

Townsend's Solitaire Myadestes townsendi

  It was an entertaining twitch for a super-rare bird that far east - here were my thoughts at the time:

 I spent the last two days in a cemetery, with Dan, a person I first birded with decades ago. We were looking for a small grey bird, the evocatively named Townsend’s Solitaire. They usually hang around the Rockies, but this one was hopelessly lost. We spent Saturday morning and afternoon wandering among the tombstones along with a dozen other twitchers, with no luck.

  Today we returned even earlier. I hate mornings. So we drifted aimlessly among the dead, again, in face-freezing weather. We split up to cover more ground, and I ended up zoning out and reading tombstones up in the hills, having completely forgotten about birds.
  Suddenly my phone rang, and it was a gracious local birder named Gilles, who I had absent-mindedly given my phone number to earlier. He found the Solitaire. I sprinted down the hill and got profoundly lost, but I eventually hooked back up with Dan, and we soon found a flock of birders gawking up at a tree. The Solitaire was singing away in relatively plain sight, and then it came down and posed for us. Good twitch.

  Looking at the pics, it looks almost exactly like an Asian Brown Flycatcher from the shoulders up. Shoulders?