Feisty Tiger Keelback, and other snakes

Tiger Keelback Rhabdophis tigrinus

Tiger Keelback Rhabdophis tigrinus

Tiger Keelback Rhabdophis tigrinus

Tiger Keelback Rhabdophis tigrinus

  Snakewatching is my second favourite outdoor activity after birdwatching. I came across this feisty Tiger Keelback at dusk yesterday at the 'tail-end' of a 10-hour birdathon. It was good to see a live one - usually I see them when they're flat on the road. This one was very aggressive, and when I approached it to get some pics it reared up at me with its hood flattened out, cobra-style. Its body raised up quite a bit and it just stood there until I backed off. Very cool.

  In other snake news, I spotted a bright green snake dash into some bushes a couple of weeks ago. It was much quicker than the snakes I normally encounter, and I've never seen a solidly-coloured bright green snake in Korea, so this one has me scratching my head.

Unfortunately this is usually how I find Tiger Keelbacks

Sadly, a freshly dead and gorgeous Dione Ratsnake Elaphe dione

Ussuri Mamushi Pitviper Gloydius blomhoffi, frogwatching

Tiny Dione Ratsnake roadkill

I thought it was a worm at first

Grey Bunting!

Grey Bunting habitat

Grey Bunting Emberiza variabilis

  This is a definitely a 'Wow!' bird, even if it looks like your average LBJ (and no, it's not a female Black-faced Bunting). These guys are very thin on the ground, found scarcely in the south of the ROK in the winter, only in the quietest of damp and dark forest habitats. They are extremely skulking, too. I spotted this female while I was staking out a quiet stream relatively close to where I live. More bird news soon!

Weasel face

Siberian Weasel Mustela sibirica

 Siberian Weasel, that is. I almost stepped on this one as I came around a corner on a quiet path this morning. It somersaulted off and glared at me indignantly from within its hole.

Crow-mag

Eurasian Magpie Pica pica with Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos

  Here is something I haven't seen too often - a Large-billed Crow and a Eurasian Magpie hanging out together. These two had actually joined forces to keep close tabs on a cat. Interesting to compare relative sizes.
  This was taken on 'Black Wood Pigeon Island' just off Geoje, in early September. The Woodies were still there, by the way.

Life happens/Juveniles of summer

Eastern Spot-billed Duck(lings) Anas zonorhyncha

Blue-and-white Flycatcher Cyanoptila cyanomelana

Eurasian Jays Garrulus glandarius

Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus

Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea

  Time passes in strange ways here in the ROK. Sometimes days seem like months, and sometimes half a year will slip by in a baffling hurry. I won't get into it, but it's been an interesting few months, and my birding has suffered. Ah well, time to get back into it!
  There isn't a whole lot of birding to report from the summer, but I did find a good variety of nice juvenile birds when I went out on a rare early-August birding foray.
   Feels good to shake off the rust! Right, I'm off birding.

Slow May

Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus

Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus

  Still a disturbingly quiet May here on Geoje Island, bird-wise.

The Perils

Chinese Red-headed Centipede Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans

Chinese Red-headed Centipede Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans

Bales and baggies of dried centipedes for sale at a Jeju market

  One of my scariest birding moments happened the other day. I was motor-biking around Geoje's west coast rice fields, when I came upon a heap of rotting deer faces. While studying this novel fly-ridden horror, I had an impulse to look down at my leg, and happened to see a hefty Chinese Red-headed Centipede scuttling up towards my crotch. We’re talking a red-faced, venom-fanged demon nine inches long. I swatted at it with my mercifully-gloved hand while grimacing and making a high-pitched Wuuuuuh! sound. As I swept my hand back up, the centipede clung to my glove for an instant, before spiralling through the air straight at my face in slow-motion. I flinched, and when I opened my eyes I couldn't locate it. So I jumped up and down like a ninny, swatting frantically at my clothes, doing the centipede dance. I finally spotted the brute heading into the leaf litter, and had enough time to snap a picture, before checking my underpants for damage.
  You can find these centipedes for sale at Korea’s rural markets, dried and in little bundles. Elderly Koreans grind them up for use in hillbilly energy drinks or something. Whatever floats your boat, eh.

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...

Late April birds...(where are they?)

Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus

Grey Heron Ardea cinerea

Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius

Pale Thrush Turdus pallidus

Varied Tit Sittiparus varius

Eastern Crowned Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus

Eastern Crowned Warbler Phylloscopus coronatus

Common Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus

Korean Water Deer Hydropotes inermis

Korean Water Deer Hydropotes inermis

 I have come to realize that I was completely spoiled on Jeju when it came to habitat. Usually, late April in Korea is a magical time filled with colourful and spectacular migrating passerines. The last three Aprils on Jeju saw me knee-deep in Brown-headed, Japanese, Siberian, and Eyebrowed Thrush, Asian Brown, Blue-and-white, and Japanese Paradise Flycatchers, Ashy Minivets, Chinese Pond Heron, Oriental Pratincole, and the sexy list goes on. And this was literally in my backyard in Seogwipo.
  Sadly, this is not the case on Geoje. I have been searching since I got here in January, but I just can't seem to find 'the spot'. Maybe there isn't one. Maybe the migrants are sticking further west - they're certainly being spotted on Jeju and places like Gageo-do.
  Last weekend JP and I went to Taejeongdae in Busan with high hopes, but we didn't see a whole lot, not even a Japanese Robin that he spotted there a while back. The birding gods are not smiling on me this time round.
  Yesterday, blessed with a rare day off, I checked out another nearby island. I found another seven Black Wood Pigeons, but not a single flycatcher or thrush (that wasn't a Pale Thrush!).
  I'm going to keep at it.

Black Wood Pigeon redux, with JP

JP, living the dream

Badass biker-birding!

Those are canola flowers - I often snack on them while birding!

Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus feeding

Arctic Loons (Black-throated Loons) Gavia arctica

Black Wood Pigeon Columba janthina

Fire-bellied Toads Bombina orientalis getting cannibalistic

Fire-bellied Toad Bombina orientalis

  Last weekend the singular JP came out from Busan to check out 'Black Wood Pigeon Island' with me. We found at least a dozen this time. In spite of almost tripping on them after a while, I remained fairly enthusiastic about each new one we spotted! Other birds of note included some wicked-looking Black Kites, numerous Korean Bush Warbler, A raft of Arctic Loons, and a Blue-and-White Flycatcher, my first flycatcher of the year. We also spotted at least 100 Brown-eared Bulbuls rallying together and flying north towards 'mainland' Geoje-do. Also notable were dozens of Fire-bellied Toads in an old flooded Japanese gun emplacement.