I planned a trip to the south east of the country later in the week so I spent a couple of days walking around the Daejeon area. Things were pretty much the same in the Cemetery, apart from a new arrival, an Oriental Cuckoo that was singing in the woods. At first this completely confused me and I imagined it was a Hoopoe as it sounds surprising similar.
As Grant was now back at work, I went out on the Monday in the pouring rain and followed a river tributary through a recently developed area and onto farmland towards a forest. I turned out it was hard to get into the forest from this area as all paths seemed to lead to someones garden. However, I came across a pair of Bull-headed Shrikes that obviously had a nest site nearby.
There were also a few Daurian Redstarts around that also obviously had nest sites. I had seen one previously outside Grants flat. The males are really stunning birds indeed.
On Tuesday I decided to walk north along the river as Grant had told me about a small colony of White-cheeked Starlings a few miles up. It was still raining, sometimes quite heavily, but had a warm, humid feel about it so it was actually quite pleasant and the sun did shine from time to time.
I found the Starlings nesting in drainage pipes built in to a concrete KTX railway bridge. There didn't seem to be that many of them but it was hard to tell, they were moving backwards and forwards between the nest sites and across the river.
I also came across a small flock of Chinese Penduline Tits in a reedbed along the riverside. Grant later said he hadn't seem them in Daejeon, but he was to see them on a couple of occasions in the coming days.
I kept walking north along the river, it was clearly much further than I had anticipated. I kept going a while longer and it was just as good I did because I came to a small sandy outlet from a tributary that had a strange looking Wood Sandpiper in it, no that's not a Wood Sand its a Grey-tailed Tattler, then another one flew in and was promptly chased off by the first.
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| Grey-tailed Tattler. |
I ran off a few shots, couldn't quite get the clarity on them, even though the bird was very close and I knew it was getting busy along the footpath now. I also noticed at least 3 Long-billed Plovers in the area including one walking along the cycle track right in front of me.
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Long-billed Plover
I carried on north but the path was blocked due to some huge bridge being built, so I made my way back the way I'd come, it was a lot longer going back but I got a chance to take some more pictures. A couple of Barn Swallows flew over and a single Red-rumped Swallow too. A Pygmy Woodpecker was foraging on dead reeds literally a few feet from me but my pictures were absolutely shite, however I did get this shot of its bum....
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| Dark-spotted Frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus) |
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| Tree Sparrows are abundant, and it seems they are on the increase here |
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| Eastern Spot-billed Ducks are common here. The only other duck I saw occasionally were Mandarins |
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Magpies are also common here, they look a lot more robust than our Magpies and they have different calls, some of which resemble Jackdaws
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| LRP |
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| Japanese Wagtail |
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