If you’ve been following my blog, even for a short time, you might have noticed that I have what polite society might call a condition. To say that I have “birds on the brain” doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. I have dreams about birds, usually involving species I haven’t seen perching out in the open under perfect lighting conditions for me to photograph at my leisure. I consider myself fluent in over 400 languages, because that is roughly the number of species I can readily identify by song or call alone (and that number continues to grow). So, yeah, I have a condition.
Therefore it should go as no surprise that when my friend Jason Loghry at Birds Korea asked me to join the 2014 Birdathon, I literally jumped at the chance. For those of you who don’t know, a Birdathon is a fundraising event wherein participants are sponsored to go out and see or hear as many different species as possible within a 24-hour period. Sponsors can decide to pay a set amount of money per species, per hour spent birding, or a lump sum total. For this Birdathon, all proceeds go directly to Birds Korea to help fund their conservation efforts protecting the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper and the habitats it utilizes here in South Korea. It’s important work, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute in my own way.
I’ve already written about Eocheong-do (어청도), so this post is strictly about the birds. And oh, the birds we did see. There were six participants in this year’s Birdathon at Eocheong-do; other Birds Korea members did separate Birdathons at other locations in Korea and elsewhere in the world. This year’s event carried with it the caveat that participants cannot use any mode of transportation other than their feet during the actual count period; i.e. we could take a ferry boat to Eocheong-do, but could not count any species seen during that time. Here are some vital statistics on Birdathon 2014:
Duration: 4 days (May 3 – 6)
Birdathon Count Period: May 3, 10:20AM – May 4, 10:20AM
Birdathon Count Period Total: 78 species heard/observed
Total Species Counted on Eocheong-do: 95 species
Species Added to Life List: 18 (me); 22 (Melanie)
Funds Raised: 171,000₩
To briefly summarize our four day adventure, the birding was nothing short of spectacular. Every day brought in new migrants, and every inch of the island was crawling with birds. The vast majority were yellow-browed warblers, but hidden among them were less common species like Kamchatka leaf warbler and pale-legged leaf warbler. As I have been told many times, the best birding in Korea can be found offshore on the islands, and I found this out to be true first-hand. It wasn’t just the numbers of birds, but also the variety of species. We even had to good fortune of spotting two mega-rarities: a cinnamon bittern and Korea’s third record of northern wheatear!
Here are a few of the highlights of our trip to Eocheong-do:
Narcissus Flycatcher (Ficedula narcissina)
Blue-and-white Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cyanomelana cyanomelana)
Chestnut Bunting (Emberiza rutila)
Yellow-breasted Bunting (Emberiza aureola ornata)
Classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List
Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis bengalensis)
Chinese Pond-heron (Ardeola bacchus)
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus himantopus)
Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus)
Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus lucionensis)
Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe oenanthe)
This is only the 3rd time this species has been recorded in South Korea
These are but a small portion of all the images I took during our trip to Eocheong-do. I encourage you to explore the Asian Bird galleries at my website if you’d like to see more from the trip.
The Birdathon Crew
From left: Jason Loghry, Hwang Haemin, Melanie Proteau Blake, Patrick Blake, Ha Jeongmun, and Kim Ohjin
It was a tremendous experience, one that will not soon be repeated. Melanie and I were able to see some incredible birds and experience a migration unlike any we had before, and all the while we were raising money to help protect the crucial habitats that the birds we know and love depend on for survival. A big thanks goes out to Birds Korea for hosting this event, and to my fellow Birdathoners here and abroad, for their dedication and passion that make birding the great past time that it is.
On the Wing 