The weather was hazy/foggy all day. It did lift some, but we never really did get a good view of the Yellow Sea. Soon after we arrived I started walking south along the beach and saw lots of starfish washed up on shore (it was low tide.) They were very pretty and surprisingly, (to me, anyway) nothing was trying to eat them.
There were a fair amount of Black-tailed Gulls Larus crassirostris along the beach. These are the only gulls commonly found in Korea in the summer and they reminded me very much of the Ring-billed Gulls in the US as far as size and behavior.
Upon reaching the south end of the beach I explored the rocky outcropping some. I was able to climb the area between the big nob and the rest of the rocky coast and see the Yellow Sea (well, some of it, it was still very hazy). There were a few people fishing and I was able to see and photograph a Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius as it collected food for it's nestlings. It had a nest (I believe, I never saw it) in a hollow in the rocky face of the shore. In the picture below it is about ready to hop in to the left and feed it's brood. (I did hear "chick" noises coming from it.)
After not seeing much else except a Grey Wagtail and the omnipresent Eurasian Magpies, I headed back up the beach. Our Korean hosts (who work for MWR) had brought lunch so I had my first taste of Korean cuisine. The rice and beef were okay, if a little bland. There was some sort of clear-looking noodle with sauce that was pretty good (as long as you didn't look at it too much...for the life of me it looked like a pile of some sort of intestinal worm!) And then there was that famous Korean dish, kimchi. Now, in all fairness, it is my understanding that there are many varieties of kimchi so I shan't write it off completely based on one experience. However, this tasted like vegetables soaked in vinegar and flavored with turpentine. Needless to say, I didn't eat a whole lot of that. (A peanut butter sandwich I had packed rounded out my lunch!)
Without a great deal of hope, I then headed north up the beach to see what I could see in that direction. The haze had burnt off somewhat, but visibility was still not much more than a mile, maybe a mile and a half. I walked up the beach and then decided to follow the road north a bit because it looked like it went to another beach configured similar to Mallipo.
On the way, I discovered the Challipo Arboretum. After walking past most of it and seeing the various flowers, ponds and trees, I decided it might be my best bet for winged wildlife and went back to have a go. At the ticket office I was greeted by 2 nice young women who didn't speak much English (but still much more than I speak Korean!). We managed to communicate the admission price (fortunately I had the foresight to get some Won before I came--I'm still not positive that I didn't purchase a membership, but oh well,) and that I could not use my tripod on the grounds. It was okay for me to carry it, I just could not use it.
I was not disappointed, I did find a small flock of Vinous-throated Parrotbills Paradoxornis webbianus but was unable to get a picture. As my field guide aptly states, "...occuring in large, noisy, unseen flocks moving through the undergrowth." I was able to see them, but only fleetingly at any one time. They are a very plain looking brown bird, about the size of a small sparrow, with some chestnut "highlights" on the crown and wings and a proportionately long tail.
Then as I moved around some ponds planted with perennials, I was able to get some pictures of some butterflies and dragonflies. First we have a Cynthia cardui which was very pretty. This first one had lost a chunk of it's wing somehow.
And this shot of another individual shows the underside pattern as well.
The highlight of my dragonfly shots had to be this striking Crocothemis servilia servilia with it's amazing color. Love was in the air as almost all the odes I saw were flying about in wheel postures or ovipositing. (The "wheel" formation is how dragonflies fertilize the eggs and it is amazing to see them be able to fly while doing this. Ovipositing is the female depositing the eggs, normally in the water.)
Finally, after having covered most of the grounds, I decided I should head back to the beach. As I walked I did appreciate the countryside, which is growing scarce in South Korea. Urban sprawl is really sprawling. I paused and took a picture of a traditional-style house next to some rice paddies.
Once I returned to the beach, I sat and people-watched for a bit before succumbing to the urge to take a nap. All in all, not a bad day, but I was disappointed at the lack of coastal birds. I had dreams of Eurasian Spoonbills and Pacific Reef-herons. The beach was dirty, by American standards, anyway. And beach culture was different than in the west. Swimsuits were the exception, as most Koreans just seemed to wear whatever they had on into the water. There was also no regulation of the kind I have grown to expect at American beaches. A large tractor drove a trailered boat down to the water and left the trailer on the beach. Not a scene you would expect at most American resort beaches.
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