Sunday Afternoon on the Green Mile

Well, after spending the previous weekend and this Saturday exploring Uijongbu and Seoul, I was ready for some nature. So Sunday afternoon I loaded up the binoculars, camera, field guide and headed off to see what was flying around the "Green Mile." This is a stretch of perimeter on my installation that is hilly and wooded. It makes for some good exercise and usually, some good flying things.

There is a stretch of the Green Mile that I've nicknamed "Roller Alley" because I can pretty well count on finding a Broad-billed Roller Eurystomus orientalis along the stretch. I was not disappointed. Unfortunately from a photography standpoint, they prefer to sit way at the top of some poles in order to hunt insects.



Also sharing the pole-tops was a Brown-eared Bulbul Ixos amaurotis. These birds often strike me as looking rather "scruffy."As you can see, they like to be noisy as well.




As I moved past "Roller Alley" I came upon a group of Tits foraging in the trees and as I watched them I was treated to my first Pygmy Woodpecker Dendrocopos kizuki. I was even able to catch a few blurry photos.



I also saw a flock of Vinous-throated Parrotbills, but, as is their custom, they stayed unphotogenically concealed in the brush most of the time. I also was able to see my first Eurasian Nuthatch.

Butterflies were actually the big story of the day, however, as I was afforded the opportunity to photograph several different species. The most numerous were the Arygronome ruslana a pretty orange-and-black species.




The rather oblong Neptis sappho was an interesting, if fleeting, subject.



Artogeia melete is a small, mostly white butterfly that seems to like these little white and yellow flowers.



This little gem has the rather geometric sounding name of Polygoniac areum.



And, of course, what would a walk through nature be without a mystery. I haven't been able to identify this rather cryptic-colored one. (I'm not even sure it's not a moth!)




You'll pardon me if I sound out of breath, I hope, I did mention this walk is hilly, right? Yes, they are as steep as they look!




My only dragon of the day was both fairly plentiful and very patient with me as I tried to get my camera to focus on them. I finally managed some shots not focused on the background of Sympetrum abfuscatum. They are of the same genus as the North American Meadowhawks.



Finally, as my walk began to wind down (literally the downhill side!) I interacted with a immature Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus. These fairly common small thrushes are probably my favorite Korean bird so far. I'm not sure why, they just appeal to me for some reason. Since they're my favorite and this one was so cooperative, here's two pictures.





Finally, as I made my way out of the woods, I snapped a picture of part of the Uijongbu skyline. Hard to believe until fairly recently the government prohibited buildings taller than 5 stories in this part of the country due to military concerns.



Well, thanks for joining me on yet another virtual hike through the outdoors in search of winged wonders. I snapped this one in a traffic mirror on the way back to my quarters.

Mallipo Beach & Chollipo Arboretum

I took an MWR trip to Mallipo Beach yesterday. It is apparently one of South Korea's top beach resorts (more on that later) and is located near Taen, south of Inchon on the west coast. The beach is about 3km long and is in a bit of a bay flanked by rocky outcroppings. There is a touristy collection of shops and restaurants along the beach.

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.

Sincheon River

I took a bus to Dongdecheon Sunday afternoon and walked about 8 miles on this river-walk they have along the Sincheon River. It was warm, and breezy. The first thing that hit me once I got to the river was the smell. Now I have since read that they have made great strides in cleaning up the Sincheon River. I will admit it didn't look bad...But at least the first half of what I walked had that distinct odor of raw sewage. I had visions of adding to that infamous sub-set of my life-list, "Birds I have Thrown Up While Seeing." 8 species..Monterey Pelagic, small craft advisory...But I digress.

Of course there were plenty of Grey Herons (Ardea cinirea) around, and like their North American cousins the Great Blue Heron, they are one of my favorite birds.




There were also good numbers of Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta) plying the shallow river in search of food.



I saw my first Korean ducks as well, the Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilarhyncha). A Relative of the Mallard, and very similar in habits from what I saw.



Water birds weren't all I saw, however, as a White Wagtail (Motscilla alba leucopsis) came to the river for a visit as well allowing a few photographs.




Among the shorebirds present, I saw a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata), Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius) and Long-billed Plover (C. placidus), pictured here.



I also managed my first two ode pictures in Korea. This first one was a lucky in-flight shot of one that was hawking near a drainage culvert. It's little fuzzy but I'm pretty confident it is a Pseudothemis zonata.



The second ode was much more cooperative and perched nicely on the walk so I could get a picture. Here's my first Orthetrum albistylum speciosum.




I'm not sure if this sign I saw several places was directed toward dragonflies, though I have a hunch the basic message is, "don't eat the fish!"



It didn't stop these local fishing buddies, however. (I also noticed several of the humanoid variety as well)



I turned around once I reached a rice paddy. Though I searched in vain for Intermediate Egret, the best I could do was Little and Great Egrets and, more Spot-billed Ducks.



Overall, I was very impressed with the walk. It seemed well-maintained and well used.



All in all my 4 hours were enjoyable and gave me lots of time for reflection, just like this last photo....

Land of the Morning Calm

Greetings from South Korea!

I am now in Uijongbu, South Korea for a year. I've only been here a few days and I am starting to get used to having my days and nights reversed. I don't the separation from family thing has even begun to sink in yet....

But, I did manage to get some pictures of an Artogeia canidia. Not only that, but I managed to identify this Korean butterfly on a web page that is all in Japanese except for the Latin names...Anyway, here's the picture.

75 Miles West

From Ohio, 75 minutes west into Indiana and a few days around New Castle. For our purposes though, a couple of hours around Memorial Park turned up some interesting sights. One of the first was an Eastern Comma Polygonia comma that caught my attention and then was kind enough to hold still for some pictures.

Common Whitetails Plathemis lydia were in abundance as well. Here is a juvenile male I caught on digits.

I wasn’t the only one in the park looking for bugs, either, or so it seems….

There were several damsels around as well but with a variable wind, they were tough, to say the least. My best bet was what I am relatively confident to call a Powdered Dancer Argia moesta.

A Jade Clubtail Arigomphus submedianus and Eastern Amberwing Perithemis tenera made a nice pare on a partially submerged log.

Finally, a Widow Skimmer Libellula luctuosa rounded out the day by perching for a photo as I was heading back to the van.