Textual content and all pictures by and © of Nial Moores / Birds Korea.
In stifling summer season warmth (32-34C), 75% humidity and fierce daylight, our month-to-month chook survey was performed in three of the eco-parks that line the Nakdong River simply upstream of the estuarine barrage: Maekdo (web site of our small 3-year restoration mission, funded by Microsoft and supported technically by the Society of Ecological Restoration); and Daejo and Samnak (the principle websites of our second mission funded by Microsoft, this time targeted on awareness-raising and schooling). Whereas Maekdo and Daejo have each been the main target of some restoration work and energetic administration by Busan Metropolis, and Daejo has some fading signage from earlier tasks, all three of those parks lack correct signage and promotion as biodiversity hotspots – thereby remaining poorly-known to the overwhelming majority of the town’s residents and vacationers.
At Maekdo, latest clearance of all the dry reed from fields A, B, C and G and heavy rain have created glorious floodplain-type situations for shorebirds – with at the very least 18 species discovered (this compares with fewer than 10 species recorded in month-to-month surveys since March 2025)! Most quite a few had been Wooden Sandpiper, with 265 counted (my highest day depend of this species wherever on the Korean mainland), along with distinctive numbers of Inexperienced Sandpiper (21+) and Lengthy-toed Stint (28); three species of snipe and extra anticipated species like Widespread Greenshank (6-8) and Purple-necked Stint (c. 50); and a number of other new species for our mission on this eco-park, together with Black-winged Stilt (14), Far Jap Curlew (1), Widespread Redshank (1 or 2), Terek Sandpiper (2) and Ruff (1) – from reminiscence solely the second I’ve seen in Busan. Our mission web site, Subject D, in distinction seemed particularly inexperienced and plush. We’re trying ahead to seeing the outcomes of a survey of the restored vegetation that was additionally performed in late August.
Different chook species of notice at Maekdo included at the very least 21 Garganey (my private highest depend of this species in Busan) and a juvenile Peregrine that finally caught and killed a stint.
At Samnak, the biggest shock was two Jap Taiga Bean Geese nonetheless, one now seeking to have an injured wing. Not like at Maekdo, the so-called “goose-feeding space” right here stays densely lined in dry reed and a various array of dryland crops, together with alien invasive Goldenrod, and as such stays successfully bird-less. By way of our Microsoft-funded mission, Birds Korea is making an attempt to encourage the Nakdong River Tasks Administration Workplace in Busan (with whom now we have an MOU) to allow us to tidy-up a part of this web site and to erect academic signage – important first steps in constructing native satisfaction for this a part of the Eco-park that clearly meets Ramsar standards for identification as an internationally essential wetland.
At Daejo, quite restricted avian variety, with most notable being a single Mandarin Duck, two Pin-tailed Snipe, a big snipe sp. (most likely both Latham’s or Swinhoe’s) and an grownup male Peregrine. Though there was no signal of the Amur Leopard Cat seen right here in July, it was great to have an in depth encounter with a globally Weak Korean Water Deer and shocking to see what was both a leucistic or an albino Nutria – an alien invasive species present in all three of those eco-parks.
Most pleasing, nevertheless, was the obvious variety of dragons and damsels – together with a number of of what I tentatively recognized as Broad-winged Damselfly Atrocalopteryx atrata and one, much more tentatively recognized from on-line pictures, because the delightfully-named Orange-tailed Sprite Ceriagrion aurantica (my because of the way more educated Robert Macfie for his feedback on the ID). Please let me know if these identifications want revision!
In case you are interested by involving in our surveys or awareness-raising work for these three eco-parks, please message Birds Korea or me immediately: thanks.
