Last day in South Korea

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Today I returned to Dongmak to see if I could find anything new. Literally right outside the exit to the Dongmak subway station was a small flock of Oriental greenfinches. Very nice birds indeed! (Although they were mostly juveniles, which aren't pictured in the field guide, so if an adult hadn't joined them I would have been all confused again). On the lagoon were much the same birds as last time, except now there was a very large flock of waders instead of just a few scattered individuals. There were loads of common greenshanks in the flock but I couldn't tell what else with the binoculars (need a scope!).

I knew there were mudflats around somewhere close (the Songdo mudflats) but I wasn't sure where. I'd had a look at a Google map before leaving New Zealand but I couldn't really tell from it what might be mudflats and what might be ports or something like that. So I just walked off towards where the sea should be and sure enough I found some mudflats. I guess I was lucky with the tides too. This was where all the waders were hanging out, and because they were much closer than the ones on the lagoon I could actually ID some of them. My wader identification skills aren't great because we don't get a big variety in New Zealand to practice on, so I can really only get the more obvious ones that are close enough, and lots get left as a “maybe/maybe not”. So first, apart for the lots and lots of greenshanks, was a little egret (that's an easy one) and some Pacific golden plovers (also easy). A Eurasian curlew was next, but I had to wait till it flew to check the rump colour to make sure it wasn't a Far Eastern curlew because apparently both are found here. Around the curlew were several Eurasian pied oystercatchers and then some Eurasian whimbrels. I got to the end of the walkway where the mudflats ended and headed back the way I'd come, and spotted some godwits amongst the greenshanks. It took ages standing in the hot hot sun waiting for them to fly to check their wings and rump colour to make sure they were black-tailed godwits, which is what I was hoping (because bar-tailed godwits are common as anything in New Zealand but black-tails very rare). And finally I found some common redshanks as well just before I headed back to the subway. So a nice little burst of birdy additions before the end of the South Korean leg of the trip.

I was quite surprised how few birds I saw in the time I spent in Korea (only 35 species), and I very much believe that if I was here at a better time of year the list would have been a lot longer. I won't be returning to this country though. Most countries I visit I want to go back to but I didn't really like South Korea. Part of it was just the constant knowledge that I was here at the wrong time of year, but I didn't like the general vibe of the place either. In most of southeast Asia the people are very friendly and anyone you smile at will immediately be all smiles back, and they'll try to help you out as much as possible with everything. Everybody loves me in southeast Asia. In Korea all I got were completely blank looks –smile at someone, blank look back – and it was weird always having an entire row of empty seats around me on the subway because literally no-one would ever sit next to me. Maybe I look like a psychopath from some local tv crime show or something.

Next stop Russia, to be precise Vladivostok, where I will have even less idea of what I'm doing than I do in Korea.



There are now photos on the other blogs so you can go look at them. It seems Travelblog does not like my laptop, so while I can post text directly from it I can't upload photos from it to this site so can only do that from public computers. Hence there may be lags between blogs and photos.

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Comments

[Peter Ericsson]

temperate region
Hi there,,, Nice to see you are traveling again. This time of year is not good for temperate regions unless you are in a migratory wader fly way. Best time is May/June when birds breed. Still, if you are happy with resident birds and treasure each one for its uniqueness you can have plenty of fun! Good look with Stellar's Eagles!

[Peter Ericsson]

women
I once traveled around the world on a cruise ship (working in the kitchen)......I easily concluded that South Korea was the least likable place I visited where I couldn't find a single good looking female......hope it was better for you?

[Nic]

Yep, you do look like a serial killer.
Actually it's because you're tall. I had some clients in who had been there and said the same thing about being stared at. You should have done Gangam style dancing on public transport. That would have made the locals love you...like when Americans do the haka.