Have you ever started a birding tour by getting off of the plane and rushed into a vehicle, sleep-deprived and confused, spending the remainder of the day birding in extreme weather conditions, seeing some amazing birds but not being able to enjoy them properly due to your body being on the verge of shutdown? Well, when leading the Calidris Birding South Korea Winter Birding Tour in January 2023 I tried to ensure that this did not happen by planning a night in a hotel near Incheon airport. It turned out that all mebers of the group arrived quite early to check in to the hotel and after taking a rest in their rooms everyone was keen to see their first birds in South Korea. Luckily, the hotel, Ocean Park 9 Hotel, was in a good location for birders with a small wooded park very close by, a small harbour, mud flats at low tide and a larger area of scrub and reeds all making for a pleasant birding walk right from the hotel.

From our hotel rooms we could see a public slipway and some sort of area where boats were moored and a congregation of gulls that is common in such areas so we chose to start our first South Korea birding here. I know that gulls are not a group of birds that everyone enjoys but Black-tailed Gulls are really handsome birds and with it being the first “lifer” of the trip for most people in the group it was great to be able to see them at close quarters and in beautiful soft afternoon sunlight as they loafed around and gave us some nice flight views too.

Black-tailed Gull

Black-tailed Gull

There were also some more familiar birds here too with a few Common Gulls, alongside the Black-tailed Gulls,  a group of Goosanders sleeping in the rocky bay opposite the slipway and a Eurasian Kestrel perched on a nearby building. A couple of Vega Gulls were new for many people too, although with no other large gulls in the area for comparison the fine details of identification would have to wait until later in the tour.

Common Gull

A very short walk from the water was a small suburban park with wooded areas within the more ornamental areas. Here there were plenty of South Korea’s more common species, several of which were new for many people. Although a lot of the birds we were about to see in this little park were species that we would become familiar with over the next eleven days it was nice to be able to enjoy them on this walk without them just being birds that we would only just glance at while searching for rarer ones. Oriental Magpie is a split that meant it was a “lifer” for most of the group and while it was a bird we would see in numbers at every location we visited, it was nice to able to get excited about it even if for just a very short time.

Another “new” bird that would become one the most familiar of the tour was Brown-eared Bulbul. This noisy bird flew into view quite early on as we entered the wooded parts of the park and displayed itself in the sunshine, warming itself up in the close-to-zero temperatures of the afternoon. Although it is a very abundant bird in South Korea it is also a very photogenic one and one of those birds that always seems to be doing something interesting; a real character.

Brown-eared Bulbul

Earlier in the day, before meeting everyone, I had taken a walk alone, along the waterfront and found a group of Brown-eared Bulbuls in a bit of a feeding frenzy as the first light warmed things up a little in the sub-zero morning temperature. I watched them for quite some time and they had found some vegetation and seeds where some melted snow had created a muddy patch on a grassy verge. It was fun to watch a flock of these birds feeding and chattering, not caring about the dog-walkers and people exercising right next to them.

Brown-eared Bulbul

Another common, but very lovely, bird was to be found in some of the undergrowth next to the park, in an area we could see from a raised spot in the park itself: Daurian Redstart. Flittering in and out of the bushes and foraging in a pile of old rubble this little gem was a crowd-pleaser and although we saw plenty of them over the coming days every time we got close to one it was hard not to take another photograph. A crowd of Eurasian Tree Sparrows were hanging around nearby and another familiar species was a Carrion Crow, much less common than Large-billed Crow here but strangely our first crow of the tour.

Daurian Redstart

A call that most of us recognized came from a bird that is common in Erupe but has been split in this part of the world as Eastern Great Tit. Far less colourful than the Great Tit from Europe it was previously considered as conspecific; in South Korea it is a very common species that occurs in all habitats and another bird that we would see every day. Several species from Europe are also present in South Korea but rather more common in this Asian country than in many of those in Europe. Marsh Tit is a bird that has become quite uncommon in much of the United Kingdom, but here it is a very common bird.

Marsh Tit

Hawfinch is a bird that is very rarely seen by British birders, although I have been told it can easily be seen in Hungary, but in South Korea in winter this is a rather abundant species, occurring in all habitats, indeed I have seen them in trees next to fuel stations and in cities on previous trips so it was not too surprising that one showed for at least some of us on our pre-trip birding walk. For those who missed it, there would be others in days to come.

Hawfinch

The presence of Hawfinch obviously meant that there were seeds available and this attracted other seed-eating birds too. Walking down a slope flanked by low seed-bearing trees we came across a good-sized flock of Bramblings. This beautiful bird is one that we had all seen in various places before but it is such a smart little finch that we were all happy to be able to watch these ones as they foraged for seeds on the ground. As we watched them a few other birds appeared among them; Yellow-throated Bunting, another common bird in South Korea but a new one for many. While Yellow-throated Bunting (sometimes known as Elegant Bunting) might be common here, it is a fabulous little bird with its crest and bright yellow facial plumage and it was nice to get my ear in again on its call, one thta is similar to many other buntings.

Brambling

Yellow-throated Bunting

For such a small park there were a good number and selection of birds for us to see. Most of these were birds we were always going to see throughout our winter birding tour but there was one that I was not sure if we would see again: Naumann’s Thrush. This attractive Turdus thrush is migratory and like many migratory winter thrushes in some winters it can be abundant and in others very scarce. When I spotted this one fluttering up into a tree we all got together quickly so that everyone could get a view but we need not have been concerned as it sat around in a tree for quite some time for us to observe it.  In fact at least two more birds were also in the same area which indicated what we would find out over the next week or so; that this was a good winter for Naumann’s Thrush. It was a very nice bird to see on our first birding together and a little bit of a surprise.

Naumann’s Thrush

From the park we could see a larger area of habitat that consisted of reeds and scrubby trees with areas of more mature trees dotted around so we took a longer walk through this. It gave us our first views of Vinous-throated Parrotbill, although they remained hidden for much of the time as well as Oriental Greenfinch, our first Eastern Buzzard and Oriental Turtle Doves, plus more Oriental Magpies, Brown-eared Bulbuls and Yellow-throated Buntings.

As the light began to fade the temperature plummeted and it was hard to add any more birds to our list. A Black-faced Bunting was heard and glimpsed but refused to emerge from the undergrowth but small flocks of Tundra Bean Geese flying past tall apartment blocks were interesting in the strange scene they created together. A single Greater White-fronted Goose was seen with one of these small flying flocks too.

Tundra Bean Goose

As more and more small groups of these geese passed by we began the walk back to our hotel in earnest as things got cold in order to have our first hot dinner in South Korea together where we were able to try some local specialities. This pre-trip birding walk was a very pleasant introduction to birding in South Korea and one that I will schedule into all future winter birding tours to South Korea that I lead.

Join me on the next tour to South Korea. You can see the full itinerary and details here - South Korea Winter Birding Tour.