Bird news from Dr. Bernhard Seliger (Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, Birds Korea)
An early morning walk along Gongneungcheon stream in Paju and through the rice fields, to the Jayuro near the Odusan observatory brought all kinds of egrets and herons, Mandarin ducks, dozens of Oriental Reed Warblers, Blackfaced Spoonbill, and, nicest of all, a great view (alas, no photo) of a Yellow Bittern. No watercock, but I met a farmer and bird photographer who showed me wonderful photos from a watercock taken the day before. Starting at 5 a.m., there were already some early farmers awake, but at 8 a.m. at the bicycle road to Munsan, there were hundreds of early cyclists. Principally, a good idea, if cycling leads to more attention for the beauty of the landscape. However, at the starting point, in Odo-2-ri, construction for a bridge over Gongneungcheon was in full speed. The bridge is around 400 meters away from another broad, at least 4-laned road (357, Nambukro), which is always empty and scarcely used. But there is no road yet. It will come, though, and since I do not suspect the road will go through the houses of Odo-2-ri, the best guess is it will go directly through the rice-fields, probably heading to Munsan, where already 3-4 roads of that size are going.
