Yeoncheon, March 5-7 | Birds Korea Blog

Bird News from Nial Moores with Baek Seung-Kwang

A total of 66 species were logged during 2.5 days of survey work, with obvious signs of northward migration in spite of snowfall and below average temperatures at the start of the month.

Confluence of the Samicheon and Imjin Rivers, Yeoncheon County © Nial Moores. This area is included in our 2024 report as a potential restoration and enhanced management site in support of the County’s own goals and the overlapping targets set out in the 5th National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.

Highlights included flocks of geese in “new” areas, including a small increase in the internationally important number of Eastern Taiga Beans (397+), hundreds of Tundra Beans heading north, and a scruffy-looking Second calendar-year Lesser White-fronted Goose foraging in fields at Baekhak; now 19 Scaly-sided Merganser (with the sharply higher peak expected mid-month); a single Hooded Crane (a remarkably scarce species in the county) mixed in with flocks of White-naped and already decreased numbers of Red-crowned Cranes; almost a thousand Baikal Teal, with many males giving courtship “whoops”; an early Spotted Redshank; flocks of Rook spiraling northward; and a wide scattering of leucopsis White Wagtails, with spring arrivals supplementing the very low numbers which over-winter, mostly further south on the Peninsula.

In addition, Hill Pigeon (and now 2-3 hybrids) were seen in two locations; and both an over-wintering Upland Buzzard and an apparently long-staying Water Pipit remained. However, most winter landbird species which peak in early spring remained extraordinarily low in number, with e.g., less than 50 Rustic Bunting, two Siberian Accentor and zero Long-tailed Rosefinch noted.

**Eastern Taiga Bean Geese** *Anser fabalis middendorffii* 큰부리큰기러기, CCZ, Yeoncheon County © Nial Moores. This is currently a greatly underestimated conservation priority in the ROK. Generally thought of as a winter visitor more or less confined to the lower Nakdong River (Kim et al. 2024), **Eastern Taiga Bean** **Goose** also overwinters along the Han and Imjin Rivers, and at a few sites along the west coast, with numbers supplemented in October-November and again in March, presumably by birds which overwinter in China. In the Russian breeding grounds, this is a fast-declining taxon (Degtyarev 2024), which deserves species status according to Ruokonen et al. (2008). By contrast, the same authors found only weak genetic separation between *A. f. serrirostris* and A. f. fabalis, predating more recent arguments to again lump Tundra and Western Taiga Bean Geese back together as “Bean Goose” (e.g., Ottenburghs et al. 2020).

Globally Vulnerable **Lesser White-fronted Goose** *Anser erythropus* 흰이마기러기 with **Greater White-fronted Geese** *Anser albifrons* 쇠기러기. Like the Eastern Taiga Bean Goose, this species is often overlooked in the ROK (including during the Winter Census). Available evidence suggests that numbers peak in October-November and again sharply in early to mid-March, with perhaps 50-100 also remaining through the winter most years.

Single **Hooded Crane** *Grus monacha* 흑두루미 with **White-naped Cranes** *Antigone vipio* 재두루미, Peace Rice-fields, CCZ, Yeoncheon

**White-naped Crane** 재두루미 family © Nial Moores.

**Spotted Redshank** *Tringa erythropus* 학도요 © Nial Moores. Historically, **Spotted Redshank** was a very common early spring migrant, nowadays the species as at best a scarce migrant through the ROK.

**Hill Pigeon** *Columba rupestris* 낭비둘기 © Nial Moores. Almost lost to the ROK at the turn of the century, this species now seems to be recovering in number and / or spreading, with records this winter in Jirisan, Yeoncheon and now also Cheorwon.

**Upland Buzzard** *Buteo hemilasius* 큰말똥가리 © Nial Moores

References

Degtyarev, V. G. 2024. Distribution, trends and threats to Eastern Taiga Bean Goose Anser fabalis middendorffii in the River Lena basin, East Siberia. Wildfowl 74: 23–39.
Kim E-J., Hur W-H., Kim H-J., Choi Y-S., Kim D., Lee W-S., Han S., Joo H. & Choi C-Y. 2024. Population trend and spatio-temporal distribution of Greater White-fronted (Anser albifrons) and Bean Geese (Anser fabalis) in Korea. Avian Research, Vol. 15, 100214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avrs.2024.100214
Ottenbughs, J., Honka, J., Muskens, G. & Ellegren, H. 2020. Recent introgression between Taiga Bean Goose and Tundra Bean Goose results in a largely homogeneous landscape of genetic differentation. Heredity 125: 73-84.
Ruokonen, M., Litvin, K., & Aarvak, T. 2008. Taxonomy of the bean goose–pink-footed goose, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 48, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 554-562. ISSN 1055-7903, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2008.04.038.

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