June
Often hot (temperatures up to 30C inland) and humid, with very heavy rains some years by mid-month.
By early June, Yellow and the rare Schrenk's Bittern are breeding in reed-beds, and Watercock give their (slightly comical) gulping calls in the best rice-field areas.
Nesting activity in Black-faced Spoonbill and Chinese Egret colonies reaches its peak, and forest nesters are still vocal, especially in the first half of the month. At Gwangneung, typical species include 4 species of woodpecker, Ruddy Kingfisher, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and Mandarin Duck, while on the south coast at Geoje Island Pale Thrush, Blue-and-white Flycatcher and Yellow-throated Bunting predominate.
Black Woodpigeon nest on Gageo and other islands and Styann's Grasshopper Warblers are widespread on small islets: both species, plus the very local Russet Sparrow, can be seen well on Ulleung Do.

(The following records are a compilation of our own sightings and records sent in by other observers. As well as being posted on the Birds Korea website(s), selected records are also forwarded to other Korean-language birding websites; records of threatened species are arranged and forwarded to Birdlife International and national authorities when appropriate; flag images and records are passed to bodies responsible for their coordination throughout the flyway; and all records sent to us are used to compile annual reports and to support the evolving understanding of the status of many of Korea's birds.)

A Whiskered Tern, a scarce but increasingly reported visitor to Korea, and the long-staying Oriental Pratincole were both at Seosan today.

Whiskered Tern. Photo © KIM Hyun tae.

A Whiskered Tern, plus several Pacific Swift and a very obliging Thick-billed/Tiger Shrike.

Pacific Swift and Tiger Shrike. Photo © CHOI Soon Kyoo.

Day lists are looking a lot shorter recently but while not distracted by the other seasonal flora and fauna we noted more than 200 Far Eastern Curlew in the Geum Estuary area. Also there, a Black-capped Kingfisher perched on a wire long enough to be identified. A single Common Shelduck was at the Mangyeong. There were four Spoonbills there but at such distance that neither of us came to any conclusions about what species they might be. The day provided several raptors including two separate encounters with Peregrine Falcons and a Eurasian Hobby.

Very quite with very little about, but I was mobbed by a Saunders's Gull on the island near the airport. It is rather disconcerting looking up and seeing this black head and white body diving directly at you only to veer off at the last moment!
Similarly Little Ringed Plovers were trying to entice me away from the same area. Other species to note were 2 osculans Oystercatcher, Skylarks, Barn Swallows, Chinese Egrets but no Black-faced Spoonbills.

2004 Migratory bird records from Hong and Daeheuksan Islands

Species	Date (Number of individuals)	Location	Sex/Age	Observer
Paddyfield Warbler	April 08-10	HongIsland	Adult	Park Jong Gil
Orange-headed Thrush	May 08	HongIsland	Male	Kim Sung Hyun
Chinese/ Light-vented Bulbul	April 07-13 (2)	HongIsland	?	Park Jong Gil
Japanese Night Heron	May 11	HongIsland	Adult	Gwak Geon Kyung (Kookmin Newspaper)
Chinese Blackbird	1) March 20-21 (2) 2) April 08 (1)	HongIsland	1) Male & Female 2) Female	Kim Sung Hyun
Black Redstart	April 09	HongIsland	M	Park Jong Gil
White-breasted Waterhen	1) May 05-06 (2) 2) May 07 (3) 3) May 20 (2)	HongIsland	Adult	Park Jong Gil
Spangled Drongo	May 07-08	HongIsland	Adult	(To be confirmed)
Black Drongo	1) May 04-06 (3) 2) May 18 (2) 3) May 19-21 (1)	1) Daeheuksan Island 2) Daeheuksan Island 3) HongIsland	1) ? 2) 1st S 3) 1st S	1) Han Hyun Jin 2) Park Jong Gil 3) Park Jong Gil
Red-billed Starling	1) March 31 - April 01 (1) 2) April 08-10 (1) 3) April 10-11 (2)	1) HongIsland 2) HongIsland 3) Daeheuksan Island	1) Female 2) Female 3) Male, Female	Park Jong Gil

The seemingly tireless KIM Hyun-tae has posted a beautiful series of Black-faced Spoonbills photographed at Seosan.

Black-faced Spoonbill, Seosan. Photo © KIM Hyun tae.

More clear skies and hot, calm conditions (with temperatures peaking at 34 C on the mainland), meant there were very few grounded migrants present (and sadly no sign of any Chinese/Light-vented Bulbuls...).
Best for the morning therefore was the presumed Upland Buzzard still (a perplexing individual present since March, and now appearing very pale-headed and fairly pale in the tail), 4 Oriental Honey Buzzard and at least 65 Chinese Sparrowhawk moving east in little over an hour, and ca 10 Broad-billed Roller still hawking insects around the village.
The ferry jouney was also rather quiet birdwise, with only 3 Ancient Murrelet, and single Streaked and Slender-billed Shearwaters, while outstanding highlight was a small whale sp (between 3 and 5 m in length, dark, with an obvious triangular-shaped dorsal fin) about 20km south of Socheong.

Fog banks at dawn combined with light westerlies produced a few hours of obvious arrivals and departures, with a female Pied Harrier, a male Russet Sparrow, a Daurian Starling, a singing Common Rosefinch, 20 Black-naped Oriole and yet another Black Drongo all through at the lighthouse in the far southwest of the island before 8 am.
This exciting run of birds was topped by the arrival there of 3 more Chinese/Light-vented Bulbul (adding to the 2 already present), making a new national high count of 5 individuals, of a species first recorded only back in October 2002 (on Eocheong)! Although present until lunchtime, none of the 5 (along with any of the other species listed above) could be found in the afternoon, and all were presumed to have departed.

Very clear and sunny conditions with light southwesterlies encouraged some migration, and 59 species were logged.
A sad but interesting sight was several Mongolian Gull feeding on the washed-up corpse of a young Finless Porpoise.

Mongolian Gull with Finless Porpoise corpse (NB: note the gull's bloodied bill).
Photo © NM.

Other species of note included a highly unseasonal Woodcock, single Blyth's and 3 Pechora Pipits, 4 Thick-billed and 10 lucionensis Brown Shrikes, 9 Gray's Grasshopper, 10 Black-browed, 12 Oriental Reed,4 Thick-billed, 2 Dusky, 2 Radde's, 1 Pallas's Leaf, 1 Yellow-browed, 2 Pale-legged and ca 80 Arctic Warblers (the vast majority seen, and not heard).
Further late migrants included 1 Mugimaki and a single Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, while repeat highlights of the day were 3 Black Drongo and 2 Chinese/Light-vented Bulbul.

Chung-Yu Chiang has kindly alerted us to the following five records of Korean-flagged shorebirds seen in Taiwan:

1. Dunlin, Han-Pao (Changhua County), 08 March 2004 - TWSG.
2. Terek Sandpiper, Han-Pao (Changhua County), 01 April 2004 - Chung-Yu Chiang.
3. Ruddy Turnstone, Han-Pao (Changhua County), 20 April 2004 - TOV & TWSG.
4. Red-necked Stint, Szu-tsao, Tainan City, 23 April 2004 - Cheer.
5. Ruddy Turnstone, Han-Pao (Changhua County), 06 May 2003 - Chung-Yu Chiang

Korean-flagged Red-necked Stint photographed in Taiwan.
Photo © "Cheer".

For more, please go to:
student.thu.edu.tw/~ecolab/twsg/banding, an English-language page listing TWSG flag records in spring 2004
and
student.thu.edu.tw/~ecolab/twsg/banding/emain_all.