Birding & Bird Habitats in South Korea

Robert Newlin is an avid bird-watcher in Korea ... with 50 years of birding experiences. Combining birding and photographer, he lays claim to publishing his bird-captures in a number of journals and books in Asia, Europe and North America. Seoul Selection even has published his recent book, Korea through Her Birds. He is also a lifetime member of Birds Korea. Currently, he teaches medieval and classical literature at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Presenting his lecture of birding and bird habitats at the RAS, Robert showed a large number of birds found in South Korea, some as permanent residents while others are migratory birds. The latter group is of special importance as South Korea is along very important migratory routes due to trade winds and natural marshlands (which are very rapidly disappearing in land reclamation and "beautification" projects, the most recent being the "Four Rivers Project"). Korea's migratory corridor and winter resting stops get a lot of attention in his slideshow and narration of birds in Korea.

Unfortunately, his slideshow got messed up when importing it to the computer for the lecture, and so his organization (and thus my own) is helter-skelter. I have just listed the many, many birds Robert talked about, making only small comments on key birds, particularly the rarest. There were just too many birds to take specific notes on. All of the following birds are either either year-round residents of South Korea or visit in their annual migratory routes. The list presented here certainly is not a comprehensive one for Korea; it's just a good overview of some of the more interesting birds found on the peninsula.

• sandpiper
• curlew sandpiper
• desert whiter (very rare in Korea)
• green wood pigeon (very rare in Korea)
• little owl (very rare in Korea)
• Mongolian plover (reasonably common at present but these waders, like all waders in Korea, are among Korea's most threatened species b/c over 90% of the wetlands have been reclaimed in land reclamation projects)
• mugimaki flycatcher
• olive-back pipit
• paradise flycatcher (quite rare on mainland Korea, but fairly common around Cheju waters)
• red-throated pipit
• scaly-sided merganser (like a mythical scaled dragon bird - one of the world's rarest birds)

scaly-sided merganser - one of the world's rarest birds

• Siberian accentor
• smew
• snowy owl
• streaked shearwater (live most of their lives on the open ocean)
• varied tit (5-colored bird - very good at finding food and so other birds tend to follow the tit in the quest for food, enabling some of the rare forager birds like the world-endangered spoonbill sandpiper to find food [the tit is very important to the food chain!]; very intelligent bird)
• verditer flycatcher (very rare in Korea)
• red-crown crane
• gage oriental pratincole
• alpine leaf warbler (very rare in Korea)
• ancient murelets
• black-faced spoonbill (extremely endangered worldwide. South Korea has one of the last of the world's breeding sites. They are recognized by the Korean government as a "national monument" but the habitat where they green is not protected ... a little bit of a disconnect.)

black-faced spoonbill - extremely endangered specie worldwide; one of South Korea's "national monuments"

• bull-headed shrike
• blue-and-white flycatcher
• brown-eared bulbul (40 years ago they weren't here in Korea; they came over from Japan)
• collard scops owl
• common kingfisher aka "missile bird" in Korean
• eagle owl
• European robin (extremely rare in Korea)
• hen harrier (type of hawk)
• lapwing
• little whimbrel/curlew
• long-tailed tit
• merganser scrum
• narcissus flycatcher
• Pusan alpine assentor
• red-neck stint
• ruddy kingfisher
• scaly-sided merganser
• short-eared owl
• spoonbill sandpiper (very, very rare - only about 200 left in the word)

spoonbill sandpiper - one of the world's rarest birds with only 200 left worldwide (source)

• stejnegers stanchat
• tairana yellow wagtail

Comparing Presidents Roh Moo-hyun & Lee Myeong-bak

From old times, politics has been one of the most popular topics to shoot the breeze with and the gossip of presidents is the most popular theme among the many political issues. Of course, it is still early to talk about the present president [Park Guen-hye] since it has been less than two years since her inauguration and three years still remain for her to be in office; therefore, this essay will discuss two of the former presidents and will be a discussion of contrasts.

The Republic of Korea has had 18 presidents so far, and it is interesting to look at the two most recent, the 16th and 17th presidents, who shared some of the same types of ups and downs during their tenures. The 16th president, Roh Moo-hyun, was president from 2003 to 2008, and the 17th president, Lee Myeong Park, began his duties in 2008 and finished them in 2013. President Roh was elected with 48.9% approval rate, and President Lee with 48.7%, nearly identical; however, their political stances were radically different. Roh was a progressive while Lee was a conservative, and it can well be said that their political stances played direct influences on their ruling of the nation. While Roh was a lawyer and a fighter for democracy, he blazoned for progressive action while in office. On the other hand, Lee's background was as CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Hyundai group and Incheon Steel, and citizens believed that his CEO experiences made him into a conservative man. President Roh's representative achievements were the increase of cultural infrastructures and the bringing of operational control back to Korea, which was considered a very progressive accomplishment. In addition, he also expanded the Korean stock market, Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), from 700 to 1800s lines. On the other hand, Lee's most remarkable achievement was the hosting of 20 summit-level conferences, but he also, as nation representative, hosted the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2008.

As presidents, they both did have some shadows cast on their presidencies. President Roh was about to be impeached by Parliament because of the Free Trade Agreement, and President Lee was heavily criticized regarding his impractical grand scale scheme to build a canal from Seoul to Pusan but which was scaled down to only beautifying the four great rivers in South Korea, a project labeled "the Four Rivers Project". The Four Rivers Project became hugely unpopular and resulted in many unplanned-for environmental side effects, but that said, he was not threatened with impeachment like Roh was.

Presidents are usually evaluated by decisions they make during their presidency and which reverberate afterwards. For former-President Roh, many people are still missing him and also mourn his tragic death. However, for former-President Lee, it is still controversial as to how "great" he was as a president as he relatively recently left the office and controversial statistical fabrication during his tenure is still popping up.

________________________________________________________________________

Thank you Lee Ki Tak for letting me share your interesting comparison paper. You demonstrate good research by providing many solid facts on the topic of politics, an area I am very weak in.