Gwangneung Arboretum

On the hope that the rain would let up, I set out to Gwangneug National Arboretum today. At the second attempt I found the departure point of the 8012 bus and headed into the unknown. With some Korean "Dear Mr Bus driver" instructions in my hand, I managed to get off at the correct stop, but then somehow had to wait 45 minutes for the connecting bus. Anyway, I arrived at the arboretum and managed to pay the one dollar entrance fee. Only problem was, it was still raining. Fortunately the bus driver had given me an umbrella ( yes people here really are all that nice), so I carried on.

The ground held a treacherous mix of rain, solid ice and slush all day, and it rained, but I has managed to wear enough clothes, and in spite of seeing relatively few brds and species, I did pick up a few good new ones. The bridge as you go in is possibly the best place in the WORLD to see Solitary Snipe, do I checked on my way in. Brad had told me to be patient, so I was, but still no luck.
At some points, the rain lightened slightly which helped bring the birds out and my first real flock of Marsh Tits also held a Varied Tit. Such a pretty new tit and a real Korean specialty.

After some more plodding around in the rain, a lot more, I returned to the bridge and this time a Green Sandpiper drew my attention to the correct spot to see two Solitary Snipe!

Through heavy rain in a dark stream, it won't win awards, but it's a Solitary Snipe! This still from a video shows both the very long bill and the striped back.

And then bombing up river making a lot of noise and chasing each other, two Brown Dippers.
In the woods later, I bumped into a Canadian birder Pat, who had just seen a Black Woodpecker. I probably saw one, but couldn't get a good enough look to call it.  The day was starting to lose light, so we headed toward the exit, and saw a flock of Waxwings on the way out. They moved on before we could ID them, but fortunately we reconnected a few minutes later, and we were able to see the red tail tips, yellowy underparts and missing white patches that made them Japanese Waxwings...

Again, a photographic train-wreck, but doubly good because the other waxwing option Bohemian is in N America! So on a day where I was hoping for one new bird at best, I ended with four, wet and content!