Seosan Lake A

An amazing day of birding. After arriving at Incheon airport at 930ish, I negotiated customs and got a ticket on the 1040 bus to Songtan. There I met up with Brad Sulentic of Birds Korea, who graciously took me to Seosan to look for birds.  It was still a good hour's drive from Songtan to Seosan, and we went cross-country a lot of the way to see more birds! The first new birds from the drive (with a few roadside stops) were Azure-winged Magpie (beautiful!) and an Eastern Buzzard.

I briefly saw a distinctive Daurian Redstart while on the move, and we stopped at an immense Rook flock (thousands over a wide area) to pick out some Daurian Jackdaws along with them.

Also en route: Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Oriental Turtle Dove, and Eastern Spot-billed Duck. 
Seosan Lake A is an immense lake with a four-wheel-drive-passable road around. Worsening weather prevented many pictures, but I did see a lot of birds, including the super cute Vinous-throated Parrotbills, Eastern Great Tit, thousand of Taiga Bean Geese and Great-White Fronted Geese, grazing int he rice fields

 and at one point I was lucky enough to pick out seven Hooded Cranes among the geese. Cranes are a specialty of Eastern Asia, but I thought I wouldn't see any, so they were a real treat.

I also picked out a male Hen Harrier ghosting across the fields.
On the lake itself, we saw Mongolian Gulls, Whoopers Swan, male and female Smew. Around the edge, we saw huntigng Merlin and Kestrels, Yellow-throated Buntings. At the top where the river feeds in were a flock of Ruddy Shelduck.

a Black-faced Bunting

a Kingfisher, and a bunch (presumably not the correct collective noun) of Eurasian Spoonbill.

 All in all, a classic day, although I was thoroughly beat by the end.