Flora and Fauna of Jiri mountain and Baekwun mountain

Visited southern part of korean peninsula

following group of undergraduate students trying to prepare their class

Jiri Mountan is one of the largest and well known mountain beloved by Korean,

with Taebaek Mt. on former posting, this mountain is one of the most spiritual place where many shamans visit here to channel with god-spirit(most of them are ghostly ancesters)

but yes, It was definitely not my purpose to meet any ghostly spirits, I was there to help discussion with younger collegues and my personal, Birding and looking for other lifes.

Hwa-eom-sa, Temple, one of the most famous temple in Korea

For Birders, It is the Last resort for hill pidgeons, which are almost extinct in Korea. This day, I've failed to get these birds, only thing left for me was guanos on thousand-year temple rooftops.

these birds are so underlooked due to their feral-pidgeon-like appreance,

 but these are obvious, distinct species, for birders to list.

Anyway, photo of real record starts from here

There were several brown dippers at the mountaneous streams, most of them finished their first clutch.

It is easy to observe opaque nictitating  membrane from dippers. this parent was indifferent to its offspring, begging for food.

 clumsy,  food-begging offspring.

Japanese bush warbler, this is much abundant than its close relative, Korean(Manchurian) bush warbler

It's song is quite familiar to most of koreas, because it is used in subway and radio signals few years ago, but how many of them could recognize it?

 Another common forest stream breeder, Grey wagtail. 

this young Pale thrush was brave enough to feed on its own prize (earthworm) on open rocky shore ofthe forest stream. Not certain, but I think its a juvenile male.(Juvenile is quite sure)

There was a Breeding Dollerbird at Hwa eom Temple. Bringing its prey for offsprings.

In Korea, dollerbirds are quite common around rural area and large city parks, even thereare not much large trees to provide cavities, why? the use magpie nests as a perfect surrogate!

Above and below : Ligustrum japonicum (?)

Check the flower, 2 stamen are elongnated out of the flower.

these are confusing species..

 Above : Celtis sinensis.
Below: Aphananthe aspera.

Yup, much easier.

Where is the bird? well camouflaged Juvenile Scaly thrush. I saw fresh fledged, full clutch of scaly thrush  with this individual. there were 5 more Juvenile birds flushed by my occurence.

Lindera glauca  I love the fresh fragrance of genus Lindera,  and those fruits always remind me snail's tentacles and eyes 

 Paper mullberry sp. Brousonetia sp.   kazinoki? or papyrifera  unfortuately, failed to identifiy exact species, In my opinion, it looks close to B. kazinoki , but not sure, I could'nt check the keys.
As infered from its english and scientific name this tree is the raw material of traditional korean paper, with its strong but soft fibers inside, stem and branches are processed to timeproof-papers which are famous for lasting for thausand years.

 Yes, and of course the berry was sweet, seasoned with little bitterness.

the Silk tree  Albizia julibrissin  full of nectar and fragance, it lures many butterflies, and our sights too,

not focused, but I found an Ussuri mamushi Gloydius ussuriensis, most abundant poisonous viper, which can cause death if not properly treated.

But don't be feared of it. he was the most frighten one amoung all the life around there.

 the last flower is Hydrangea serrata   also abundant hydrangea species  in Korea. it's flower color is known to be affected by acidity of soil.

Seom jin River, one last large river that yet not blocked by River estuary barrage in korea.

Also, Gu rye gun- county is famous for its traditional market. and lukily, we encountered the market opening and enjoyed sightseeing of the local goods and people.

Flora of Taebaek Mountain, Gangwon-do province, Korea

Holy shirne at the entrance of  Taebaek Mt. and Acer pictum var.mono

During last semester's dendrology class, our class went out for a field trip to Taebaek Mt,  led by our professor  Chang, this trip was very impressive and fruitful for me, for experiencing diverse woody plants of Baekdudaegan flora(Manchurian flora), escpecially those are flowering at that season.

There are so mcuh to show, but for my convenience, this time I'll just post some photos and brief captions.

Magnolia thunbergii  Magnolia species are one of my favorite trees, this is native magnolia in Korea, its down-sided pale white flower is especially fascinating with frugality.

Ulmus davidiana There were two known subspecies of U. davidiana, which can be separated by hairs on its seed coat. they were fruiting at this trip, contrasting with other trees that were mostly flowering.

Deutzia glabrata  in my personal memory, this one was one of the difficultest tree to identify without flower, at 4 years ago Autum,  when I attended my first dendrology1 class. But this time, it gave us bursts of flower blooming all around the road and mountainstream.

Acer ukurunduense Among various Acer species in Taebaek Mt.  and this tree has the most many and elongated flower.

 Weigela florida Yes it has flowers, its a shrub widespread in this area, flowing with catching vivid wine colored

Primula jesoana  Plant Lifer, this isnt a tree or a bird, and I usually giveup identifying herbaceous plants, but yes, this one was impressive.

Berberis amurensis  Amur Barberry, also first experience ofthe floweing plant. I thought that these were quite fragrance, but nobody agreed to me.

Rhododendron schilippenbachii were abundant round the ridge. 

Prunus padus  This prunus tree has distinct scent on its sap.

Summer birds at Neung-nae, Gyong gi do province

After current president M,B Lee's policy, the Four River Project, These Korean four Major River systems sufferd all kind of constructions causing deterioration of bird habitats. Especially, Wetland summber breeders such as this Oriental reed warbler, were greatly affected. but there are no sufficient surveys or evaluations following up. Obscuring the people's eye and information.

Oriental reed warbler is a common bird, very abundant at Riverside or any wetland's reedbeds. But in my personal experience, It is certain that enormous area of these bird's breeding habitat has been distroyed, for sure,at least in Reedbeds in Han river sytem in Seoul. Due to The 4 River project, almost every proper reedbed in Seoul city was altered to much shorter species of grass and  many riverside park's reedbeds were changed into parking lots, lawns and aspalts. Although every environment changing constructions and products must undergo carefull inspection and consideration, it does not seem to me that the City and Ministry of Environment are showing any reliable level of responsibilities.

a male Oriental reed warbler below were found at Neung nae, riverside park of an river outside of Seoul. I clearly remember that 3 years ago, there were hundreds thousands of oriental reed warblers at the site I spotted this one, and their songs were so laud and noisy that made me perplexing. but this june,2012 I could find only this male bird, at small patch of reed that was yet eliminated.

I understand that bird and habitat both can be recoverd, with amazing nature's resilience, but can't stop feeling disturbed, worried about these bird's population decline. there were actual significant decline of many species of breeding passerines in korea, such as brown shrike, Korean bush warbler, etc. but lack of sufficient survey data makes us difficult to detect these declines. We cannot just sit down and expecting something good will occur, but we need to go out and record what is going on.

Any bird species can go on their extiction,  even though they are known to be so abundant, and we don't have to cite every examples that we did before on our history. Oriental reed warbler is abundant at this time, and I believe that they'll be quite common for a while, but it does not immune us from monitoring and recording these lifeforms when we can do it yet.

It might be happy for him, not to compete with other males, but this solitary male, singing its solo instead of discord of territory defence frenzy, looked lonely for me, reminding myself a story of the ' Lonely George' the elephant turtle died lonely as the last individual of its kind.

Below photos are birds from Neung Nae, the same day when that orientalreed warbler was observed.

     moorhen.

 Kingfisher feeding on tadpols in rice paddy.

Tricolor flycatcher. this bird is also 'presumed' declining forest bird. but who knows?

there are so little evidence to confirm.

Forest birds like this flycatcher are much harder to detect its population change,

with lack of people with proper experience and education of birding.

barn swallow, contrastingly, because this bird is relatively easy to detect, its significant decline in throuhout the country is well known. and it was designated as a natural monument.

barnswallows lived with human housings from long ago, building cultral bondage with agricultral life.

all korean kids know the folk tale of "Heung-bu and Nol-bu"( a story of rich, greedy and miser elder brother and poor but good younger brother. the later helped the leg broken- barn swallow, was finally gifted with teasures popped from a pumpkin, and the former who broke the leg intensionally, was treated with dungs and monsters.)

but most of them never saw a swallow in their life. for myself, grown in seoul , it took 20 years to find my first lifer barn swallow.