| Visiting Korea: Selected Travel Tips |
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| This section aims to provide a few answers to some of the most
commonly asked questions by visiting birdwatchers. |
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• When is the best time to visit?
This depends of
course on which species you want to see. A year round calendar, The Korean
Birdwatchers' Year, should help in this respect.Up to now, most birders have
visited in mid-winter (December-February), with a growing number also coming in
late April and May. Local birders also prefer these times, but October is also a
really great month to visit. |
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| Gageo Island in the far southwest: Looking northwest to the village
of Hang Ri - as striking visually as it is exciting for birds
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• Where are the best birdwatching sites?
Again, this depends on the target species. Most of the
best birding is on the west coast, either on estuaries (Ganghwa,
Yeongjong Island, Saemangeum, and Geum River
and estuaries), reclamation lakes (Seosan Lakes and Haenam
area), or offshore islands (Daeheuksan, Gageo
[formerly spelt Kago], and Eocheong Do). However, there
are some wonderful areas in the south (Jeju, Suncheon Bay, Nakdong Estuary, Junam
reservoirs and Guryongpo Peninsula), on the
east coast, and in the north (e.g.Gwangneung National Arboretum
and the Cheorwon Basin in the
DMZ). Beyond these places, for more casual birdwatchers, there are plenty of
interesting sites within or near Seoul (e.g. Bukhansan and Namsan,
the Han River at Bamseom Island)
and other major cities (e.g. Taejongdae Park in Busan)More
information on these sites is given in the Where To Watch Birds In Korea
section. |
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Suncheon Bay on the south coast:
an excellent mix of habitats.
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• Are there any birdwatching guides, especially English-speaking ones?
Birdwatching is still very small scale in South Korea,
but growing rapidly (with more than a thousand birdwatchers nationwide by 2002).
Governments, both national and local as well as some organizations, have started
to try to provide some kind of information service (hence this website) and at a
few sites have also started to provide local guiding (e.g. at Seosan, Cheorwon
and the Han River). In several areas, local birdwatchers, though limited in
English, are high in enthusiasm and really enjoy "sharing" their sites with
visitors when they have the time. Several such birdwatchers run very attractive
websites. For more experienced guiding or
tailor-made tours throughout the country, please refer to the www.wbkenglish.com website. |
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• What about bird books or videos covering the region? Any
recommendations?
The best English-language guide covering Korea is the
Field Guide To The Birds Of Korea, with text by Lee W-S, Koo T-H & J-Y Park
(LG Evergreen Foundation, 2000: ISBN 89-951415-1-4). As it lacks detail on some
species, this is best supplemented by both Japanese photographic guides (one
strong recommendation is the Japan Wild Bird 550 Series, ISBN 4-8299-0163-2,
written in Japanese, with English bird names) and by guides covering adjacent
regions. Rather useful are C. Robson's A Field Guide To The Birds of South-east
Asia (New Holland Publishers: ISBN 1-85368-313 2) and the Collins Bird Guide
(text by Svensson L & P.J Grant, published by HarperCollins: ISBN 000 219728
6.), which covers European species, many of which also occur in Korea.
There
are several English-language videos covering the birdwatching hotspot of
Beidaihe in China, which gets a number of the same migrants as Korea, but only
one in English covering Korea itself, the highly recommended The Birds of Korea,
by C. and N. Moores). Details of this highly-rated video, released in 2002, are
again available on the www.wbkenglish.com website. |
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• Are there any good websites with information or images of
Korean birds?
The only regularly updated, English-language website
with information on Korean birds is at present www.wbkenglish.com |
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