Junam Reservoir

Last Saturday Arianne took Katie and I to Junam Reservoir, a wetland located just to the north of Changwon. Junam is considered a bird sanctuary and is protected by the Korean government. It is also just about the only place around where you can see birds that are not either pigeons or magpies.







The area around the reservoir is known for its persimmons and we spotted dozens of orchards containing trees laden with ripe fruit.


An earthen dam borders the reservoir on its southeastern side, and a boardwalk along the top allows visitors to stroll along and view the birds.




The mounted binoculars were available free of charge, you just had to wait your turn. This guy was a real binocular hog. I managed a couple of photos through the eye piece in order to give you an idea of what everyone was there to see.




A number of serious photographers were set up on the dam with tripods and massive lens assemblies attached to their DSLR's. This guy gave us a flip chart full of beautiful photos of several dozen species of birds he has photographed at the reservoir.


We found this large, weird looking Korean grasshopper.


A local news crew was also at the reservoir, gathering footage for a story regarding Ramsar, an international environmental conference that is currently taking place in Changwon. The news crew just couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot some footage of a foreigner looking at the birds. The camera man got several shots of me looking through the big binoculars, and told us the story would air later that evening at 8:00.



Later that night we met with a group of friends over at Henry and Nancy's house to eat cookies Nancy had baked in her new oven. We watched the eight o'clock news and sure enough, there I was. I'm pretty sure the European guy they interviewed after the shot of me was associated with the Ramsar conference. He and his group were the only other foreigners we spotted at the reservoir.

On Monday when I went to work, the first student I encountered ran up to me with an excited look on her face and shouted, "Teacher! I saw you on news!"