SPOTTING OF SPRING MIGRATORY BIRDS

[Anchor Lead]

Swallows are known as the harbingers of spring. This migratory bird that visits Korea in the summer has been recently spotted in the Nakdonggang River area in the middle of the winter. The unusually warm weather may be to blame for the untimely arrival of the bird.

[Pkg]

A bird zig zags across the wetland. Keeping up with this fast creature using a camera can be quite challenging. This time, a pair shows off some acrobatic maneuvers in the sky. Swallows. The migratory bird species usually arrives in Korea in March, but recently they were spotted in the Nakdonggang River estuary in the middle of winter.

[Soundbite] PARK JUNG-ROK(WETLANDS & BIRDS KOREA) : "This is how swallows usually look for prey."

The Nakdonggang River estuary is known as a stopover for swallows that spend th Summer in Korea. Last year, some one thousand of them visited the area. It's quite unprecedented to see the bird in Korea during the cold season. The unusually warm weather this winter might be to blame for the untimely arrival. The average temperature in Busan in the month of January is 3.5 degrees Celsius, but this month it recorded 6.2, 2.7 degrees higher than normal. About five days before the swallows were spotted, daytime highs in the port city soared to 17.7 degrees Celsius.

[Soundbite] PARK JUNG-ROK(WETLANDS & BIRDS KOREA) : "Because of the warm weather, there are bugs to eat. That is probably why they appeared here. It shows how serious climate change is."

However, it's also possible the birds stayed in the Nakdonggang River area since last October after faililng to fly south due to disruptions in their biological clock.

[Soundbite] PARK JIN-YOUNG(NATIONAL MIGRATORY BIRD RESEARCH CENTER) : "Swallows are rarely spotted during winter. It's still too early to say it's a new tendency."

Experts are trying to figure out the reason behind the birds' untimely appearance on the Korean Peninsula.