PORT TOWNSEND — Slimy green algae coats the water. Brown mud lines the shrunken shoreline.
When the water level drops in Kah Tai Lagoon, the shallow ponds look like a swamp to humans.
But from a bird’s-eye view, they’re a smorgasbord.
“The shorebirds benefit by having more shoreline exposed,” Ron Sikes says.
“If the water’s too deep, they can’t reach the invertebrates in the mud.”
Sikes is a member of the Admiralty Audubon who monitors feathered visitors to Kai Tai Lagoon, a former estuary north of the Boat Haven.
Blocked from the ebb and flow of the tides by Sims Way, the ponds shrink in late summer, leaving behind mud flats that look unhealthy, but are a prime draw for birds and birders.
“We’re getting more numbers and more kinds of shorebirds than in the years past,” Sikes said.
“Migratory birds are moving through right now. This is a great opportunity to see them.”
Frequent visitor
Sikes visits the lagoon ponds every few days to see what new species have flown in.
There, he sets up his spotting scope and zooms in on sandpipers, dowitchers and yellow-legs working their way along the muddy edge of the ponds.
The shorebirds are probably feeding on larvae of the ubiquitous swarms of midges that breed in the exposed mud flats. Sikes said.
“I’m always amazed that the food chain seems to be so great, considering half the lagoon was filled in and the relation to the bay has dramatically altered,” he said.
“So far it seems to have an abundant and dense food chain that benefits many birds.”
