the end of July and a sigh of relief

Male Ruddy Duck in full breeding plumage at Kah Tai

July 31, 2012 is a date that held considerable concern for those who want to protect Kah Tai. It is the day that the 30-year Kah Tai lease between the City and Port has been set to expire. And here we are, on July 31, 2012. The lease is still in place while the final details are completed for the long-awaited transfer of the Port's Kah Tai holdings to the City.  That status quo for the Park's management is spelled out in '1. Escrow Account Established' in Exhibit A of the Joint Resolution signed by the City and Port on May 21, 2012.

Meanwhile, back at the Park:

Admiralty Audubon's Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park bird survey report is now complete! The report's cover image is seen above, courtesy David Gluckman.

From October 2009 to October 2011, Admiralty Audubon chapter birders conducted 52 daylight surveys of birds in the park. Two-thirds of the species counted in the survey are land-based birds, utilizing the maturing uplands of the park. Ninety-eight species and their seasonal distributions were counted during the surveys.

In the process of analysing the survey results, we were fortunate to locate in the Friends of Kah Tai's archives five historic bird lists from Kah Tai, including one undertaken by AAS chapter founder, Eleanor Stopps, and first chapter president, Bernard Beck, from 1978-1979. The historic lists were incorporated into the analysis. The Park's historic species list is now documented at 150, as a new species was added a couple of weeks ago - Western Kingbird.

AAS has just completed a data- and photo-rich presentation of the survey results. It provides a brief overview of park history, a useful guide to what birds you might expect to see at any given visit and some excellent photography of the birds at Kah Tai. If you'd like an electronic copy of the report, you can download it at http://admiraltyaudubon.org. It is approximately 2.7 MB.

Printed copies of the report will be available in limited numbers soon. Check back on the AAS website for more information.