resting place

Birds and The Boat, September 2014. © Artemis Celt

There's a boat at the lagoon, even though boats are not allowed on the lagoon according to the Shoreline Master Program. The boat looks comfortable, settled in, as though it belongs. The birds love it. 

I'd heard rumors of how the boat ended up there and decided to ask someone who knew, unequivocally, how it appeared. Here, verbatim, is the story.

"Sometime during the last century (not this one, the last one) a couple of hippies moved to PT in search of peace and love. They settled in on the hillside above Kah Tai Lagoon. Their first visitors were a couple from even further up the hill, who had arrived the year before. Turned out that they (the 2nd couple. no, the first couple. I mean the old timers, not the newcomers) had a venerable old wooden boat in their basement that needed a new home (they were not boat people). The very Boat. They all joined hands, sang a few rounds of Jambalaya, (or We Shall Overcome, or something) and moved the Boat to the driveway of couple number 2 (I mean the newcomers) where it served, upside down, for 225 years (that might be a misprint) as a cheap but worthy shelter for all manner of treasure and junk.

 

Time passed, the Battle of Kah Tai Lagoon was waged and won, dreams came and went, people were born and people died. Peace and love were found in moderation, fitting and sufficient for the times. The Boat endured, unaffected by all that.

 

When Ms Newcomer died, late in that century of which I speak, friends and acquaintances gathered on the hillside to eat and drink and celebrate. In a flash of inspiration, the entire party picked up The Boat, loaded with the spirit of Ms Newcomer, and carried it lovingly to the edge of the Lagoon, and pushed it from the shore, to find its resting place amongst the reeds. There is nothing more to tell."

August at Kah Tai

courtesy Artemis Celt

On the walls of the restroom building at Kah Tai is a new announcement from the City - public notice of an upcoming Comprehensive Plan amendment that has been more than three years in the making. When proposed in 2011, it was intended to call attention to Kah Tai's special but not-quite-official status as a nature park. At that time, Kah Tai's continued intact existence was uncertain, under threat of commercial development, its history misplaced and forgotten.

The proposed amendment was tabled while the conflicts were resolved. Now all parties agree to the park's status, and the proposed final language for the amendment is declarative, thorough and stringent.

A nature park in the middle of a town and next to a transit hub has many challenges. But commercial development is no longer one of those challenges. When people have nowhere else to go, the park bears the burden of their needs. But homeless incursions cause little lasting harm, a different magnitude of damage than bulldozers and concrete would impart.

And the work of nature proceeds. Insects harvest Grindelia in bloom. Canada Geese honk their young into training flights. Shorebirds mine the mudflats and shallows as a dry month shrinks the lagoon a little. Life goes on.

another work party - there's ALWAYS another work party

The last two Kah Tai work parties of the season will be on Sundays, May 25 and June 29, 9 am to noon. Admiralty Audubon leads the effort, and birders tend to migrate in the summer so we have a brief hiatus from July - September.

Since we've gotten the Scot's broom under good control (just note how yellow Kah Tai isn't and everywhere else is right now), we will be working on spurge laurel, holly and ivy. And of course, picking up garbage.

For more information, visit Admiralty Audubon's website.

A new face has been documented at Kah Tai: the American Pipit shown here was recently photographed by Artemis Celt.