waiting for spring

Kah Tai, January 2015, © Artemis Celt.

Although the snowpack isn't what we hope for this time of year, we've had plenty of rain. The lagoon is full and the mudflats have disappeared. Instead of Yellowlegs and Sandpipers in the shallows, we find Buffleheads and Mergansers tucked in among the ever-present Mallards. Two Merganser females (Red-Breasted and Common) allowed photos to document their presence. Coots, Ruddy Ducks, grebes, herons, wigeons, and quite an array of upland birds can be seen, including a Scrub Jay spotted just across the street from the entrance to the park.

Mallards are a personal favorite, simply because they are so personable. They are Kah Tai's best salesmen, or salesbirds; city birds, approachable, vocal and always willing to accomodate a snack. They draw small children and elderly folks to sit on the benches along the edge, to appreciate that the park is here in the middle of town where we all have access. Mallards make the case for the average non-birding people walking through the park, quacking them in to discover Mergansers and Buffleheads and Ruddy Ducks, to witness passerine migrations, to hear the beautiful scream of a Red-tailed Hawk circling above.

In our first winter here, a Snow Goose appeared at the lagoon. She'd apparently missed the migration with her flock, whether due to injury, illness, or inattentiveness she never indicated. The resident Mallards took her in; she joined them in greeting humans in her foreign tongue, and she spent a fine winter being an odd Mallard. In the spring, she was gone.

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.

winter, such as it is

photo courtesy Ron Sikes

In October, unexpectedly large flocks of Buffleheads, Wigeons, Scaup, Canada Geese and other species descended on the lagoon. It is typically a sheltered and hospitable place for waterfowl even in late fall and winter.

The lagoon froze over earlier this month, and all the usual water birds apparently headed down to salt water at Point Hudson and Point Wilson to wait out the weather. Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Wigeons and Buffleheads, all more normally seen at Kah Tai, were observed hunkered down in both places until the weather turned again and the ice departed.

The cold snap didn't bring much snow for the park. The picture here is from a few years past, but it serves as a beautiful reminder of the season and the solstice.

a part of the process

As a part of the Master Plan for Kah Tai, Phase I of the Kah Tai Lagoon Park was developed, refined, reviewed and permitted in 1985. Phase I required a Shoreline Substantial Development permit (#SH10-85) from the State Department of Ecology. The final version of the permit map, dated November 1985, indicates that the purpose of digging the small lagoon is to 'Restore Wildlife Habitat'.

The small lagoon was initially drawn to extend much closer to 12th Street than it does today with the hope that the 'Department of Ecology shall not require review under the Washington State Shoreline Management Act for future projects proposed for lands brought under the jurisdiction of the Act' as a result of the permit. Ecology was unable to waive review of adjacent lands that would be within the 200-ft shoreline zone of the small lagoon. The result is the modified configuration that we see today for the small lagoon.

There remain intermittent wetlands in the area between the small lagoon and the southern boundary of the park. One obvious component of the Master Plan not yet complete is the restoration of wetlands near the eastern boundary of the southern uplands.

We have a boundary!

Last evening we heard the news from both a port commissioner and a county commissioner that the property transfers are complete and Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park is entirely in city hands. Since the port land was the major source of contention between 1980 and now, and the final small parcel holding up the transfer belonged to the county, it would seem that the sources of information are exceedingly well-placed to provide facts.

We aren't done yet. There are all the issues ahead of language in the parks and comprehensive plans being updated to recognize this new reality and affirm governmental recognition of perpetual protections. But now park supporters can focus on a single entity - it's time for the city to finish what it started in 1980.

Meanwhile, there are some weathered bumper stickers around town that are becoming collectors' items. We still have a few left - just in case.