juvenile, Semi-palmated Sandpiper

Marv Breece saves the day. After discovering that my favourite ponds on the Samish Flats were bone dry I had been looking around Puget Sound for an alternative, with no success. I was on the point of writing off Autumn migration - at least unless the crowds on the beaches on the Washington coast had subsided - when Marv announced that a new pond had recently been dug on an industrial estate just south of Kent.

The pond is adjacent to an existing marsh and was probably dug as part of mitigation work for the construction of nearby warehouses which are spreading south through the Kent Valley, slowly turning farmland and open space into concrete and roofing tiles. While literally just a hole in the ground the pond is almost a dream come true. The water is very shallow so the entire area - about the size of two tennis courts - provided excellent feeding for sandpipers. There is a clear view of the Cascade Mountains off to the east so any clouds over the foothills provies a soft grey blue reflection off the water which really brings out the detail in birds plumage. The shallow water limits the ripples and wave action caused by the wind and eliminates most of the problems that plague the process of taking photographs at montlake Fill where the ponds are much deeper.

I have spend several days over the past week taking photos here and I think the results are pretty worthwhile. Although it is right next to Highway 167 the birds seem oblivious to traffic and are generally well settled. It ususally take around half an hour of so for the birds to start feeding close enough to allow me to take pictures. After an hour or two they totally ignore me and often I cannot focus the scope down far enough. On my last visit I had a lesser yellowlegs feeding less than 2 metres from where I was sitting and a least sandpiper feeding along the edge of the pond thought about walking under my tripod before decding against it at the last minute. Even the killdeer seem friendly. There are usually half a dozen feeding on the pond with another 10 or so in the surrounding field but unlike the city birds up at Montlake Fill in Seattle these are more relaxed and generally less excitable though they do seem to spend more time chasing each other and getting involved in feeding territory disputes.

With only another three weeks or so before the majority of birds have passed on to the south I am hoping for big things from this superb site. Hopefully nobody will come along and fill it with concrete or cattails.