Friday, November 05, 2010

Where the birds were

A couple of days ago, we were in Iona Beach park, looking for birds and finding few. Here's why:


Before we left, I photographed this sign. (Yes, that's me and my flash, reflected in the plastic cover.) I didn't get around to reading it until tonight. It explains the lonely ponds and beaches.


The second paragraph reads,
"... a rich assortment of clams, worms and other marine invertebrates attract thousands of shorebirds at low tide. ... At high tide, the shorebirds move to the nutrient-rich Iona Wastewater treatment lagoons to continue feasting."
And when we arrived, the tide was at its highest point.


Iona park and water treatment site, Google maps.

The Wastewater treatment lagoons are the four squarish ones on the right. We walked around the two lagoons on the west side. Unfortunately, the treatment ponds are surrounded by a high fence, with a weed-covered, treed dike inside it, hiding them, except for a tiny glimpse from the top of the pipeline.


The second half of the sign. Clams, worms, and ghost shrimp. What the birds eat at low tide.

2 comments:

  1. They cant let you near treatment lagoons because of possible lawsuits, I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds them interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish they'd let us at least see in. But maybe someone would find a way to sue them for that, too.
    :(

    ReplyDelete

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