No.
43
Strawberries
and Cream
I frequently walk around our pond that is, Killdeer Pond in the Preserve.
Everyone knows Blue Heron Pond,
but Killdeer Pond is different, smaller
and constantly changing. The change
occurs because the water level
changes with the tides. It used to be a
freshwater pond filled with cattails and
fresh water vegetation, but in 2003 a
particularly high tide broke through the
dam. The salt water killed the cattails
and the pine trees that were close to the
pond edge. Kiawah Island Community
Association fought back by rebuilding
the dam, but it soon washed out again
and for the next couple of years Norm
Shea and his crew tried first one, then
another type of tidal gates, finally
arriving at a solution that allows salt
water to flow in when a certain level
is reached, then close off the outflow
when the tide is slack. So the pond
stays partially full most of the time.
During periods of consistently high
tides it is completely full, and when
tides are low for a week or two the
pond gradually empties. It never goes
totally dry like it used to when it was
fresh water, but the water level gets
low, and when it does, the white birds
come.
These are the times when the best way
to describe the scene is as a feeding
frenzy. There are hundreds of great
egrets, snowy egrets, white ibis, wood
storks, tri-colored herons, black-necked
stilts and gulls - hundreds of gulls, and
a few terns, all searching in the shallow
water for minnows, frogs and pond
creatures for which there is no place
to hide. In the right season, the white
birds are joined by black skimmers,
glossy ibis, or an occasional green
her