These same brant have been observed in Alaska, Russia, Canada, and Mexico. During the spring, prior to their return to Arctic nesting grounds, the Bay is a key staging area for black brant. It contains the largest beds of eelgrass south of Willapa Bay, Washington. These beds provide gourmet meals for the brant. When hiking Shorebird Loop Trail, you are walking through former ranch land now being restored to wetlands for wintering and migratory waterbirds and endangered species.
Cattle graze certain sections along the trails, providing an effective way to shorten the grass.
When flooded, these grazed grasslands support aquatic insects and other invertebrates that are eaten by foraging waterbirds. Tall, ungrazed grass provides cover and nesting sites. These microscopic animals support the fish and shorebirds that populate the slough. At high tide, the slough may be full of sanddabs, English sole, leopard shark, halibut, salmon, and steelhead. Young dungeness crabs abound, thriving on organic matter in the mud.