24 Hours in a Salt Marsh by Christy Peterson

Author:Christy Peterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

Amphipods are food for many animals in the salt marsh.

Amphipods are not the only mud-flat dwellers the salt marsh feeds. Worms, copepods, and other invertebrates eat detritus, too. These animals are about to be food for some out-of-town visitors.

A flock of Baird’s sandpipers lands nearby and skitters along the mud flat. They probe the mud with their beaks, hunting for amphipods and worms. These shorebirds have just arrived on the Oregon coast from their nesting grounds in the Arctic. The salt marsh is a safe place for them to eat and rest before they continue their 9,000-mile (14,500 kilometer) journey to their winter home in South America.

Salt marshes along the coasts of North America are important habitats for migrating birds. Many bird species nest on wide, treeless plains in the Arctic. In autumn, they journey thousands of miles to their winter homes. Some species arrive on the Oregon coast and stay all winter. Other species stay a few days or weeks. They stop again on their way north in the spring. Though these birds are part of the community for only a short time, the salt marsh is important for their survival.

AMPHIPOD MOTHERS

Female amphipods have pouches, like kangaroos and opossums. The pouch protects the amphipod’s eggs until they hatch. A pouch can hold just a few eggs or a few hundred. Newly hatched amphipods stay in their mother’s pouch for a few days before leaving to find food. Young amphipods look just like adults, only smaller.

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