Disappearing Shorebird Habitat

Shorebirds feeding on a diked-off area of former intertidal mudflats at a reclamation project in Bohai Bay, Yellow Sea, China. The substrate the birds are feeding on is mud and sand that has been pumped into the impoundment from beyond the levee (dredge in background). Ironically, shorebirds are feeding on the same sediments that they likely fed on when the material was seaward of the dikes. The opportunity, however, is fleeting since the area behind the dikes is no longer tidal and it will eventually dry out, killing everything (small clams and worms) within.