[Leica] Bay Area King Tides

[Bryk Oliver]

An unusual photo opportunity:

> "The biggest high and low tides of winter Wednesday will couple with cresting migrations of waterfowl and shorebirds in the Bay Area and Northern California wildlife refuges.
> 
> Tidal areas throughout the region will flood at mid-morning. In late afternoon, the same areas will be unveiled as the water rolls back, providing miles of feeding ground for shorebirds, as well and sweeping access to beaches.
> 
> A high tide of 6.9 feet at 10:16 a.m. will be followed by a low tide of minus-1.2 feet at 4:54 p.m. in San Francisco. Add about an hour for San Pablo Bay, an hour-plus for Redwood City, two hours for Benicia and three hours for the Lower Delta.
> 
> The Bay Area has 20 major tidal wetlands. In winter, they provide a landing spot for roughly 1.3 million shorebirds.
> 
> In the past three weeks, big storms in the Pacific Northwest and Canada pushed birds south in significant numbers. At the same time, early November rains and flooding of wildlife areas in the Sacramento Valley have provided habitat for them to rest, water and feed.
> 
> In one 10-minute period over the weekend, I saw roughly 3,500 white-fronted geese flying at low altitude in circles and other patterns at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, located just east of Interstate 5 near Maxwell (Colusa County). For those heading up I-5 for the Thanksgiving holiday, this is part of what makes the wildlife driving tour at the refuge a must-see.
> 
> At the Refuge Complex, the latest survey counted 1.1 million ducks and 84,752 geese. Inside the numbers at the refuge, there are three major finds:
> 
> •The survey counted 277,000 pintail ducks, which migrate long distances on the flyway, many from Canada. That’s the highest number, by far, of any duck species.
> 
> •The survey counted only 32,381 mallards, which are locally nested and hatched, and thus impacted by lack of wetlands from the drought last year in California, less than 3 percent of the total ducks counted.
> 
> •As cold temperatures sweep across the West, more than 1 million snow geese are projected to fly into California. Only 17,300 snow geese (and other white geese) were counted at the refuge earlier this month."
> 
> Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoor writer. E-mail: tstienstra at sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom

(Source: www.sfgate.com 11/23/2015, NOAA)