[Leica] Bay Area King Tides

[oliverbryk at comcast.net (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)