Please recommend 2-3 best sites around SF for bird photography... (1 Viewer)

Dear friends familiar with San Francisco and surrounding, I will spend few days in December in SF (conference) and rented a car for 3 days after the meeting - original plan was to spent these days with my wife but as she cannot come with me I changed my schedule to pure birding, resp. bird photography. I have searched through many websites but it seems that this area is incredibly rich in wildlife - could you please recommend me 2 or 3 places that would be the best for bird photography at that time of the year (before Xmas) and would be within let say 100 miles from SF? I have the guidebook for the San Francisco Bay but Im not sure how well you can actually approach the birds there - maybe these particular spots are good birding-spots but unusable for photography.

Thanks a lot for your advices

Jiri

I see you aren't getting a ton of answers, so I'll jump in, although I haven't lived in the Bay Area for many years.

There are certainly plenty of opportunities within the area, and with a car, there are many varied habitats to choose from. For starters, there are many sites for shorebirds close at hand right in the city. A spectacular place for a drive and a hike is the Marin Headlands, just over the Golden Gate Bridge. Golden Gate Park, within SF itself, is worth a look.

Muir Woods gets you into the Redwoods and shouldn't be missed, but under the dark understory, it's not really my favorite place for birding.

Within your 100 mile radius, you could go into the Central Valley, and check out some of the many wildlife refuges on the Pacific Flyway, and you will find thousands of migrating species. The one I'm going to check out next is the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area, which is in the Yolo Bypass. This is a large overflow weir in the Sacramento River Delta, and there will be tons of ducks, geese, herons, egrets, raptors, etc.

Note that my wife doesn't like to go to these refuges this time of year because there are adjacent areas with duck hunting permitted. If the occasional gunshot heard in the distance doesn't bother you, the go for it.

Another place I have not visited but have heard good things about is Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing-- marsh and tidal flats. This is south of Santa Cruz, so is probably 1 1/2 hours drive from SF.

Plenty of good opportunities...

Jim

When I lived in the Bay Area years ago, the Palo Alto Baylands was an excellent place for photography: herons (Great & Snowy Egrets, GB Heron, BCN Heron), shorebirds (all the winter species), the common winter waterfowl (including both species of scaup), Burrowing Owl. Also, if you hit the tide right, rails galore (Sora, Virginia Rail, Clapper Rail &, at very high tides, Black Rail).

I haven’t been out there in recent years, but it’s publicly owned & there is no reason to think it would have changed much in the interim.

Second the above recommendations for Palo Alto Baylands and Moss Landing/Elkhorn Slough.

Also should put in a plug for the east bay- try Arrowhead Marsh for Clapper Rail, Lake Merritt for waterfowl, and the Bay Trail between Point Isabel/Meeker Slough/Richmond Harbor.

Here's what you do.

Take 80 East to 505.
Take 505 to Route 5 North.
Turn off at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge. Get there around 3 pm. Stay till dark.

Very easy to do. There is a nice 'motor loop' to drive. You'll be there for the 'Fly Out' - 'Fly In'. Hundreds of thousands to Millions of everything.

These are big easy roads. You'll have coastal mountains and the Sutter Buttes as a back drop in the refuge for photos....... chris

Having grown up in Marin County, I have to put in my bit. Richardson Bay, a bird sanctuary in Tiburon should be good. It's only 20 or so miles from San Francisco.

But I also agree with Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing in Monterey County but that's a lot further from SF.

Joannec, Richardson Bay in Tiburon is also a very good place for shorebirds. An afternoon spent strolling through Sausalito (the Bay Area's Riviera) or Tiburon's quaint shops and nice shoreline is an afternoon well spent. One interesting thing: I see more and more birders visiting Las Gallinas wastewater treatment ponds (San Rafael) and Rush Creek (Novato) and reporting their sightings on www.birdingonthe.net/

wings said:

Joannec, Richardson Bay in Tiburon is also a very good place for shorebirds. An afternoon spent strolling through Sausalito (the Bay Area's Riviera) or Tiburon's quaint shops and nice shoreline is an afternoon well spent. One interesting thing: I see more and more birders visiting Las Gallinas wastewater treatment ponds (San Rafael) and Rush Creek (Novato) and reporting their sightings on www.birdingonthe.net/

Click to expand...

I'll bear all that in mind for next time I'm in Marin County. One of my long term plans is to do the raptor watch at the Marin headlands one year. I grew up in Marin but wasn't a birder then...................it pains me to think of all the birds I missed!!

Remember, Sacramento Refuge might be 2 hours max. to get to - on big fast roads.