Friday, February 4, 2011

VACATION: San Francisco, N CA Wildlife Refuges



Magnificent Golden Gate view from Sausalito - this is from Cavallo Point Resort,  housed in the renovated army barracks of Fort Baker, part of coastal fortification installations built up and down the Pacific Coast between 1902-1912. .



Van Gogh, 1886 - Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase
We drove into San Francisco and had a wonderful afternoon at the De Young Museum seeing the Post-Impressionist exhibit of Musée D’Orsay paintings, including this magnificent Van Gogh still life.


On one of those January days of warm sun, my husband and I drove north up the I-5, losing the comfortable weather as the miles whizzed by.  It’s only a trip that can be made in winter:  to see migratory birds stopping over in the California wetlands as they move North to their summer places.  Over 44% of the Pacific Flyway’s bird population overwinters in the Sacramento and Central Valleys.

These wetlands are fascinating conservation-dream hybrids, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Only about 10% of the original wetlands remain after the region’s water supply was dammed and controlled for crop irrigation. To resolve the conflict between rice-growing farmers and hungry migrating birds, the dry fields are flooded in the fall and winter using a network of dykes, dams, and pumps. Over 35,000 acres of marsh, ponds, grasslands, and seasonal wetlands offer nurture and cover for the millions of birds in traverse.










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