Having spent the better part of the cold season on a southern beach, Tybee Island near Savannah, we learned to appreciate how tides effect birding. An incoming tide, the time between low tide and the next high tide, brings nutrients on each wave and always found the gulls and sandpipers present in larger numbers, as well as feeding more actively. The Sanderlings run in and out, while the Willets and Least Sandpipers probe determinedly. Ring-billed Gulls have an interesting dance they do standing in one spot loosening sand as the surf runs out. Offshore birds such as Northern Gannets tended to fish closer to shore on an incoming tide, especially with an on shore breeze.

Around the time of high tide also finds more birds present, often roosting on the beach, such as Purple Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones, as the high tide has pushed them off otherwise exposed rocks and mud flats. The highest high tides occur during the full moon and almost as high for the new moon. This is a great time to search for Marsh Wren and Seaside and Sharp-tailed Sparrows as well as rails which are pushed into bushes and grassy areas where these elusive birds may be more readily seen.

The draw back of low tide is that it often exposes vast areas which allow sandpipers to disperse and be further away from shore and thus further from view. You will only advance across a mud flat once, hopefully in shoes you do not intend to wear again! On the other hand if you know a good vantage point overlooking confined mud flats then low tide is the time to be there.

Of course a lot more than tides effect concentrations of birds. The time of day, weather, man made disturbances, season, and food supply play nearly equal roles. But if you are planning a day trip to the shore, particularly a habitat of beaches, mud flats, or submerged rock outcrops, check the tide tables so you are present on an incoming morning tide. Then avoid summer beaches and don't become trapped by high tide!

Wings Over Dutchess, May 2002

Read Other Stories