Since I come from a landlocked place (Pittsburgh) I don’t pay attention to tides but I’d better take note this week if I want to see shorebirds.
The tide where I’m visiting the east coast of Florida has a high-to-low difference of 2 to 3 feet depending on the harbor. This doesn’t look like much but it makes a difference to birds. They can take their time in Florida as the water rises slowly.
Birds have to act fast at the Bay of Fundy where the tides are the highest in the world. With a range of 40-55 feet docks look absurd at low tide and mud flats are inundated quickly. The time-lapse video below shows tidal rise and fall at Hall’s Harbour, Nova Scotia. The birds show up for a relatively brief moment at low tide.
On the opposite side of the Atlantic there are locations in the U.K. with impressive tides, too. Click here for illustrations, then click on each photo of low tide to get the same scene at high tide.
Dramatic!
(low and high tide photos by © Samuel Wantman / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 & GFDL. Click on the image to see the originals. Hall’s Harbour time lapse by Leo de Groot on YouTube)
What a fun post! Thanks. Ever since I started watching Doc Martin, I have been fascinated by extreme tides. It’s one thing to have to move your beach chair back a few feet as the day moves progresses on the southern Atlantic coast. It’s another thing to think that the water might be over your head!
Not related to this article, but I’m so glad to see a Falcon at the Pitt nest box just a minute ago (@ 12:15 pm). The Falcon was calling and kind of scaping in the pebbles. I hope there is a successful courtship and babies this season. Will miss Dorothy as I have watched her for many years. She had a good, long life with many babies born!!
These photos are fascinating, thank you for sharing these.