Lake Merritt, Oakland, Ca.

This urban lake was actually a saltwater marsh, an extension of San Francisco Bay before the city was built and developed. Gates now seperate it from the Bay but they open and close when the water level in the Lake is too high or too low. This is actually the first wildlife refuge in the U.S. - I believe it is administered by the State rather than the federal government, but I need to chack on that.
Migratory birds come here from the Arctic in autumn and stay until early spring, when they return north to mate. We get many ducks: buffleheads, canvassbacks, ruddy ducks, greater and lesser scaups. Grebes also show up. There's an injured white pelican who hangs out here year long.
Brown pelicans and double crested cormorants gather here in spring and summer, and we have a permament population of Canada geese that grows and shrinks according to the season. That's a scaup in the foreground. The more distant birds include grebes, scaups, American coots. I'd have to look at them extremely closely to figure out if there are others... does anyone have a hand lens?