Hello Birders,
Lynn and I took a stab this morning at the reported Cackling Geese at New
Bristow Village pond (Prince William County).
Good news, the huge flock of 1000-ish Canadas was there at 8 AM. We found a
few small-looking suspects which may well have been the Cacklers. The bills
might have been proportionally smaller, but the bills and necks were not enough
for us, having never seen the species before. These "suspects" seemed to be
grouped together, along the SW side of the pond.
I considered just asking them to ID themselves, but the geese were way too busy
discussing something amongst themselves. While we were there, groups of 3, 10,
20 or so took off, every few minutes. We had the sense that the whole flock
would be gone within an hour or less.
The two great-looking drake Redheads were still there, too. They are really
striking, swimming among all the other black-and-white waterfowl.
Steve Johnson
Fairfax, Virginia
