Minutes after deleting Calliope Hummingbird from my State List on Monday, Lysle called. He had discovered one to three Cackling Geese (the small, recently-split cousin of the familiar Canada Goose) in the fields of Thornhurst Farm along Route 115 in North Yarmouth, just a few miles from the store.

I was actually busy at the time, with a customer who was considering a new pair of binoculars. With Jeannette holding down the fort, I decided to take our comparision on the road, and had Tom join me on the twitch. We rolled up on Lysle at the farm at about 5:00, and saw the Cackling Goose/Geese. A State Bird for me, a life bird for Tom, and a good low-lighting condition to test new binoculars.

There were three very small geese way out in the fields, among about 800 Canada Geese. One was a “textbook” Cackling Goose - real small bird, with a very small, triangular bill and a distinctive white collar around the base of the neck. It also showed the steep forehead and thick, stocky, short neck expected of this species. We were unsure as to the identification of the other two, both who looked marginally larger and longer-billed. However, with the fading light and distance, we were not convinced of the identification of these other two small geese (perhaps “Lesser” Canada Geese?).

This morning, Jeannette and I returned to Thornhurst Farm in bright morning sunlight. And, the gaggle was much closer this time. We immediately located the three small geese in the cow pasture behind the farm buildings. I digiscoped these photos:

The very small size, thick and stocky neck, steep forehead, and small, triangular bill, plus the white neck collar are noticeable on these two birds, but the collar is much narrower on the bird on the right. The middle bird is a notch larger, it seems, and shows only a hint of the collar. Two typical Canada Geese are in the foreground.

Note the difference in head shape, bill shape and size, and neck length and width between the two Cackling-type on the left, and the Canada in the foreground.

This is not a great photo, but notice how much bulkier the third bird is? With the slightly larger size and slightly longer bill, is it too big for a hendersonii Cackling? One or two photos hint at a narrow white collar.

To me, two birds are “perfect” Cackling Goose of the expected, more easterly, subspecies richardsonii (Jeannette and I call them “Little Richies”) one of which has a nice distinct, broad white collar that is visible at quite a distance. There The third bird was a notch larger, a tad longer-billed, and I there was little, if any, white neck collar. Was this bird big enough to NOT be a Cackling? There’s so much variability in this species, between the subspecies, between the subspecies of Canada Goose, possible intergrades between the two, uh you get the idea. Plus, with the recent taxonomic decision to split this species, they are now getting more attention from birders, and we’re still learning how to identify them and draw – perhaps arbitrarily – limits between species and subspecies. Comments are most welcome, and I look forward to learning more about these birds. (Note: When you use the comment field below, don’t “preview” your post, or it seems to get deleted!)

Meanwhile, on the passerine front, a small quantity of birds were on the move Monday night into Tuesday morning. After a cool and overcast day with onshore winds, a weak low developed and crossed the area overnight, producing some early scattered showers. By morning, the front had cleared, and sunrise saw partly clear skies and a light northwesterly wind.

Here's the 2:00am image, for example:

However, the northwesterly component either developed too late and/or was not strong enough to produce much of a flight over Sandy Point. Here’s the list.

Number of species: 32

Wood Duck 2
Green-winged Teal 2
Common Eider X
Common Loon 4
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Laughing Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Blue Jay 1
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
American Robin 7
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling X
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Palm Warbler 2
Song Sparrow 4
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 4
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Pine Siskin 1
American Goldfinch X

After viewing the Cackling Geese, we headed over to Reid State Park. We love Reid this time of year, and on this beautiful afternoon, the birding was fantastic.

A surprisingly good number of shorebirds for early October were present, sparrows were in the scrub, and a handful of migrant ducks have arrived. The best bird was a quick glimpse of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, but the overall diversity of species was the real highlight: 6 species of warblers, 6 species of sparrows, 7 species of waterfowl, and 6 species of shorebirds! Here’s the list.

Location: Reid State Park
Observation date: 10/9/07
Number of species: 47

Gadwall 1
American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Northern Pintail 4
Common Eider x
Surf Scoter 43
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Common Loon 1
Red-necked Grebe 4
Double-crested Cormorant X
Osprey 1
Northern Harrier 1
Black-bellied Plover 15
Semipalmated Plover 71
Sanderling 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 6
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Dunlin 10
Laughing Gull 3
Bonaparte's Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Horned Lark 45
Black-capped Chickadee X
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Hermit Thrush 2
American Robin 2
American Pipit 3
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 45
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Savannah Sparrow 11
Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 11
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 8
Dark-eyed Junco 15
Purple Finch 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

After the glorious fall day that was Tuesday, the active weather pattern continues, with a broad, but weak, area of low pressure arriving Tuesday night, with light rain throughout most of the night, and little, if any new migrants around for Wednesday morning.