January 23rd, 2007. Newport Country Club, Aquidneck Island, RI. Richardson's Cackling Goose Branta hutchinsii hutchinsii. (6) Fabulous opportunities to study Cackling Geese in and around a large flock of over 1,000 Canada Geese in Newport, southern Rhode Island. The same goose flock also contained two Pink-footed Geese previously discovered a couple of weeks prior to our visit. The Pink-feet were really nice but I think I was more taken with the numbers of visible Cacklers in the flock of Canadas. We could only see part of the goose flock as the rest were hidden by low hills on the golf course, but we still managed to winkle out six Cackling Geese which I thought impressive for just one site. Images of all the birds are featured here, some highlighted by yellow arrows. We found them all over the golf course, some in the rough, some on the fairways, but invariably on the edge of the larger flocks. Images taken using Canon Powershot A540 through Swarovski HD telescope. |
 Richardson's Cackling Goose - at certain angles, small size, overall light gray plumage, some with faintly yellow-toned cheeks, can recall Barnacle Goose.   Richardson's Cackling Geese - two alert birds on the edge of a small flock.  Richardson's Cackling Geese - three birds in just a small segment of the flock.  Richardson's Cackling Geese - a further three birds on a different part of the golf course. Some showing interesting individual characteristics such as the complete black line dividing the whitish cheeks on the bird at lower right, or the very broad white cheek patch on the bird on the upper left. The latter bird is also featured in the image below.   Richardson's Cackling Geese - two birds visible in this shot.  Richardson's Cackling Goose - the isolated bird just left of the loose group. |