October 19th 2006. Shoreham, Addison County, VT.
(Richardson's) Cackling Goose Branta hutchinsii hutchinsii.
Hector Galbraith, Chris Petrak and I came across this Cackler amongst a large flock
of c.800 Canada Geese feeding in a corn stubble field about a half-mile south of
Shoreham center off Rt 22A. The birds were about 300 metres west of the road and the following shots are rather distant.

This was an interesting bird. It appeared somewhat larger than the birds seen at Turner's Falls, MA on October 12th, but like those birds, it also appeared strikingly pale. Many of the Canada Geese in the Shoreham field appeared to be of the slightly smaller, darker race 'interior', sometimes known as 'Todd's Canada Goose', rather than the larger, paler Atlantic Canada Goose, though a handful of Atlantic Canadas may have been present in this flock as well.
 
As usual, we noted a tremendous range of size and color variation within a single flock of Canada Geese, reflected to some extent in the images. This may also lead to the impression that the Cackler was larger than it actually appeared in the field. There is also a good possibility that this particular bird was at the larger end of the size range for Richardson's Cackling Goose.

A nice feeding flock of 130 Snow Geese was present in the same field.

  • Images of the Turner's Falls Cackling Geese can be seen here.

Images taken through Canon Powershot A540 through Swarovski HD telescope.



(Richardson's) Cackling Goose - (extreme left). Small size and rather pale, silvery gray overall appearance
allowing the bird to be picked out easily at all times.


(Richardson's) Cackling Goose - center.


(Richardson's) Cackling Goose - center. 'Dwarfed' by the large bird at the rear. Note the rather
sandy tone to the breast at certain angles.


(Richardson's) Cackling Goose - (left). This shot revealed that the bird had a thin, complete black line
along the chin dividing the white cheeks.




(Richardson's) Cackling Goose - (right, center).



Snow Geese with Canada Geese at Shoreham.