New Life Bird!

On Monday, Nov 8, I drove up the Skagit River to meet friends for lunch and to see if I might be able to photograph an American dipper. It was not to be so, somewhat disappointed, I decided to drive back through the Samish Valley. There I encountered a very large population of Canada geese which I usually see on Fir Island.

I pulled off of the road to photograph some of the geese and almost immediately noticed a couple of very small geese (noticeably smaller than the Snow geese) that looked very similar to Canada geese. I didn’t have a bird book with me but did have my Sibley app on my phone. I guess it’s good I didn’t have the book with me because it didn’t have a listing for what I was seeing… a pair of Cackling geese! Not only had I never seen one of the birds but I hadn’t even heard of them! No matter… it is apparently a new classification, a life bird for me and, most importantly, I was able to obtain photos! I’m not proud of the photos… the light was bad and the geese were wandering through a plowed farm field, but photos of what I consider rare birds is still an achievement!