Nearly a Wildlife Refuge

Back Patio View of noisy Cackler Geese flying about

I  lolling around downstairs in my home when the phone rang. My neighbor telling me to get the heck over to a window to see the mass flock of geese that just flew into the large field behind our homes. Being downstairs, I hadn't heard the racket of the fly-in geese. Soon I was upstairs and out on the back patio, gawking at the huge number of birds next door. 

Geese, more geese and 3 oddball geese

Based on the racket the birds made, I knew they were Cackling Geese (a new yard bird last month). My neighbor, Barb, was in her backyard with binoculars. "SWANS?", she called to me. 

"YES!" I squealed excitedly. I was staring at 3 white blotches at the edge of the flock. I ran downstairs, fetching my camera. One look and lo and behold, not swans (to my defense, these white birds seemed quite large and bulky) they were Snow Geese! Another new Yard Bird, YIPPY! 

New Yard Bird Species: Snow Geese

'Why are these guys staring at me?'

As you can see in the photos above and below, the brown geese have white cheek patches, which once-upon-a-time meant they were a small subspecies of Canada Goose. But some years ago, the powers that be decided based on the size, very different voice and short dinky beaks, these were a different species from Canadas, and they were named after their raucous calls: Cackling Goose.  Cackling geese are only a little bit larger than Mallard Ducks (or domestic, white Peking Ducks). 



Itty bitty-ish Cackling Geese

with itsy bitsy beaks

Cackling Geese

The day after the first inflight of Cacklings, they returned yet again. This time the Snow Geese were not present so I assume either this is a different flight of Cacklings or that the Snow Geese took off on their own path. 

On day two, as on day one, I realized there were also Canada Geese amid the Cacklers, but there were so many Cacklers that if the Canadas were honking, their noise was overshadowed by the b'jillion Cacklers. 

Canada Geese, eh?

Canadas have bills that are the same length as their head,
whereas Cackler bills are half the length of their heads.
Do you really need these details? I thought not. 

So that's how my Sequim Washington 'Yard List', after five years, is up to 63 species. I am right chuffed! For comparison, my California, Fair Oaks Yard List took 23 years to get to 47 species. That's the difference between suburban habitat and semi-wild suburban habitat.