Lake Padden report + name these geese!!! :)‏ Andrew Reding 12/5/13

Lake Padden report, today, Dec 4:

The most unusual was 6 gadwalls. Also 5 common mergansers, over a dozen lesser scaup, buffleheads, double-crested cormorants, pied-billed grebes, American wigeons, coots.

Then, down at the lagoon where Padden Creek disgorges into Bellingham Bay, a solitary bufflehead, a heron, and a dozen geese.

Now the geese are a real challenge. Too big to be obvious cacklers. Too small to be obviously Canada. They could be lesser Canada geese. They could be Taverner’s cackling geese. And heck, they could be something else I suppose. They are short-necked, most — but not all — have dark breasts, the bills seem intermediate in size between typical Canadas and cacklers. And before anyone asks, no I did not hear any call, and was not about to disturb them to elicit a call.

I have noticed frequent reports of cacklers on this list, though always without photos. The obvious cacklers (subspecies minima) apparently only winter in California and Oregon. So I am posting eleven closeup photos of these less obvious geese, to see whether it is possible to get a definitive ID.

Here are the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seaotter/

Click on any of them to see them full screen.

What do you think?

Andrew

Maybe they are the same short-necked Canadas I saw a while back in and around Padden Lagoon. The bills look too large to be Cacklers. Cacklers have stubby bills. On eBird, I counted them as Parvipes Canadas. But I can always change it, if an expert says they're something else.

Phil Hotlen