[birding] Ankeny Aleutian Cackling Geese

[Molly Monroe]

While surveying at Ankeny today, I found two ALEUTIAN CACKLING GEESE. Normally I would not be able to easily pick these out of a flock of 5,000 cacklers like the one I was looking through today but one had a blue neck collar which is half the width of collars I normally see. 
In the same field, there sat a PEREGRINE FALCON on a dirt clod, preening and soaking up some sun. The geese all got up when the falcon flew, but they dropped back down and I was able to relocate the collared goose. I didn't look too closely for more Aleutians but these two were sticking close together. There could be more...
The field they were in is the big one to the west of the RR tracks off Wintel Rd. There's a pullout with a couple of trees in it and the geese were fairly close to the road.
This is also a great time to view DUSKY CANADA GEESE at Ankeny, there were a few hundred in Eagle Marsh today, over 30 had red collars.

At Baskett, there were a few dozen TUNDRA SWANS. I agree with Lisa that it seems like they are later than usual around the refuges. I counted 35 last week and had one blue collar there as well. There was also a juvenile Western or Clark's GREBE in Taverner's Marsh (north of the narrows). It spent alot of the time I was there with its head tucked so was hard to identify, especially with the dingy grey coloring.

Molly Monroe~


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