Greetings,

Left early this morning (12/29, 8 to 9 a.m.) for Zion Road to find Cacklers.  
Not a goose of any species to be found anywhere in the area.  Stopped at 
Brighton Dam where there are hundreds of Common Mergansers and I noted four adult 
and one immature Bald Eagle perched in the trees on the Howard County side.

A stop at the boat launch at Centennial Lake in Howard turned up all the 
missing Canada Geese.  4,000 or more on the ice and the open water at the deep 
end, all joyously bathing or just floating and noising.  Scoping the flock 
finally rewarded me with a family group of small geese just as they decided to walk 
off the ice and take to the water.  They remained together the entire half 
hour I watched them.  I wondered idly whether they might be the same group 
reported from Zion Road for the last few days.  All four of these birds were 
substantially smaller than any of the surrounding Canadas.  They all had short, 
triangular bills, short necks.  One of the birds had a rather messy looking partial 
white band below the neck stocking.  While they were on the ice I noted 
shorter legs than the Canadas.  Their backs struck me as being somewhat grayer than 
the brownish gray of the larger birds.  With relatively short necks, delicate 
triangular bill and small size I make them CACKLING GEESE.  Their breasts 
were not noticeably darker than any of the Canadas.  I wouldn't dare try to 
identify as to sub-species.

Sharing the water were 1 American Coot, ~100 Ring-necked Ducks, 5 Hooded 
Mergansers, 9 American Black Ducks, 3 CANVASBACKS (2 males and a female), 2 Ruddy 
Ducks (one of each sex) and the usual collection of Mallards.

Lou Nielsen
Reisterstown, MD