I get a text message last night from a friend asking me if I want to share some time with some big time NYC birders. Of course I say yes, but unfortunately my random cold I got the day before decides to flare up and make things much worse for me. So I passed on the early morning get together. Determined; later in the day as the sun began to get lower in the sky I set out to nab at least one photograph of this bird. The Cackling Goose is a sub-species of the more common seen Canada Goose. There has been controversy about the possible sub-species of the Canada goose for quite sometime.

You can see a difference here with the larger brethren to the left and right. The Cackling goose toward the center of the image has a shorter beak, rounder head, overall paler breast and shorter overall in size and neck length. Finding them is nothing simple. It took me at least 30min to find one. There are supposed to be two of them in the area.  One of the trinomial nomenclature Branta hutchinsii hutchinsii and the other Branta hutchinsii minima. Minimia has a darker breast, rounder head, and purplish sheen. Hopefully if they stick around long enough more images can be made.