>On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, Dennis Paulson writes:
>
>>Interestingly, at 09:10 on Saturday morning, 2 Snow Geese flew over my
>>house in Maple Leaf heading south. I wouldn't have seen them but for one
>>faint 'honk' drifting down from high in the sky. They were welcome not
>>only as a harbinger of winter (mixed emotions, definitely) but as my first
>>new yard bird in just over a year.
>
>After I'd seen 2 Snow Geese over Point Grey in Vancouver BC on Sunday Sep
>29, someone told me that the very earliest migrant Snows are usually in
>pairs, acting as scouts for the main bodies of birds behind them, and that
>without hearing the scouts' 'It's Cool' calls from the ground, the main
>flocks will overfly to an alternate staging/wintering area.
>
>Will a bridge salesman call on me if I believe this?

I don't know about bridge salesmen, but I'm sure they must have been the
same two geese. Were yours white with black primaries, Michael, and big
grins on their faces?

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416