On Vashon Island we have a flock of about twenty geese that might show up
just about anywhere along the shoreline or farm fields of the 13 mile by 4
or 5 mile island or in smaller bands of the flock. The flock has 5 or 6
"Snow Geese," all white geese of about the right size and shape but no black
on the wing tips as well as 7 or 8 more or less true Canada Geese, a bunch
of hybrids and at times a fairly true GWF Goose that may have started out
wild and some CanadaXGWF geese.

I write a column on birds in the Vashon Loop (www.vashonloop.com), one of
the Island papers, and have a sightings email list going out to about a
hundred people. I regularly get calls and emails from readers and others
about "Snow Geese," 50-75% of which are generated by this flock.

We get several solid sightings of spring and fall migrant Snow Geese
overhead but haven't had one true Snow Goose land and be noticed in at least
the last decade. A few real GWF Geese land in the farms fields and ponds
every few years but otherwise they, too, are just overhead sightings.

We also only have less than a handful of Cackling Geese sightings. It seems
like we should get more Cackling Geese flocks.

Ed Swan
Vashon Island