My nervous tick is indicating it is about time to put out another bird post! Unfortunately, the one I have teed up for today is one I’ve kind of been dreading. Not that it a terrifying bird or anything (in fact it is quite visually appealing), but rather the offshoots of the Goose are difficult to ID with any certainty. Once there’s crossbreeding with the Canada Goose and domestic geese you never know what you are going to get – from there, the mutations just get beyond levels of truly classifying. This is possibly the case here, but based on some serious research, there might be a check here after all.
For reference, focus on the LARGER birds in the images – there was a smattering of Mallards hanging around that looked quite content in the midst of the larger flock. These shots were actually taken by the side of the road on our way back from Wildcat Den State Park near Muscatine, Iowa. Linda had always been wanting to take me there so took her up on it one weekend we were free (geesh, probably a year or two ago). If you have never been there it is similar to Starved Rock in the features, but actually better – for one thing they have way less graffiti all over the place which always make me sick every time I journey up to Starved Rock. That is one of the few uses of drones or cameras that I condone if that will curtail that crap. So, on our way back, I noticed a nice collection of Geese and Ducks hanging out enjoying the nice weather.
Hit the jump to read a lot more about these birds and a few others I shot at the same time
