I spent some time birding the Darby Bend Lakes area of Prairie Oaks Metro
Park east of Columbus this evening, and was surprised to see a flock of
geese fly in with 2-3 "really large" Canadas among them... it wasn't too
long before I realized the rest of the flock were all smaller geese!  Odds
are good these birds will be there when the sun rises tomorrow morning. If
anyone goes looking tomorrow evening, they flew in around 4:40pm from the
north or north-east.

Of the 19 birds in the flock, 11 were "Richardson's" Cackling Geese (B. h.
hutchinsii), 3 were larger Canada Geese and 5 were smaller Canadas that may
(or may not?) be "Lesser" Canadas (B. c. parvipes).  I'd love to get some
feedback on the 5 medium sized birds.  Being from Colorado, I should be
able to ID parvipes, but these smaller birds were a bit borderline. Does
anyone have a good reference for which subspecies of Canada/Cackling geese
occur in Ohio?

18 of the 19 birds in flight:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauljhurtado/6793284383/in/photostream/

Small/medium sized Canadas with larger Canada:
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauljhurtado/6793309957/in/photostream/

Cackling Geese:
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauljhurtado/6793310905/in/photostream/
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauljhurtado/6793311697/in/photostream/

eBird Checklist for Prairie Oaks:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9726030

Also, an earlier walk around the Batelle Darby MP wetlands (east from the
silos) turned up some of the previously reported species (Savannah Sparrow,
Eastern Meadowlark, a few ducks circling overhead looking longingly at the
iced covered ponds).  eBird Checklist with photos is at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9725919

Good birding,
Paul Hurtado

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