DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: Family Anatidae [ 12.7 ] 



THE CACKLING GOOSE, the smallest of the canadensis group, is an abundant 

 migrant, particularly in Klamath County and the adjoining area about 

 Tule Lake, California, a great goose concentration area, where at times 

 it equals in numbers any other species present. Merrill (1888) listed it 

 as an abundant migrant at Fort Klamath, which is the first record of it 

 as an Oregon bird, and Willett (1919) reported it as a common spring 

 migrant at Malheur Lake. None of the numerous men who have worked 

 the State in recent years mention it. Woodcock, Anthony, and Johnson 

 overlooked it entirely in western Oregon, though at present it is a regular 

 migrant there and has been noted by Jewett (1914^ as wintering on 

 Netarts Bay. Our earliest date is October Z4 (Washington County); our 

 latest, April 30 (Jackson County). 



In addition to its small size and dark color, this species has a dis- 

 tinctive high-pitched call, resembling the syllables luk-luk, many times 

 repeated, that is recognized by many hunters who, in various localities, 

 call it "China Goose," "Cackler," "Cack," or "Squealer." The birds 

 fly swiftly and often heedlessly, frequently diving headlong into decoys 

 without the precautionary circling indulged in by the larger and more 

 wary geese. 



One of the most interesting papers yet published concerning this species 

 and one that contains information of particular value to Oregon students 

 is a report by Lincoln (i9i6b) on the banding of a great number of 

 Cackling Geese on the Yukon Delta, Alaska, between July 14 and 31, 

 192.4, and the record of the subsequent recapture of some of the banded 

 individuals during the fall of 19x4 and spring of 192.5. (See Figure 2., 

 p. 14.) Briefly, these recaptures indicate a migratory flight closely 

 paralleling the coast line from the nesting grounds to the mouth of the 

 Columbia River. From there the flight turns inland toward Tule Lake 

 and the Sacramento Valley, which proved to be the wintering ground of 

 these birds breeding in this area. Four of the banded birds were reported 

 from Oregon during the first season as follows : Fort Stevens (October 18), 

 Hillsboro (October 2.4), Tillamook (October 17), all in 19x4, and Evans 

 Creek, Jackson County (April 30) in 192.5. 



On April 2.7, 1933, at Grays Harbor, Washington, Gabrielson watched 

 a great flight of dark canadensis type geese moving northward in a con- 

 stant succession of good-sized flocks. Subsequent inquiries indicated that 

 this same flight passed along the Columbia River between Portland, 

 Oregon, and Kelso, Washington, on April 2.6 and 17. This flight was 

 undoubtedly the main body of these and possibly other geese moving 

 northward from Tule Lake, where this species finds a regular stopping 

 point in both the spring and fall migrations, and where some of these 

 geese winter, unless the water freezes solid, undoubtedly spreading out 

 at times into the adjoining areas. It is strange that we have not detected 

 this form at Arlington, where the Lesser Canada Goose is the chief species 



