know to stop and take a nap when they're getting tired on a long trek. This Cackling Goose (aka Aleutian Goose) was doing just that. We were a bit worried about it being so close to a busy highway (Hwy 1 through Sea Ranch), so another Sea Ranch birder drove down with a box and blanket to rescue the bird if it were injured, but eventually the bird felt rested enough and took to the air again, headed southwards. We just hope it got hooked up with another flock down the road, so as to save flying energy by drafting in other birds' tailwinds. Could be that's why it needed the nap, if it had been flying solo all the way from Alaska or Canada. There are at least four subspecies of Cacklers, but they all migrate through California and I don't have a good chart handy to check the differences, so I'll just list the binomial.
