# Another waterfowl first



## ducknut141

My son and I were hunting one of our fields and heard a strange squeaking call coming out a trio of geese coming in thinking it might be a speck because of it's small size it was the first one he shot. It was a cackler. First one I have ever had in my decoys. Unfortunately I wasn't in the blind so I had no gun. When I went out to pick it up I noticed another hunter standing at the edge of the field so we invited him to join us. He ended up with his limit and we had an enjoyable visit with a new friend.


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## ducky152000

Definitely not a cackler, just a lesser. Cacklers are actually smaller than mallards. I have only ever killed one true cackler.


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## ducknut141

We checked all the different identifiers even has the white ring on the neck. It is one of the five sub species of cackler. They only separated cackler from lesser in 2004. But DEFINITELY a cackler. But thank you for your input.


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## ducky152000

That's a monster cackler then. White rings around the neck can be on many different subspecies of canadas. We have shot a good bit of birds that size and just figured they was a subspecie of the canada, a "Lesser". I didn't know there was 5 subspecies of cacklers. I know there is many subspecies of Canada geese.


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## ducknut141

A cackler can range on the average from 3-6.6 pounds. This one was under 5. The cackler is the only one of the Branta species that I could find in about 8 hours of research to confirm the ID that get's a white neck collar. I also viewed hundreds of photos of cacklers,lessers and large Canada geese and none have the collar. I have killed many many many large Canada geese and several lesser this is the FIRST cackler.


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## bdawg

Congrats! I didn't even know what a cackler was until I saw this photo facebook yesterday!


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## texasrig

Definitely a cackler way to go.


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## joekacz

No doubt it's a cackler,squeaky voice ,tiny bird and mixed with Canadas.Shot our share over the year's in North Dakota.Way to go.


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## Muddy

Yea, in North Dakota Cacklers are all over the place. The first time we ever shot any of them they looked about like a regular old Canada Goose coming in. Then you pick one up and realize that its the size of a Mallard?


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## bethel_caller

No Dak is loaded with them. Giants too.


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## joekacz

Muddy said:


> Yea, in North Dakota Cacklers are all over the place. The first time we ever shot any of them they looked about like a regular old Canada Goose coming in. Then you pick one up and realize that its the size of a Mallard?


Muddy you hit that right on the head. The lab brought the first one in it was a real shock to us. She actually ran In like it was a duck in her mouth. I don't think they weigh more than 3# at most. But we have shot some huge Canada's. Love it there.


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## bethel_caller

God’s country. Walleye fishing is also been outstanding


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