Nothing wrong with a gaggle - except of course that they shit everywhere. A gaggle of geese isn't going anywhere any time soon, as that's the collective noun when they're on the ground.

But a skein, that's another matter entirely. A skein of geese flying overhead (for that's the word when there's a collection of geese in flight) at this time of year is a bit Starkish... "Winter is coming!"

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Thank you for that.

I was simply too lazy to look up the spelling of skein. It's not a word I use terribly often.

But, yes, herds, pods, colleges or murders of gooses are not a welcome sight this early.

These guys sure like the sunflowers...

Looks great with the sunflower Bob- I like seeing them here, such a beautiful splash of colour

OMG. I'm so envious.

Is August the time for hummingbirds then?

Ours have thought about heading off south for the Winter- one or two still around but they skiddadle around now as do the opsreys

Dunno...been here since May 2005 and it's the first I ever saw.

And you got an amazing video ... Good jaaaarb!

I was down in the basement all day making it.

It is a very tame little fella

We hear but never see woodpeckers.

Then yesterday walking on the deck rail was what I think was a black cheeked Woodpecker. Looked like it had a bright red bandana tied around its head judging by the red bit on the back of its neck.

Nice. I've got quite good at spotting our woodpeckers. They are frequent visitors. I think we must have more dead/dying trees than I realised which is pretty ominous considering one of them nearly took out the shed in last weeks gusty wind.

I am not getting any better at identifying birds though. Why aren't they indexed by 'brownish with a white bit' with a follow-up of 'kind of like that but with a bigger white patch'? Anything I think I see turns out to be something I couldn't possibly have seen. Unless we get a lot of lost birds.

This might help - you can choose where, when, what colours, what size and then it gives you all the possibilities! You can click on the bird to get a full description and below that, it gives you other possibilites in the same family: Backyard Bird Identifier -- National Geographic

This one gives you the song as well as descriptions, video, photos and others of similar look: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/...px?shape=41,20

I've managed a few on this one WhatBird Wizard | identify birds | bird watching | bird guide | species | north america

We've had some lately, they always appear 10 to 20 at a time and peck at the ground. For their size they have slightly long necks, dark brown and maybe their bodies look a little large for their heads like a partridge but more erect.

Haven't found likely names yet.