A couple weeks ago, I was in my garage and heard a group of birds that sounded completely foreign to me. I eventually located the source: it was what appeared to be several dozen migrating geese. I thought they were geese because they were in the usual ‘V’ formation (three or four ‘V’s, in fact). At the time, I had no idea what species they were, but because of their call, I knew they were not Canada Geese, which is pretty much all I see around here.
I intended to figure this out by listening to goose audio clips, but luckily, I never did. I say luckily because that would have been a fruitless effort – they were not geese at all. I saw a short clip on the news yesterday about Sandhill Cranes and immediately recognized the sound.
The groups I had seen were far too high up for me to recognize they were not geese (if nothing else, the legs would have given it away). I had never seen in person or heard Sandhill Cranes before, but I doubt I will have any difficulty identifying their call in the future.
An audio clip of Sandhill Cranes in flight (plus a crow) is available here.