We're in the time of year where a real birding pitfall rears it's head. Or maybe, more accurately, you rear your head and encounter it. I was at Janie Pierce Park in Southbury this morning when I looked up and saw three birds soaring high in a slowly clearing sky. Hoping for a hawk flight I raised bins and saw (as suspected) that they weren't hawks. No plumage features were visible. They had long necks tapering to thin bills, tapered wings held stiffly at approximately right angles to the body and long fanned tails. All of this fits Anhinga in a general way, but these were Double-crested Cormorants. They were soaring when I first saw them, and they continued to soar higher as they drifted northward on a southerly wind. They never flapped. The Avian Records Committee of Conn has always struggled with reports of soaring Anhingas (an extreme CT rarity) because of the general similarity in soaring flight to D-c Cormorant. The problem is compounded if the observer isn't aware of the similarities. We're used to seeing cormorants on the water, flying low over the water or moving in migration in straggling flocks. If you see one in a high soar, and didn't realize they do that, the mind starts to race. I hesitate to outline differences in the two, because to some extent they involve matters of degree, and at great height plumage features disappear. Anhingas are more extreme in their dimensions, but looking at a lone bird way up there it's easy to talk yourself into something. A point often noted is the small head of an Anhinga, which seems to be just an extension of the neck. But if a cormorant is soaring high directly overhead, it can give that impression. The best thing to bear in mind - if you see a bird like this, it SHOULD be a D-c Cormorant. And if you see more than one together, like I did, they REALLY should be a D-c Cormorants. If you think it's an Anhinga, take very detailed notes, make a sketch (emphasizing dimensions) and snap, snap, snap if you've got a camera. I've seen the "anhinga test" given a few times on the hawkwatch platform at Cape May. Someone finds a high soaring bird and tells someone else to look at the "anhinga." Often this ID is enthusiastically endorsed by the person being given the test. If you're ever the test-taker, here's a good answer: "Where is it in relation to the cormorant?" Greg Hanisek Waterbury