I hope it's obvious from the difficulty and terrain ratings, but this cache is in fact not in the middle of a lake. Do not try and venture to GZ. That is not where this cache is hidden.
I'm not sure where the names for collections of certain animals come from, but - dull as that subject might sound - it can actually be quite funny. A murder of crows? A pandemonium of parrots? An unkindness of ravens? What?
Interestingly, it seems the most unusual ones all belong to birds, which... I mean, I guess makes sense. Almost every kind of bird travels in groups, and calling all of those groups "flocks" must get boring after a while. Still... a convocation of eagles?
This here puzzle cache deals with similar names, albeit far more recognizable ones than those that I've already mentioned. The terms I used here are so common that you might only need to look up one or two of them, and maybe even none at all. Is another installment with harder group names in development? Perhaps...
The way this puzzle works is simple: just match the animal with its group name, draw a line connecting the X's beside each pair of terms, and replace the corresponding letter beside the animal with the number that your line passes through. I've even done one for you!
The cache is hidden at N33° 2B.AFG, W86° 4J.EHC. The final is a micro, so BYOP, or else all your hard work will have been for naught! Special thanks to California's gsmX2, without whose GC8NTVT (the inspiration for this puzzle) this cache would not have been possible. Happy new year, and happy hunting!
Post-publishing note: congrats to the FTF'ers, THE_pondog and fun4TP. Frankly, if you could bet on it, I would have put some money down on them finding this one first. User kittykatX3 deserves some credit for going after this one during her lunch break, only to be disappointed when no podium spots were still up for grabs... but then again, she's found over 16,000 caches in her time, so don't be too sad about that lol :)