I was walking home from school just after the sun had set when I heard the distant sound of honking geese steadily growing from the north. It grew and grew and I looked up to see what certainly sounded like the largest migration I had ever seen. I was more than right about that.
The sky directly above me was fairly dark but I could make out a V-formation heading south. It wasn't until it was right over me that I grasped the scale of this migration. It stopped me in my tracks. After the point of the V passed I could see on either side of me the two sides that spanned the length of the visible sky. I tried to do a quick estimate of the numbers and feel confident in saying there were well over one thousand geese in a single V which looked to span a mile. The two sides were not perfectly straight but it was unbroken as far as I could tell. Trying to survey such a large moving target, I nearly lost my balance.
The sound of all these geese was not deafening, but it was enough to drown out every other ambient sound I had been ignoring until then. As it faded away and I began pondering on the awesome display of the animal kingdom I had just witnessed when I heard the second wave approaching. This V was about half the size of the first, but that's still half a mile. It had barely passed when the third wave, half of the second, flew over head. After that several smaller wedges, in numbers of tens and twenties, would occasionally pass.
This provided a rare moment of pause to delight in the abundance of life on earth.
8 comments:
Beautiful post. You are a great writer. Thank you. And now I want to watch the movie.
"...when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works thy hands have made,..." 'Wish I could have been there too.
I agree, this is well written. That would have been a great sight to witness! Lucky you.
this makes me miss all the canadian geese that would come swooping over our home in maryland. i would always hear them before i saw them. i have not seen many geese here, just seagulls, starlings, crows, magpies. i did see a big pelican out near the wetlands once. it was pretty cool.
Stuff like that reminds me that we're not alone.
I am very jealous I missed this. Hey what's with the bird posts, Fran and William?! Was this planned?
It's that time of year I guess. Lots of energy and activity in the bird world as they prepare for winter. Plus, William and I have dreams that we can fly. I just had one the other day. It's awesome.
Beautiful, William. I love those stop-and-smell-the-roses moments. Thanks for sharing.
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