Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Thinking of Geese

Yesterday I drove my dad to his first Wisconsin doctor appointment. As we spun along between snowy fields, I looked up at the pale, empty winter sky, and began to think of geese. Geese returning at the end of a long winter, trailing spring behind them. Geese settling down for the night on the marshy lake-around-the-corner, their sleepy honks like an evening lullaby. Geese racing the south wind across a new-washed sky.

Suddenly I wanted, quite badly, to see some geese. I wanted to know that spring was near. How long before they would come? Weeks, probably. Geese need open water, and all the (outdoor) water in south-central Wisconsin has been frozen for some time now.

Sigh.

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Hours later, on our way home, I saw six birds flying over a field ahead. Six large birds. Birds with dark heads and white chinstraps.

"What are those birds, Dad? They look like ... they look like geese!"

"They do look like geese," Dad agreed.

What in the world were they doing there? I don't know, but I am taking it as a happy omen. Spring may be closer than we think.


P.S. These are not the birds I saw yesterday - this is a photo from 2012. But you get the general idea. :)

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11 comments:

  1. I enjoy watching geese too. I was very lucky two years ago to see the sandhill cranes flying north from Bosque del Apache, where they spend the winter. That was an awesome spectacular. Rather earsplitting, actually. :)

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  2. Oh how I love the Canada geese.. we have a lot of them around here. Nothing says Autumn more than the sound of a honking V shaped flight of those birds. Hang in there.. winter will have to give it up soon enough. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  3. Wonderful, we always love to see geese flying over as well. At the nearby wetlands centre there are always lots to be seen, such a beautiful sight.

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  4. Please send the geese over here, we need some indication that spring is coming, at the moment it is all rain, wind and floods.
    Briony
    x

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  5. Seeing and hearing geese flying is such a sign of seasonal change isn't it? Do hope that you are right and that spring is on it's way. Juliex

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  6. I'm on the opposite end of that spectrum. Your birds flee to us. We had a flock of mergansers take up residence at our lake. I love watching them dip and bob. They are such handsome ducks.

    So, while I don't wish you a prolonged winter, I will miss your feathered friends when they head back north.

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  7. We have 2 Canadian geese on the little island in our lagoon, usually we have loads of them, but this year we've been so cold I guess they all went to Florida for the winter.

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  8. honk honk honk…they are loud even high up in our skies! Such talkers

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  9. I really hope that the geese really do mean that spring is on the way.

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  10. Wish I could send you some of our weather. I do hope Spring is closer than you think. :) Have a wonderful weekend. Tammy

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  11. Aaah, signs of spring. May they be fruitful and multiply, and may the chinook winds warm your ground but not blow down your house! ;)

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