The Geese Are Back In town – NaNoPoblano – Day # 4 
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NIGHT FLIGHT
Winter looms. They fly in under cover of a dark night in Autumn. The midnight moon casts shadows on the silvery pond far below. Silent stars guide them from above. Hundreds of their kind circle gracefully into the water, murmuring relief. Their southward journey is complete. The geese have arrived.
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GEESE
We live right by a playa lake. From our back door we can see how it changes from season to season. My favorite time to look at the lake is fall through winter, into early spring.
That is when the Canada Geese fly in from the north. There are hundreds, if not thousands of the geese using the lake as a southern home base. Right around Thanksgiving, there are skeins of geese filling the skies, then landing on the lake. They come in a few groups at a time, until there are so many, we can barely see any water, as the geese have filled it.
They are a noisy bunch, too. Making their distinctive honking sound when they are flying, when they land, and when they take to the air again, isn’t enough for them, it seems. Whether just paddling around in the water, or on the shore, they are ‘talking’ about something. We can even hear them in the middle of the night. When they do take flight again, there are so many of them, all honking, it even prevents us hearing the television, until they have gone on their way. I look out the back door, and see them flying right over the houses, their shadows cast on the ground. It is amazing that they don’t crash into each other, as the sky is filled with them.
They have a fairly predictable schedule. They fly to the grain fields, or to other nearby lakes, during part of the day. Then they come back to this one to sleep awhile, heads tucked under their wings. About five in the evening, though, they leave once more. Later, around midnight, they fly in again for the overnight.
This goes on for about four months, then day by day we notice there fewer geese around. They have flown north, again. We look forward to when they return in the fall.
