CANADA GEESE (ours!) overhead right now...
the challenge is this: my camera is slow. i must have it nearby and click "on" at the first honk of geese in the distance. unfortunately by the time it's ready for me to snap the picture; the geese are gone "leave it in on position" you say. that would be great if not for the advanced auto-off feature, which never fails to show itself off at the first honk of geese in the distance /anyway ~ i love these geese ~ i want so much to capture their variety of flying formations: those noisy, isolated perfect V's, with a clear leader and such an organized marching/flying band. every flap of their wings in perfect unison, every mystical honk in key and then the noisy, chaotic, disorganized geese: working towards a V pattern... maybe once there was a V pattern, maybe they will eventually achieve a V pattern, but the spectrum of age and stamina creates a kind of ... crooked L ... a slanted H.. a kindergartners W, a left-handed Z. sometimes i imagine them as rebels; natures flock of flying non-conformists. other times i think they just lack a strong leader. it's hard to tell. and then there are the lower-case/upper case hybrid v formations. long on one side, short on the other. here i imagine a few teens playing hookie.. see if any of the elders notice and then, precious, precious... the parents and little offspring: little v's mixed with big V's: noisy, noisy, noisy. but then, every once in a while: the Canadian Yoga Geese a massive spread of geese in the most perfect V formation possible for wild life. -flying over head in total silence; all wings out in soar position; barely a flap is seen. they glide with economic precision, in peace, with an unquestionable destination, and stunning, confident beauty. exceeding their full potential in glorious flight... it is such an inspiration! my favorite, favorite, favorite, though, is when they take up the whole sky above me: one V next to another V next another V, for as far and wide as the eye can see. V's with some 30/40 geese each. and then those few stragglers .. that either stopped to eat or ask for directions but you just know somehow they'll find their way. and i take great comfort in that. ** and now isn't this funny. i gave up trying to capture a picture of the geese. hand drew on three 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of paper with a sharpie the variety of formations; what they look like to me was gonna take a picture of my drawings instead. but the battery died. it's in the re-charger now. and so am i.
(this post has been in 'draft'. originally published, i believe august of 2007.
re-published june 2nd, 2012, and now i'm about to take it out of draft, and publish today, 10/30/2021
-not certain what date it will be digitally stamped with.
CH= recent bird watching with karl and valerie, which CH= to rich cimino, aka, 'raven'
..here goes...]
posted by SHE @ 10:22 AM
7 Comments:
How cute! I love how you personified these geese... Where on earth do you live that there are THAT many geese?! :) Are you by a pond?! I wonder if it's a West Coast thing... haha because I've certainly never seen so many!
I think my favorite part was the thought that the stragglers
"either stopped to eat or ask for directions" :)
And I'll look forward to the visuals!
HONK IF YOU HATE GEESE
Cats are quite friendly,
And dogs sure are fun,
An eagle can fly,
And a cheetah can run.
Dolphins are smart,
And they show it with pride,
Donkeys are not,
But they’re fun to ride
Snakes seem to inspire,
A whole lot of fright,
But they’ll move out of your way,
So they’re really polite.
Horses are graceful,
When they leap over a hurdle,
And if you want to see cute,
Meet Ellsworth, my turtle.
Elephants are majestic,
When you let them roam loose,
But I don’t understand,
What good is a goose?
The noise that they make,
Is annoying as well,
All that honking and squeaking,
Sounds like a creature from Hell.
I once fed some geese,
And they started fighting,
When the food was all gone,
It was me they were biting!
All of God’s creatures,
Are deserving of lovin’,
And I love geese best,
Right out of the oven.
bh: thank you! we have shadow cliffs lake, and a few golf courses where they love to land.
and my property owner has a ranch (not sure where..) but they land there too, by the hundreds, he told me.
it's a summer treat.
Oh these geese....you know they are close to my heart and I want to come back as one....
Whenever my daughter sees a "V" flying, she says, "Look Mommy! There's your family!"
If you ever DO get that pic, you better post it. But I think animals KNOW when we have our cameras out. Real zoom lenses can fool them, but for those of us with regular cameras? THEY KNOW!!!!
squidmann: i remember that one!
but from which source? book? midnight bulletin? blogspot?
hallmark card? well, laughed again.
and speaking of geese, how's ellsworth your turtle?
"cats are quite friendly"
does he shake his head yes or no when you read that aloud from the hot tub
kmg/bbf: and i'll know it's you because you'll land and pose for me okay
first reincarnated celebrity goose.
and you are right!
they seem to speed up a little; tease me. disappear behind the trees honk-laughing to each other
while i wait and wait for my camera lens to open. must have three albums worth of sky pictures with geese butts.
10/30/2021: SO YOU SEE MY TECH ISSUE.. THE INCORRECT DIGITAL TIME STAMP. this post originated 08/2007; reposted june 2nd, 2012; back to draft, and reposted 10/30/2021. showing a pix soon which shows i have 5115 total posts, 1351 of them in DRAFT files. if i were to republish any of them. i would have to first type the original date as an addendum in the body of the post; otherwise the date is quite in error.
that said, i'm going on a quest here in photo archives for the hand-drawn geese
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