The Geese are Going

I was out for my walk yesterday when I heard the most tremendous racket. It took me a moment to work out that it was the sound of many many geese.

When I looked up I was quite awestruck. Lines and lines of calling geese, some of only half  dozen, others with maybe as many as fifty, all roughly V shaped, wheeling and coming together then moving apart again, all the while calling to one another.

 

This migration isn't anything I've really been aware of in previous years, although funnily enough I had a similar experience this morning. I'd opened the bedroom window in the early hours and woke up to another cacophony of geese. They couldn't be heard elsewhere in the house which proves the efficacy of the double glazing at cutting down noise if nothing else, and I nipped out into TWWCTG (the wilderness we call the garden) to see if I could spot any more birds. There were lots, more even than yesterday and I watched them fly along the sound which our house looks over, and at the end of it they all turned north and flew out of sight.

 

It was in some way a very melancholy experience, although they will doubtless be back in the spring, and I suppose I might even notice them returning.