I'm finally heading south again and with me are hundreds and even thousands of wild geese who are also heading south for the winter. It's quite a sight and I've forgotten how impressive their numbers are and how they fly towards a warmer climate leaving behind bears, wolves and other wild life that have to slug it out in sub-arctic temperatures. And of course, those pesky humans who retreat to the warmth of their homes.
Yesterday I watched them from my car as groups of geese, sometimes a dozen, sometimes a hundred, accompanied by the constant honking that fills the northern skies.
People like my cousin don't exactly see them in such a light since the geese land for the night and usually prefer fresh cut wheats and other crops. For my cousin, they're stealing his wheat and the blast of a rifle into the sky sends them flying away. Of course he also has beavers who block up his dirt roads with sticks and mud that eventually make a tiny creek into a fair-sized pond. They too are amazing to watch.
All of this so far from L.A., where the only honking comes from impatient drivers.
But for today, I follow the geese.
