Wild Geese Flying

 I was centering down, zooming into Quaker Meeting Sunday morning after a good night's sleep, when out of my window I saw a V of geese heading southeast across the sky. At once my heart lifted and I smiled as I took a deep breath. That sight rooted me in the world and blew away my scattered thoughts. There is something about a formation of geese high above, heading forward together, that catches my imagination. I am not an expert on birds, but it seems somewhat unique to have birds flying together in formation. In so many ways, it is inspiring. For one thing, they fly as a group. Being a person, I know that for us it is no easy thing to gather together and move in formation. It takes having one purpose, a united motivation. Geese flying in formation seem to be a gathered group of one mind. Yet the leader has a pivotal position, in front of the flock and guiding the way. We have leaders too. But an inspiring thing about goose leadership is that it changes all the time. One goose guides for awhile, and then another takes over. Can we learn from this? Learning from nature is something that usually benefits us. If each of us were prepared to think like a leader from time to time, would that empower us personally and as a group? Maybe. Would we be less likely to glom onto someone trying to capture all our attention and loyalty? Would our culture be enriched by more perspectives?

Watching a V of geese heading across the sky feels like a symbol of something greater than a journey of individuals. Where are they going? How do they know where to turn? What will they find? Even the act of flying seems a bit magical, defying the laws of gravity and like all birds, navigating through the air.  As a child, geese triggered in me a sense of adventure. They were going far away, brave travelers, crossing fields and lakes and cities. And then finding a temporary home at the end of the journey. That childish fascination has survived in me and when I see the geese's V in the sky, I feel the thrusting energy of migration and I watch entranced by the phenomenon of wild geese flying. I decided to learn a little more about geese. Even though we tend to be pretty familiar with geese in this country, there's always more to learn, and some of it is bound to be surprising. 

Here's what I learned.  The diet of geese: since geese can digest grass, some of their favorite feeding grounds are lawns, airports, parks, or any wide grass-covered area. Not only do these places have lots of grass, but they are safer for geese to congregate since they are out in the open, where predators can be seen in time to escape. By fall, geese change their diet to seeds and berries, even corn in our Iowa cornfields. Once winter comes and food is more scarce, their winter migration begins, though not all geese migrate. It depends upon whether they are short of food or not. 

A migration usually begins at dusk (!) and continues through both night and day until the flock of geese reaches its destination. A flock consists of a loose gathering of families and individuals, but once gathered into a flock, it's a tight group. A particular migrating flock tends to stop over at the same resting places each year, and the location of its winter home is usually the same each year as well. Then in the spring, the geese come back to their original more-northern home. That is interesting! This means the geese we see around us this year may be the same flock we saw last year, true neighbors.

Geese tend to mate for life. They place their round nests on the ground near water and on top of a small mound. Since they seem to know they would make an appealing meal for predators, they choose a site with a good view in all directions. The female builds the nest and lays as many as 8 large eggs in it. Then she sits on them for around 25 days while the male guards her and his incubating family. Once the eggs hatch, the baby geese are covered with a yellow down and are ready to explore! Their eyes are open from the very beginning, and they can walk, swim and even dive right away. However, they usually spend the first few months as a family unit, eventually socializing with other families as fall gets closer.

Canada Geese are large birds to be flying through the air, and maybe that is why at some point in their evolution they discovered that it was easier to fly in groups. When they fly in their V formation, each individual is slightly higher than the goose in front. When they flap their wings, they create more lift for everyone, and wind resistance is less.The only one who doesn't benefit from this is the leader and she or he tires out eventually. When that happens, the leader falls back and another leader takes the lead.  And often you hear honking from the geese flying, communicating, cheering the group on. 

When one goose drops out of formation, either by intent or happenstance, it tends to quickly get back into place, for it is so much harder to fly alone. On a migration, a flock of geese can fly further and longer in formation rather than singly. They have developed the need and skill to make their lives easier by cooperating. Not a bad idea for us too. 

And like us, sometimes a goose gets sick or injured and has to drop out of the flock. When that happens, two other geese fly down with the sick goose and stay there with it until it is able to fly again, at which time all three of them take off and follow the main flock. They act as a community, not as individuals. When one is down, it affects all of them and they make sure it is not alone. I love that.

With so many animals and birds on the endangered list, it's nice that we don't have to worry about geese at the moment. Their population has been increasing steadily for the last 50 years, so much so that for some folks they can seem like nuisances. Even though millions are "harvested" each year by hunters, this hasn't depleted their population. They have found ways to thrive in the wild and throughout the non-wild cities and farms. 

Learning all these facts about geese has been interesting. But it makes me realize that the uplift I get from seeing wild geese flying is not really about these facts. Instead, that sight in the sky, that high V passing by, gives me a feeling of freedom, and of progress, of bravery and of togetherness. The sight triggers an excitement in me and as I follow them with my eyes, I also follow them with my spirit. For me, they stand for something eternal and expansive. And I'm glad they are in my universe!