This Won't Be on the Morning News

You won't be hearing this on this morning's King 5 or ABC 6 news (or whatever channel you watch - except maybe Komo 4, because sometimes they really have to stretch the news to fill the hours), but it is relevant to something newsworthy (mostly the weather- and the weather is mostly the only reason why I bother with the news) anyways.This morning, I heard the distinctive honking of geese (I mean, really, when have you heard anything but a goose sound like a goose) and looked overhead. Amazingly, there was a whole migrating group (does a dozen really count as a flock?) of geese, going back to Canada or wherever they're from (probably Canada, that's why they're called "Canadian" geese...otherwise they would be called "Northern United States" geese or "North American" geese). For the sake of good, accurate reporting, I'll tell you that they weren't flying in "V" formation, instead they were kind of in a diagonal line (in trying to find a letter on the keyboard to describe it, the best I've got is: "\").

Although perhaps geese flying might seem like a completely normal thing to you, I know otherwise. Think about it: geese migrate at two times of year: the end of fall/beginning of winter when its about to be really cold, and the end of winter/beginning of spring when its about the not be really cold. Since I happen to know it isn't the end of fall option, that must mean...it's almost spring!!! Who needs groundhogs when there are geese? It must be going to get warm soon- the goose's biological instincts tell us so!

However, for me at least, this begs a few questions. Like, how do they know it is about to be spring? Is there one of them (presumably the leader) who is smarter and knows, and he tells them when to go (hrm, perhaps the smart-bird might not be the leader, maybe more like a kind of nerdy bird who they only talk to when they need to know when to migrate)? Maybe they all just start to feel spring coming in their bones (don't worry, it isn't arthritis- just good weather!)? Maybe one group decides, and then all they others just take off to because it starts to get lonely (I like to think that all the migratory geese are hanging out with each other for the winter). Perhaps none of them really have any idea at all and I'm getting excited over nothing.

Side note: I'm also imagining them flying up there and talking to each other via bird-intercom like fighter pilots. pwsht (radio noise) "Come in Goose Niner Zero, come in" pwsht "This is Goose Niner Zero, what is it, Water Fowl (his Top Gun-esque fighter name, duh)" pwsht "We're approaching the drop zone, I suggest a flyby." pwsht "You are not cleared for flyby, I repeat, you are not cleared for flyby, Water Fowl!"