Sunrise after an overnight snowfall February 18, 2018
Later in the afternoon
The Canadian geese typically fly over the house in the afternoon on their feeding trips around the county. They fly no more than a few hundred feet in the air. But this display must be a migration of snow geese over a thousand feet directly overhead.
They may have spent time in Middle Creek, a stopover along the Atlantic Flyway just about twenty miles away. As many as a hundred thousand geese can be counted using Middle Creek as a stopover on any given day.
Will they be flying all night?
This photo puts me in mind of our former Jesuit Provincial, Jim Devereux, who was an avid bird watcher. I lived in the community where he died many years ago. During his last illness when he could no longer read, he asked me to read to him a favorite poem by Anne Porter called "Birds of Passage"
",,,,when the Canada geese are coming down from the north...
They rise up heavily
To begin their autumn flight.
You who speak without words
To your creatures who live without words
Are hiding under their feathers
To give them a delicate certainty
On the long dangerous night journey."
