The geese are flying.......

I'm not in France at the moment, but always love the sight of cranes when they fly over our house there. Is skeins the right word for cranes/storks when they fly in formation? No matter, it's just wonderful.

At this time of year in the evenings we have large skeins of geese crossing the fields in front of our house. They follow the river, stop off at the nearby country park and then fly on to wherever they are going. They don't overwinter in the park - there would be too many of them, and there is already a large resident population year round. We also get large numbers of gulls doing the same thing.

For me the geese are one of the harbingers of Autumn, their echoing melancholy call always induces a feeling of transcendental sadness, why I know not, because I love Autumn and winter.

Some of the geese round our way don't bother migrate to their summer homes now, they prefer hanging out all year in the farmers' fields!

katek for your memories

I will be looking out for twist and turning ballet in the sky as the starlings get ready for their departure
Its quite a sight
But not quite yet, as they haven't stripped the berries from our rowan tree.
They will come on mass to the front garden and then if left undisturbed strip the tree and fly off.
A few days later they will congregate on a nearby field and then fly up
to perform their Swirling dance
Soon after that they are off to warmer climes.

The ones flying over us at the moment will overwinter on a nature reserve six miles away.

I always feel a pang if one gets left behind and sounds like it's calling, 'Muuuuuuum' as it tries to catch up.

We have the same thing here (France) only they are cranes, which are similar but not quite the same (I think).
They fly SW in huge numbers and make a lot of noise like 'grue, grue', which is the french name. Haven't seen them here yet but they're on their way.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUbtYIDSG74

I miss the migrating geese and swans. They used to fly over the house we lived in when we were first married, and feed in the field beside the river opposite our garden. We live near a river now, but aren't on a migration route.