The seasons are starting to change, and it seemed these Geese were practicing their formation for migration. Hint: remember guys, the idea is to get on top of the the wingtip vortex of the bird ahead of you. Really, a lot of these Geese hang around all year, but they probably like to fly anyway:

When I got up to the end of the lake, there was a large flock of Geese there, just hangin’ out. Then a couple of them took off and headed down the lake, maybe to do a little recon, then came back. This one made a nice landing on the water:

I watched them from a comfortable distance for a while, then they decided to move off down the lake. They checked me out while I was watching the parade:

They left the Killdeer, and a bunch of feathers, behind:

When I got back to my launch/recovery point, there was a Heron hanging around, who checked me out as I approached:

I figured she would just take off as I approached the dock, but instead she just waded off, giving me a chance to get a whole lot of pixels on her (click on the picture to check out the full-res version if you want to count the feathers):

And, no, I really don’t know if that bird was a he or she, but I had to pick some sort of pronoun. Some time I’ll write about the limitations of the English Language, or, as some call it, the Anguish Languish.