Feathered Crossroads

     I went to a pond in Morgantown, Pennsylvania on December 5, 2017 to see flocks of wintering ring-billed gulls, Canada geese and a small variety of duck species, as I have in the last few years.  The weather was overcast, cool and damp, with a threat of rain.
     I arrived at that pond about 3:00 PM, but saw no gulls, geese or any other kinds of birds on it.  I thought that the gulls and geese were feeding away from that pond and would return to it at any time.  But as I waited for them to come back to rest on the pond, I saw flocks of gulls and geese passing each other over a woodland a few hundred yards away from the pond, but not landing on that impoundment as they had in the past.
     At 3:15 PM, I drove to a gravel pull-off near the woods the ring-billed gulls and Canada geese were passing over and waited for both species to come by my waiting spot.  And they soon did, flock after flock!  Long, scattered streams of ring-bills flowed silently by in such numbers that I can only say they went by my ground-level lookout by the thousands.  They all came from a nearby landfill where they consumed edible garbage all day and were now flying steadily southeast, flock after straggly flock to a lake, possibly Struble Lake, where they have rested each winter night for several years.
     Meanwhile, smaller lines and V's of boisterously honking Canada geese, one group after another every few minutes and totaling about 380 geese, powered northwest, crossing over, under and through the rivers of gulls as the geese flew, making exciting, inspiring spectacles of both airborne species for several minutes in the darkening sky.  Those geese probably had just left a harvested corn field where they filled up on waste corn kernels and probably were heading to a lake northwest of Morgantown where they would rest and digest until hungry again.
     Geese run into the wind, over water and soil, while flapping their powerful wings, to get lift to take off in flight, amid much loud, exciting honking as if to bolster the courage of each other for take off.  And all birds land into the wind for better flight control.
     The adaptable ring-billed gulls and Canada geese are two of many species of life that flourish in human-made habitats in the midst of human activities.  The ability of gulls and geese, for example, to do that increases their numbers greatly because they are not only not pushed out by human activities, but actually take advantage of them to suit themselves.  The gulls eating garbage in landfills and the geese ingesting grass from lawns and grain from fields boosts their numbers greatly because each species suffers minimal die-off during the harshness of winter.  More birds of each kind survives winter.  And great flocks of each kind rest on human-made impoundments between feeding forays.
     The gray sky and dark woods quickly got darker the cloudy afternoon of December 5 and by 4:30 I left for home.  But I wondered which impoundment those gulls and geese were coming down on to rest.  I had my guesses, but I would like to know if I was right.  If I was right about where the geese put down, I would not be able to get near that lake to know.  But I could go to Struble Lake, which lies a few miles southeast of Morgantown.
     I arrived at Struble Lake at 3:15 PM on December 7 and was immediately greeted by sprinkles of ring-billed gulls dropping to that lake.  Soon an almost steady river of gulls came from the northwest, which is the direction of Morgantown.  The gulls left the landfill, flew over Morgantown and a long, low, line of wooded hills, and into a broad farmland valley that cradles Struble Lake.  Floods of gulls poured over the lake, and each gull of thousands floated and spiraled down, down in front of a brilliant, cloud-studded sunset to a landing on that large impoundment.  A line of gulls formed on the water's surface that became about 300 yards or more long by the time the gulls pretty much stopped coming to the lake.   Again, I left for home about 4:30 PM.  I was right about the gulls at Morgantown's landfill spending each winter night on Struble Lake.
     This is just one of innumerable adventures anyone can have in nature anywhere the year around.  One has only to get out and look for those wonderful, inspiring adventures.