LETTERS

SWEET SOUND OF GEESE

Living inland in the Midlands barley belt, we only see a few Canada geese moving around from the ponds and lakes where they reside. On a foggy night in mid-December I was about to lock the kennels, when a skein of geese swept overhead. Having heard the sound of thrashing pinions among the birds’ eerie calls as they passed low and directly overhead, there’s no wonder our superstitious forebears called them ‘the hounds of heaven’.

I’m not an expert so I can’t say if they were greylags or pinkfeet but it was a lot more exciting than hearing