Twenty-One

Gregarious is a good word to describe Canada Geese (Branta canadensis).  They like to gather together in groups with their own kind.  This is Cranberry Lake in Deception Pass State Park.  Two years ago, they gathered together here to such an extent, the park had to close the swimming beach.  Too much you-know-what in the water.  After steps were taken (that we probably don't want to know about), the beach was reopened last summer.

Several collective nouns are used to described groups of geese like this:  flock, gaggle, blizzard, chevron, knot, plump and string.  I think it depends on whether the geese are flying, swimming or just hanging out together for some of these terms.  For example, a chevron of geese refers to the V-shaped formation they assume while flying.  I have seen blizzards of Snow Geese when 5,000 or 10,000 of them launch into flight.  It is truly a snowstorm.

As an experiment, this is the same photograph using the compressed .jpg format.  The first photo is in the uncompressed .png format.  I want to see if there is any difference between the 1.06 MB png photo vs. the 428 KB jpg version.  Different monitors will also produce different results.  I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can see a difference.  The smaller jpg photos will load much faster on web pages, but the png photos may look better.  Please let me know.