Saturday, January 9, 2010

How many geese make a gaggle?



We've finally made it to York's second river, the Foss, which runs into the Ouse on the southern edge of the town. The waterfowl were particularly obliging here, geese in the foreground and I'm not sure what in the distance.

This is taken from Foss Bridge, on Fossgate. Gate, you will remember from yesterday, comes from the Norse word for street. The word gaggle refers to a indeterminate number of geese not in flight, whilst skein is used when they are in the air. Not many people know that: I didn't.

3 comments:

  1. Ah this is a fantastic photo, very atmospheric and timeless.
    Welcome to CDP, I'm looking forward to visiting York which I never got round to doing whilst living in England for... 7 years!

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  2. Thank you! I've been to your site several times already since joining CDP. Thought of making my blogs bilingual too, so that our French friends could enjoy them. Meilleurs voeux !

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  3. I didn't know that either. Thanks for the vocabulary lesson!

    Beautiful textures and light in your photo. Cute geese too. :)

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