First Vees, Amos

In years past, when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, sometime during Labor Day weekend, you'd often see the first flocks of Canada Geese vee-ing up to start getting ready for the epic migration south. It was a sure sign that summer was beginning its own flight away from us. Today, at the lake for a celebration of my youngest grandson Luc's 13th upcoming birthday, we spotted geese looking to be on the move. It's an illusion, of course, since these days, all too many of the geese stay put and wreak a kind of ecological discomfort on the local fields and waters. But this was the first time I'd actually seen them looking as if they remembered what they were supposed to do in early September and acting according to ancient instinct. Call it a semi-sign of summer's passage, or, at least, the end of lake time for 2016.