Heading up the river

 At Island Ford on the Chattahoochee River, we saw a dozen Canadian geese on some flat rocks midstream. The geese would feed in the current — bobbing, rumps up, heads underwater — and then lounge on the rocks.

You can often hear geese on that stretch of the river. But when these geese decided to move, they seemed to have a debate. All the geese honked — it was a frenzy — for about 15 seconds until they suddenly flew upstream in unison.

They’re big birds. You can hear the rush of wings when one takes off. A dozen sounded like a small plane. But the honking … that was louder. The sound drowned out the Chattahoochee.

I'm stumped by the behavior. Was that a debate or an argument? Did some of the birds want to remain at the shoals, while others envisioned better fare upstream? Did they somehow reach a consensus? Or did one lead and the rest join in a group cheer to build morale for the journey?