Winter Geese

For some reason, I get really excited when I hear a flock of geese approaching in the skies above.  "The geese are coming!" I shout inwardly to myself. It reminds me that the world is alive even though it sometimes feels so still and frozen and unchanging in the depths of the underbelly of the winter beast.  The "v" of geese cuts through that for me, and I love it.  And why are they so vocal?  Ducks fly the same way but I don't ever hear them quacking as they do, do I?  The geese make their flight known.  "HEAR US! ALL DOWN BELOW. WE ARE COMING."   Do other birds do this? I'm sure they do, but I'm not thinking of any right now. By the way, I just googled it and found this as the reason:

Geese honk when they fly as a way of keeping the flock together. ... Researchers think that the honking sound geese make as they fly is used to help maintain the integrity of the flock, and to co-ordinate position shifts with the V-formation in which they fly.

And now you know the words I used when googling.  That's a fun('ish) little puzzle.  I love learning about the way animals communicate to each other.  Don't you wish you could speak animal?  And don't you wish you could join the geese? I do. But I can't.  I'm not a bird and I can't do it.  All I can do is watch them as they noisily slice through the winter sky and hope and pray that they take the dismal January with them.