Sand County Almanac

March is about the geese and their inevitable flight to the marshes of Sand County. They are remarkable birds that must know when to return to the area. They cannot be mistaken like a muskrat which can emerge for a sunbath only to find that a blizzard continues outside. They travel two hundred miles from the north to find a hole in the marsh. If there is no opening, they can't simply return home and try again in a few months. They need to be certain that they will be successful. The geese have made these journeys since the Pleistocene era throughout the world and are experts at international commerce. Perhaps this is why the narrator respects them so much. There was always the occasional lone goose that stumped the narrator for a while. This was until he came to the conclusion that a lone goose is simply a goose whose family has been shot by hunters, since most geese travel in families of six. Geese flock together, and a lone goose is not natural, rather a cause of human involvement.