Migrating Flock Hosts “News from the Flyway” on Courthouse Steps

PINYON SPRINGS— Traffic slowed to a genteel crawl Tuesday morning when three vees of respectable out-of-towners touched down on the lawn by the war memorial. Elders among the Canada geese—formally introduced as the Honorable M. Avery Goose and spouse—asked permission to speak, then delivered the most succinct public-comment session this paper has covered since the Zoning Board argued about mailbox heights.

Highlights from the flyway included: favorable tailwinds over Nebraska, the price of cracked corn in Topeka (steady), a poetic description of ice melting off a Wisconsin barn roof (“like hope remembers its job”), and congratulations to our own seventh-grade choir for winning the county roundup. A pair of northern shovelers tacked on a lightning-round of pond conditions that had the ag extension agent taking notes on shorthand.

Questions from the audience stayed cordial. Sheriff Kangaroo Rat inquired about speed limits above the cloud line and received a printed pamphlet on the spot. Young Wren distributed hand-drawn maps of rest stops, free for the cost of a handshake.

By noon the flock had lifted off in loose formation, leaving behind a donation to the library’s paperback fund and the lingering sense that the world beyond our basin still roots for us. If you missed it, don’t fret—they promised a return engagement in autumn, weather permitting and neighborliness holding, as it usually does.