Response to Geese taking flight (in slow motion)
Early in flight they contract their whole bodies during the downbeat, drawing their center of gravity forward, toward their wings, and the upbeat is so exaggerated it's something different: they slip their wings forward through the air edgewise till the tips are in front of their beaks. They are using more energy pulling themselves forward than keeping themselves up. It's a breaststroke.
-- Niels Olson (email)
