Thousands of migratory Canada Geese make their winter home in the pond at Maxey Park in Lubbock, Texas. In the late afternoon of February 13th I was scouting locations in the park to photograph the early evening moonrise. I wanted to capture the geese flying over the almost full moonrise as they typically do when settling in for the night. I had been successful in January with that composition and wanted to enjoy the magic this evening.

The day had been unseasonably warm, 75 degrees F, and many people had been to the park that afternoon with their dogs off leash. The dogs had been charging at the flocks of geese and made them very skittish. The geese kept flying into the center of the pond to escape the lunging dogs. When I arrived, I walked around the shoreline near a flock, moving slowly to not frighten them.

Suddenly my attention was drawn to splashing noises about twenty feet into the water from where I was standing. A goose was thrashing in great distress. It appeared that someone had tried fishing in the pond, but since there are no fish, the person had cut their fishing line and float and left it in the pond. The goose had become tangled in the fishing line. It was too far from shore for me to get to it and try to assist. I could only stand and watch helplessly as the goose became desperate and panicky. The more it struggled to free itself, the tighter the thin plastic line tightened around it. The goose couldn’t fly with its wing tied down, and as it twisted and tried to pull away, the line wrapped completely around its neck. It was valiantly fighting for its life, but everything it did only made the situation worse.

It was being strangled right before me. The goose made one last tremendous effort with a loud shriek, followed by a shudder and a heartbreaking groaning cry, then it rolled over and died. The flock of nearby geese had been silently watching and when they saw the death of one of their own, they flew away in a great mass.

I felt absolutely horrible. In a park that had been full of life, I was all alone with the utter stillness of death.