Ducks
There is a small pond near my office and there are usually ducks on it so I walked over there today. I love watching ducks take off and land. They start by running along the surface of the water while madly beating their wings. Once they are in the air they seem graceful enough but then their landing is a bit heavy. I also saw a great blue heron. Now, there is a bird that is majestic on take-off and landing. Sort of the VTOL of the animal world. Ducks and geese are more like the C5 Galaxy of birds, even though the heron is considerably bigger. I guess it’s the relative size of the wings that makes the difference.