“Flocking” is the term used to describe the collective motion of a number of creatures, and is best known as something that birds do together. So much so that the collective noun for birds is of course “flock”.

A group of birds are technically flocking even when they’re not flying. Here on Lewis and Clark Lake, Missouri, we can see a huge flock of geese just resting on the water.

While flocks of birds in themselves aren’t a rarity on Google Earth (just find any fishing boat), in the nearly 4 years since we last featured a “flock of birds in flight”, we haven’t seen that many other sightings of migratory birds travelling in their trademark “V” formations.

They are still occasionally seen however, as here in the Netherlands, and to be honest I feel there’s very little else quite so strikingly simple and pleasing to be seen anywhere on Google Earth.

Here’s another smaller flock flying near Toulouse, France.

Known as “echelons”, these amazing “V” formations are actually better described as “J” formations, because they’re much more likely to be unevenly balanced - as demonstrated in this absolutely stunning image captured over the fields of Arkansas.

These transitory sightings don’t hang around very long (they often disappear during in Google’s image updates), however the geese we posted in 2005 are still visible today, as is the incredible Feeding Frenzy off the coast of South Africa that we posted about in 2007.

Thanks to Eric Alberts and VGT.

Disaster has struck at a house in the small town of Gibson, Arkansas, as a home is engulfed in flames. There are several fire engines on the scene, but it’s probably too late to save the building since the flames are clearly visible inside the walls and on the roof.

Fire-fighters are perched on top of one of the engines, and look to be spraying water at the other side of the house from where the flames are, so it could be that they are trying to save another building from catching fire - perhaps this unfinished house just behind it?

The Street View car looks to have gone to a lot of effort to capture the fire - despite being stopped in its tracks by various roadblocks, it still manages to cover most of the roads - even when a fire engine blocks its path!

From the way the pictures were taken, it looks like the car has had to continually manoeuvre to avoid getting in the way of the emergency services, or driving on the fire hose that stretches all the way down the street.

Unfortunately I could find no reference to the fire on the web, but sincerely hope that nobody was harmed by it.

Thanks: Flashmojo (who claims he can actually be seen looking at the fire over a nearby fence!)

It’s been just over a month since Google added 12 new US cities to Street View, and yesterday we got new imagery in another 13 cities, and interestingly, a US national park! Here’s some of the highlights, including links straight there:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Austin, Texas
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Rockford, Illinois
• Richmond, Virginia
• Spokane, Washington
• St. Petersburg, Florida
• Tampa, Florida

Finally, Google have also added imagery for the few roads that run through Yosemite National Park, California, which enables us to see some pretty stunning scenery.

Here’s El Capitan, a 910 metre vertical rock formation that’s a popular challenge for rock climbers, and some spectacular Giant Redwoods living up to their name!

Read the full story at the Google Lat Long Blog, read more about El Capitan and Giant Redwoods at Wikipedia.

Update: As correctly pointed out by Matthijs in the comments, it turns out this is actually Gauntlet, which is beside X-Coaster. Unfortunately X-Coaster is brand new, and doesn’t yet appear in the Google images.

This is the X-Coaster at Magic Spring and Crystal Falls theme park in Arkansas, where a dozen riders spent half an hour hanging upside down on Sunday — 150 feet above the ground.

Apparently a power cut shut down the attraction, and once the city Fire Department had rescued the stranded thrill-seekers, one person was treated for, rather unsurprisingly, a sore neck.

Thanks to the Metro.

Remember how excited everybody got when we thought Australians were all driving flying cars? Well here in Arkansas, blazing down the I-30 towards Little Rock, we find . . . a Rocket-Powered Car!

This couldn’t be anything other than some crazy genius driving a four-wheeled rocket along the interstate, as it quite clearly has massive flames shooting out the back.

Thanks to Julian.