1.   Linda Farley of the American Bird Conservancy watching a flock of geese in the Potomac River from the Alexandria, Va., side of the water.

2.   One morning at the buffet breakfast, diners watched a flock of white pelicans and two dolphins leaping across the bay.

3.   Some scholars have speculated that Jesus actually was born in March, a time of year when shepherds would have been out watching their flocks by night.

4.   The others watch a flock in a pasture a mile away.

5.   Where biblical shepherds watched their flocks by night, modern-day herders still eke out a meager living in the stony hills just outside Bethlehem.