“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 (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.

Yes, we’re finally back, and as to be expected, we missed some great Google Earth-related news while we were off.

Firstly the story that seems to have sprung up everywhere is (of course) a Street View one. The garage419 site posted images from a high mountain road in Colorado, where the Google car supposedly took some spy-shots of a fleet of top-secret, as-yet-unreleased Porches!

This is actually the Mount Evans Scenic Byway, which is the highest paved vehicle road in North America, and apparently the only place in the world where car manufacturers can test their vehicles at altitudes of up to 4,306 metres (14,127 feet). Looks like those clever German engineers don’t leave anything to chance, eh?

Next, the Daily Fail tells the story of a “Lost World” discovered with the help of Google Earth. Our satellite sightseeing friends at Kew Gardens spotted an unexpected patch of green forest in the mountains of Mozambique, and when they paid the area a visit, were rewarded with the discovery of a new species of adder, three new species of butterfly, a rarely seen orchid, giant snakes, and colonies of rare birds.

Of course the country’s crappest newspaper failed to include a link to said unspoiled paradise, so it was up to the always reliable Stefan at Ogle Earth to come up with the goods.

Stefan points out that the most interesting thing about the area from up here is that even when viewing it with the enormously comprehensive Geonames.org database loaded, there are still no place names to be seen. Which suggests to us that anyone could find their own undiscovered paradise, simply by looking for places that aren’t marked in Geonames or any of Google Earth’s own databases! Fame and fortune awaits, clearly.

Finally, we come to the story of an American “treasure hunter”, who has gone to court to try to win the right to excavate a sunken ship, which he says he discovered using Google Earth. Mr Nathan Smith reckons the ship ran aground and sank in the mud near the Mission River, Texas, in 1822 while trying to avoid a hurricane. Mr Smith claims that half the crew died during the voyage and those remaining were killed by a local cannibal tribe. He also believes that the ship contains $3 billion in buried treasure¹.

Of course Mr Smith isn’t telling exactly where this sunken treasure is, only that it’s somewhere around here. However sources that have seen the Google Earth image in question describe it as looking “something like a shoe print“, so maybe we could beat him to it!

So, what else did we miss?

It’s that time of year again when the team at Google Sightseeing take a well deserved bit of time off!

For the next two weeks we only have a couple of posts planned, but we may still update our twitter feed from time-to-time. We’ll be back to our regular schedule in early January.

Thanks to everyone who has submitted sights, linked to us, written about us, and most importantly, read the site this year!

We would say “happy holidays”, except that would be unfair on people who have to work this festive season, so we’re sticking to the traditional Merry Christmas!

Well we’ve thought we’ve seen people relieving themselves in front of the Street View car before, but we’ve never had such definitive evidence.

No, it’s not what you’re thinking - quite the opposite in fact. This time, while working in Madrid, the Google car has captured an image of a woman taking a pee in the street.

Anyone want to take bets on how quickly this will be removed? And will El País pick up the story before then!?

Update: As expected, the image is now gone.

Despite Google’s oh-so-clever “face-blurring” technology, sometimes people’s faces don’t get recognised by the system, and make it onto the Street View imagery unaltered.

Here at the Colosseum in Rome, a couple found a perfect way to fool the camera… by engaging in a steamily passionate kiss!

This kiss was so passionate in fact, that someone at Google appears to have been charged with manually pixellating the offending image - presumably to save us the embarrassment of having to see a couple kissing.

Like no-one’s ever seen that on the Internet before…

What is interesting though, is that they bothered to pixellate the image themselves, rather than (as we’ve seen many times before) just remove the image completely. Presumably this is thanks to the fact that the Colosseum is one of Italy’s most famous tourist destinations.

The moral of the story? If you want to be seen on Google Street View doing something outrageous, make sure you’re in front of a hugely recognisable landmark.

We all know that Santa lives at the North Pole, and the World’s Largest Santa can be found there too… that is, in the city of North Pole, Alaska.

This 12m tall Santa can be found on St Nicholas Drive, outside Santa Claus House. He’s less visible from above, so we’re thankful that the Street View car visited (perhaps to drop off a Christmas wish list … freedom from privacy laws, cheap gas … ?)

While actually 2700km south of the real North Pole, the city takes full advantage of its name, with other streets bearing seasonal titles such as Snowman Lane and Kris Kringle Drive. The streetlights on Santa Claus Lane are made up like candy canes, and the emergency vehicles are painted in Christmas colours.

Thanks to Brandon.

The Singapore Flyer is a 150 metre-tall observation wheel located on Marina Bay, overlooking Singapore’s city centre - and for the moment, it holds the title of the world’s largest observation wheel.

The next tallest observation wheel is the Star of Nanchang (sadly not-yet-built in Google Earth¹, but here’s a ground-level photo), which was the world’s tallest from when it was built in 2006, right up until the opening of the Singapore Flyer in February 2008. This is odd, because at 160 metres the Star of Nanchang should never have lost the title!²

It transpires that the Singapore Flyer has been built on top of a three-story building, taking it to a total height of 165 metres and into the record books. What a con!

Observation wheels seem to be de rigueur these days³ - just last weekend Melbourne got in on the act with the 120 m Southern Star, which we can see under construction on Australian Street View.

Elsewhere, Germany is busy building the Great Berlin Wheel (location), which at a planned 175 m would take the title from the Singapore Flyer.

Unless of course China gets there first, as the Beijing Great Wheel (location) is due to be completed first, and will rise to a staggering 208 metres.

All of which is great news for the Great Wheel Corporation, who will then be the owners of all three of the tallest observation wheels in the world.

There’s lots more at Wikipedia about the Singapore Flyer, the Star of Nanchang, the Southern Star, the Great Berlin Wheel, and the Beijing Great Wheel.

Thanks to John Andresen and Glenn Baker.

Recently opened in Doha, Qatar, is the spectacular Museum of Islamic Arts.

Designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei, this museum cost $300million to construct and is home to a large collection of priceless artifacts funded by the Qatar royal family. While construction was completed on schedule in 2006, delays to the interior displays meant the opening was put off until December 1, 2008.

After seeking inspiration at significant Islamic buildings around the world, Pei requested that the museum be located on a new artificial island in Doha Bay, to ensure that it would not be crowded or overshadowed by any future construction in this booming emirate.

Reviews are mixed, with the Independent positively gushing (follow the ‘more pictures’ link for excellent images), while the International Herald Tribune’s writers were of mixed opinion. One describes it as exquisite, while another was less thrilled, finding many flaws in the building and displays (more wonderful images in the multimedia section). Contract Magazine describes the architectural features and also has a good gallery.