“What can you think of a bird that crashes into glass and creeps headfirst down the trunk of a pine?” (50 Watching the Birds)

I understand the point he was trying to make here but still, the point of crashing into glass is a problem created by humans. This just makes me think of all we have learned and seen with birds hitting glass, especially around campus.

“For a lifetime or two, or maybe three, I think I’ll settle for the sedate career, serene and soaring, of the humble turkey buzzard…And contemplate this world we love from a silent and considerable height” (55 Watching the Birds).

This paints a tempting picture, if reincarnation were real. The idea of being able to observe the world from the highest of heights and to know what’s going on below but being able to choose to not be involved, that sounds like a dream.

“In the spring the wish to wander is partly composed of an unnamable irritation, born of long inactivity; in the fall the impulse is more pure, more inexplicable, and more urgent” (249 Northing).

I think this is beautifully said and very accurate. In spring there is a sense of restlessness, mainly to do with no longer having to be cooped up, but in the fall, there is a sense of urgency, perhaps even danger, that drives the restlessness.