Migration Season Nears; the Recently Divorced Confront the Question of Routes
With the first cold mornings, the district's migratory residents have begun planning the flight south — a matter of logistics most years, and this year, for several recently separated pairs, a negotiation.
The dispute is over routes. Birds who once flew together now file two plans, and the good route — the warm coast, the reliable stopovers — cannot, by long custom, be shared by birds no longer speaking. One male has announced he will take the inland route "for the challenge." Residents note the inland route offers no challenge. It is merely colder, and alone.
The Clerk's Office has been asked to mediate three route disputes and declined all three, noting that it holds no jurisdiction over the sky, and that the birds will resolve it the way they resolve everything: badly, and in the air.