Chapter 5

The first quote on chapter 5 that stood out to me is “It wheeled a big black bird that looked more like a raptor than a crow, its closest relative.” (Widensaul). This sentence stood out to me because I feel ravens are a very misunderstood bird, the author even touches on the distaste some people had for them. I find it interesting that such a large stigma can surround something as simple as a bird. The famous poet Edgar Allen Poe even had a raven as the main part of one of his dark poems. The author talks about how the Europeans brought their hatred for them to the United States. I don’t find Ravens to be particularly beautiful but the description the author uses in the quote I cited accurately describes them.

https://kitundu.wordpress.com/tag/common-raven/

The second quote that jumped out at me was “I went bushwhacking once Baxter State Park in Maine, following a topo map and a compass through the woods.” (Weidensaul). The reason this one stood out to me because when I was growing up in Massachusetts my grandparents had a cabin in the mountains of Maine, and one of my favorite things to do was to explore in the woods with my sister and grandparents. Although I did not bushwhack, I would randomly pick leaves and twigs that I found interesting. The woods in Maine are one of my favorite places in nature.

http://jandj-b-wildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-maine-moose-and-maine-scenery.html

The final quote that I think stood out the absolute most was “after my morning of bird watching, I spent the rest of the day poking around the back roads and through quiet hallows, so that by late afternoon, as a result of serendipity rather than planning, I found myself in the mountains south of Blairsville, heading for Brasstown bald, at roughly forty-eight hundred feet the highest point in Georgia.” (Weidensaul). This stood out to me the most because Blairsville is where I stayed my first time in Georgia. This was one of my favorite trips with my family, like the author said he did in the quote we did a lot of bird watching, along with puttering the back roads of the area. The amount of different birds we saw in Georgia was magical and on the drive back home we slowly saw the different birds dwindle back to the species we were used to.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g34775-d1897344-Reviews-Copperhead_Lodge-Blairsville_Georgia.html


Weidensaul, S. (2016). Mountains of the Heart: A Natural History of the Appalachians. Golden: Fulcrum Publishing.