On one of my many trips back and forth to meetings and such this week, I passed near a pair of utility poles, upon one of which rested a hawk. Said hawk evidently desired to rest on the next pole over, and so I watched as it launched off of one pole, stooped downwards towards the ground and then spread wings when most of the way down to climb in a long, majestic swoop towards the new roost. The trip was probably twice as long as the direct route would have been.
Of course, I know that this is a combination of instinct and learned behavior on the part of the hawk. It uses the momentum from the downward fall to enable the swoop back up to the new landing spot, and with the utility line in between the poles, there's no good path directly between them.
But on the other hand, if I could fly you can bet that's the way I'd do it, too. Even if there wasn't a line between them.
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