Lessons From the Kissing Booth

In hurricanes sometimes birds will get caught in the edges of the storm and work their way into the eye where it's safe. This is a risky strategy, since they're usually stuck there until the storm dissipates, sometimes flying much longer than they're able and forgoing food and water until the sky quiets down. At the end of things these hurricane birds end up in entirely new places, sometimes far away from their homes. Bird watchers love it when this happens, since it gives them a chance to see birds that they would otherwise miss.

Some of the stronger fliers force their way through any hurricane in their path, the zugunruhe more convincing than the winds and the rain. These birds know where they're going and the likely consequences of not getting there.

Once a year all the hurricane birds get together, I bet, to reminisce about the day they were all swept up together and taken someplace new. The migratory instinct is built into their bones, we know, enough to cause some of them to defy a hurricane, but even birds could use an excuse to start over somewhere new.

Still it seems that it's just a matter of time until something evolves to live only in the eyes of storms, searching the edges of the clouds and traveling in the calm places. Eating only rain and lightning, wings always open, migrating with the hurricanes.