I'm sure I would not have seen, let alone photographed, this little guy pre-mortem, blind & slow as I am. Being dead is a drag but it's kind of cool to see. I'm in a Facebook group where people post pictures of South Dakota birds & am astonished how many they see around the state: cardinals, jays, herons, owls, hawks, & lots more.
Birds! Little beings of pure spirit whose natural body temperature is 115°.
Not bad for a line that's been stuck in my head for 50 years! The actual quote:
"[Y]ou're someone who took up birds in the first place because they fired your imagination; they fascinated you because 'they seemed of all created beings the nearest to pure spirit- those little creatures with a normal temperature of 125°."
~ J.D. Salinger, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction