Eagles on Parade

I've been trying unsuccessfully for several days to do a blog post. I don't know what  the problem is, but for whatever reason the computer isn't cooperating at all. We'll see how this goes today. If I'm lucky I'll actually have some pictures to go with this post.
 Yesterday  Brian and I went out to pick a halibut set that we had made the day before. On the way out we saw huge numbers of Bald Eagles on top of the breakwater. The cold storage must have been grinding some black cod and the pieces were floating on the water and washing up on the shore. I think I've mentioned before that black cod is a very oily fish, so it has a tendency to float on top, which of course the birds love.
 About a week ago Jan came into the bedroom to wake me up and told me to hurry to look out back. My neighbor in back has recently taken to starting fires in a burn barrel and I assumed maybe the fence separating the property was on fire or some such thing. Fortunately it wasn't anything so dramatic. She wanted me to see the eagles that had gathered in the woods out back. Apparently the guy down the street was tossing halibut carcasses to the eagles and one of the young ones had grabbed it up and brought it to our back yard. Of course- why not. All the dogs use our yard for a toilet, why not turn the back yard into a cafeteria for the birds. There were six of them gathered around a stump squabbling over some bones. Our place seems to attract quite a number of birds, primarily because of the small woods I suppose. The ravens are constantly picking up trash and depositing it in our yard. We went out to clean up the garden last Sunday and found a king crab leg, a Pepsi can, a container of some kind of cheese whiz stuff, some deer bones and a yellow funnel. I don't know why they grabbed the funnel, but Jan looked out in time to see it bounce off the roof and into the garden. I don't know how it is that we are so fortunate to end up with garbage from all around town, but I kept the funnel. I just wish they would bring me some gold bullion or twenty dollar bills or something to show that they appreciate me cleaning up after them.

 Not long ago we had another person dump a bunch of table scraps on the road so the ravens could chow down. Frankly, I think it's against the law to feed the birds for various  reasons- sanitation being the most obvious one. When I looked out the window I saw dozens of ravens making a mad dash for the scraps. It looked like a Black Friday event at a Walmart. The noise was overwhelming- they were all squawking at once, kind of like the ladies on the View. Then they decided to take up residence on top of my roof. It was reminescent of a Michael Flatley  Riverdance performance. For whatever reason they weren't content to just stand on the peak, they were hot- footing it all over the place. It sounded like they were all wearing tap dance shoes- the ones with the metal plates on the bottom.  It was like sitting inside a drum- very noisy. Being birds, they did what birds do, and took a crap on the roof. Salvadore Dali couldn't have done a nicer job of creating a lovely design. The white of the bird crap has such a nice contrast with the brown of the roof. I don't know why they don't take up residence elsewhere and leave a deposit where they've gotten the food from, I guess even in the animal kindom you don't bite the hand that feeds you.