Standing next to my car and having a raven drop dead out of the sky next to me was certainly a weird way to start my day.
Last week we had a power outage that lasted a few hours in the late morning. There was a problem at the hydroelectric dam and the whole island was out of power for about 3 hours or so.
The running joke is, when the power goes out, the public utilities blames it on an eagle. Apparently, while the birds are beautiful, they are extremely dumb. At least, that’s what I’ve been told. I’ve never been close enough to an eagle to ask him.
So when a bird was zapped by a power line and dropped to the street right next to me, all I could do was look at the thing and see if it was an eagle. Thank goodness for me it was a plain old raven and not a bald eagle. I really think I would have had a different reaction if it was a baldy, though I can’t say I would have been shocked.
And after standing there looking at the dead bird for a minute or two, I got in my car and drove off. Like it was something I see everyday. Which, of course, it isn’t.