Cunning Crow Books

My daughter Rachael told me she saw a young duck floundering on the mud-flats at low tide near Larkspur Creek in Marin County. On closer examination, it turned out the dumb duck had stepped into a carpet of open mussels, who of course snapped shut on her feet. So now the poor thing was held down by a black vise attached to a hundred others by those strings of theirs, while vainly trying to shake another off her other foot – with, naturally, the tide rising. Good souls showed up and with a shovel picked up the hysterical duck, mussels and all, pried them off the bird, then turned her over to the Animal Control people. I’m waiting for the movie of this – “Mussels From Hell.”