The perfect storm. While the ‘wall’ to the ‘harbor’ outside my front door is being upgraded, the birds continue flocking. At the same time, schools of fish managed to rush head long into the canal two streets over and get themselves trapped. The word is that it is 10,000 units. Some folks blame the birds but that is apparently not so. The locks are shuttered so the fish can not swim away – not quite sure how they swam in with the locks closed. Nevertheless, there was a real concern they would die. That would have all sorts of consequents, stench being the first one. To keep the birds at bay and from having a ‘shoot-in-the-barrel experience, the organization of fishermen – not yet called fisher people- worked to save them. They added oxygen to the water, they put plastic swans in the water – which did not deter any bird whatsoever and lastly they tied bright bands across the canal.
