This morning I saw those black ducks, the ones that eat fish, through my bedroom window. We seem to have lots of them, but a few years ago I never saw them.

Pointy beaked things?

Yea.

That's a fish-duck, or a cormorant, the kind of bird the Japanese used to catch fish. I used to go duck hunting with Joe. Joe's mom was from Germany and had a thick rolling accent. I didn't like plucking and messing with the ducks I shot, so I always gave my ducks to her. One day Joe went duck hunting without me. The next time his mom saw me she said "Joe shot a goose. I took it and plucked and cooked the goose and it stank up the whole house. I threw the nasty goose away." I asked her what the goose looked like. "Well, the nasty goose had a long neck, and was black, with a pointy nose." That would be a cormorant.