Raven the Trickster

I went to Costa’s diner for my weekly installation of
news and views of owner Collette, a Juneau original.
If you get to Juneau, get to Costas. It’s right next
to the only stop light downtown.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t there. The place was
packed, but I got my coffee, wrote down my order on a
sticky note, and found a stool at the counter after
awhile in front of the window that looks out on
mainstreet.

I could see my truck parked. A raven flew and landed
on the tailgate. I have a canopy but no back window
in the canopy as I have a lift gate for getting half
totes of fish into my truck. The raven tried to look
unassuming, and kept checking that the coast was
clear. He then hopped down inside the bed, which has
always got some array of fish boxes and assorted other
stuff.

Every so often, I’d see the raven pop his head up to
look out the back to make sure the coast was clear,
and then go on with whatever he was getting in to.
The only thing I could think of was that he was
tearing open gel pacs.

Someone finally walked by, and that was all it took.
He hopped up on the tailgate as a lady approached on
the sidewalk, and when the raven realized she was
going to pass by the truck, he flew off.

When I got back to the truck, I saw he’d opened up the
pizza box I’d thrown there for recycling day, and had
cleaned up any morsels of tomatoes and cheese on the
box bottom – any eats are good eats this time of the
year for the raven. Free entertainment is always
good.

My breakfast arrived, and was down in no time – the
dreaded Mexican Breakfast Lasagna – and then off to work.


Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

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