Mussels

This morning, just after nine o’clock, we were walking along the path that runs along the north bank of the Wear, between the Queen Alexandra Bridge and the Wearmouth Bridge. All along the path, there was a debris of mussel shells. The Wear produces large mussels, and the local crows feast themselves on them, picking them out of the mudflats at low tide, and breaking them open on the concrete cycle path. Big, black birds with big, black shells held pincered between their beaks, all along the riverbank.