Hi Tim – it sort of depends how you look at it. The trees at the eastern edge of a patch of woods face the rising sun. Those same trees are at the western edge of the adjacent clearing or road, which may be the way you are thinking of it. Thanks for commenting – Hugh

Sara,
The birds that stayed behind may be on a part of a bell-shaped on the fringes of the normal distribution curve. The ones who died and fed the Bald Eagles are the ones that will not contribute to the breeding population this year. Its part of evolution and “survival of the fittest.”