Predation
...
Remember yesterday, when I wrote about the Western Scrub Jays eating bees from my back yard? Remember how I said that I had to make my peace with the fact that there's no "good" or "bad" predation? Well, I (the tender-hearted vegetarian) had to own those words later that same day.
When I came home, the bird that I've made a special point of inviting into my yard was making a meal of a dead sparrow under our lilac bushes.
All this makes me think of a passage from a book I love, I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith.
(Don't scroll down if you are upset by images of predation. There were way worse photos, if that's any consolation.)
Remember yesterday, when I wrote about the Western Scrub Jays eating bees from my back yard? Remember how I said that I had to make my peace with the fact that there's no "good" or "bad" predation? Well, I (the tender-hearted vegetarian) had to own those words later that same day.
When I came home, the bird that I've made a special point of inviting into my yard was making a meal of a dead sparrow under our lilac bushes.
All this makes me think of a passage from a book I love, I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith.
After a while I hear an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields -- and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but wish God had made them vegetarians.
(Don't scroll down if you are upset by images of predation. There were way worse photos, if that's any consolation.)
Comments
We have a bee-eating jay ourselves. A pair, actually.
And once I was sitting outside with Sarafina when an owl blew through the air past us after a dove, I think. They were both going very fast. I see very little evidence for peaceable kingdom-hood in the yard.
Have had a few 'circle of life' moments lately. One of the neighborhood cats likes to catch moles. Not eat. Catch. Fun to clean up before mowing the yard. Somebody finished off a squirrel recently and left a tail for me on the front step. A starling met his end in my driveway the other day, but he didn't have any outward signs of damage, so I'm not sure what happened to him.