the poetry of predators

First, the big news - Conner lost a tooth. It came out overnight on Sunday night. We thought it was gone, but I searched her bed after she left for school and found it. The tooth fairy paid a visit last night and left her some cash. Now she wants her tooth back and doesn't care about the cash.

She also asked if it would be bad to glue the tooth back in. Or maybe we can make a necklace of teeth.

And wear bones in our hair and dance around a bubbling cauldron.

So anyway - heard an awful commotion from the back yard yesterday. The birds ceased their singing and were screeching and squawking. I thought the sky might be falling so I trotted over to the door to look. (Don't you go look when you think the world might be ending?)

So I'm scanning the ground and the trees, thinking maybe there was a snake or something. That would be cool because I could catch it and show it to the kids after school (and then of course, set it free in the neighbor's yard.) Hmmm... no snakes.

Then I look UP. On top the shed is a young hawk. (Hawklet?) Ok, WAY better than a snake but I'll skip the catching it part. I very quietly step backwards so I can grab my camera but he notices the movement.

moving

very

slowly

just

one

more

step

Grabbed the camera and eased my way back to the door. He had moved from the top of the shed to the fence, but I was still able to catch this shot of him.



Isn't he handsome?! I think he was looking for a baby bunny snack, but he was out of luck today.

I know it's totally crazy, but I think predators are the coolest. I respect the jobs they do in nature. I respect their capacity for violence. Yeah, the cute fuzzy fluffy critters are nice too, but nothing compares to the sleek lines of a big cat or the howl of a wolf. A predator in action is sheer poetry in motion.

Maybe I've spent too much time watching the Discovery Channel, but my sympathies are with predators - not prey. Or maybe it's because I was at a park last year and lost count of the rabbits. No predators = over population = destroyed vegetation = no more habitat = starving critters.

So let there be predators and let nature do it's thing - without the intervention of people.