In response to Beverly's Sharpie story...

Yes- I understand how we all get upset when we see the workings of raw nature
first hand. But we also must respect it for what it is, and that's just how life
survives.

When this question comes up, I always think back to when our class in school
visited a slaughter house. I was so upset after, I couldn't eat any meat product
for months. Then I slowly gravitated back to a normal diet once again. We all
must eat, but also recognize that almost every living thing is both a predator
and prey, which depend on other living things to stay alive. The Jay will eat
living insects, birds and bird eggs. The Sharpie will eat the Jay. The Owl,
larger hawks and parasites will eat the Sharpie, and that's the way it is for
all of life. We must all eat to survive. The only thing different with us humans
is -

We let others do the hunting and killing, and do it out of our sight and mind -
thus sparing ourselves from the fact that - yes, we to are still a predator.

Now off to lunch of that big chicken salad sandwich with L & T on whole wheat
bread!

Paul Carrier

From: Beverly Propen bpropen@gmail.com
To: ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org
Subject: [CT Birds] sharpie having early dinner

2/8  Orange backyard
At 4:35PM a female sharp shinned hawk landed under my bird feeders with a
blue jay in her talons.  I am kind of squeemish, and my husband wanted to
chase it off, but I told him that the blue jay probably wouldn't survive,
and the sharpie needed to eat as well. But the sharpie took its sweet time
taking apart the blue jay, sitting under my feeders for almost 10 minutes,
then it carried  the remains of the blue jay into an evergreen.
In previous posts, I would have described the sharpie as the villain and the
blue jay as the victim, but I have learned from others' comments that this
is nature.  I just wish she would have taken her catch somewhere else
sooner to consume it.
this could be the same sharpie that I saw last year (with help on the ID
from Jim Zipp and Brian) eating a common grackle.
BevPropen, Orange

In short, it's a "Circle of Life" kind of thing.  The way I look at it is pretty simple - What is worse, seeing an accipiter die slowly of starvation or a seeing smaller bird getting folded into the food chain.  Although neither is nice to see, and the smaller bird often suffers a pretty brutal end, I say the former scenario is far more disturbing.  Heck, I've more than once seen Jays eating the eggs and hatchlings of Robins in my yard.  Not that this topic is species specific, but I have to say that Jay's are by no means innocent bystanders.....

Jim

James L. Pfeifer, LEP
Senior Project Manager
Environmental Resources Management (ERM)
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East Hartford, Connecticut 06108
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