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I was reminded this morning of Lincolnshire's ' own poet ', Alfred, Lord Tennyson, (with that marvellous statue of him in the Lincoln Cathedral grounds) and of his poem "In Memoriam" with the line
" Nature, red in tooth and claw "
so often quoted by Victorian naturalists and since.
I was watching a charm of Goldfinches with their colourful plumage glinting in the sun and feeding at the seed containers in the garden when, with meteoric speed, in flew a Sparrowhawk. It grabbed one of the feeding birds and settled on the lawn, feet apart and firmly anchored on the unfortunate Goldfinch's lower abdomen and neck. Through binoculars I could see blood was already oozing from a 'claw wound' in the neck as the bird struggled and struggled..... but in vain, especially as it was being torn apart alive.
It's not always easy to reconcile the original beauty of Nature, as exemplified by the colourful, feeding charm of Goldfinches, with the suffering and savage death necessary to maintain it.....but, of course, Sparrowhawks (red in beak and claw) need to kill to survive themselves. (Darwin would make a comment here, of course). The Goldfinch's suffering was probably 'brief' (how brief is brief?), but it must have experienced both suffering and terror in the process.
Perhaps I should add that the Goldfinch charm (now minus one) was back on the feeders within 20 minutes.
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