One of the things about the modern mindset that infuriates puzzles me is the concept that nature is cruel and animals that eat other animals is awful. They have been called killers, brutes, a menace, etc. Now, I am no extremist and understand the need to keep the wild things at bay with regard to the general populace; however, from my personal point of view, anyone who isn’t a dedicated practicing vegan has no room to throw stones at the carnivores who inhabit this planet along with we humans but simply happen to place lower on the food chain.
Question in point? What do you think when you see this photo?
Zippy is adorable. Right? Of course he is. He also procreates faster than a rabbit. He and his family have the potential to leave droppings and other highly undesirable things under my porch, in my attic and within our walls. He digs up my potted plants daily. I love him. I give him walnuts from my precious stash.
Now, what do you think when you see these images?
All hawk photos copyright CkP
This is a juvenile Broad Winged Hawk. We spotted it 2 days ago while on an outing. These birds are magnificent. I am in awe of hawks and have a great respect for their fierce hunting skills. I love to capture photos of them looking down at me, their expressions both curious and frightening. Do I look like a possible snack? In many places they are considered to be a menace, as well as eagles, due to their ability to hunt fairly large small game and, at times, that has included small pets. While I feel that is tragic, I don’t think they warrant being called killer birds. For, if that were true, we should surely be called “killer humans”.
Often I show these kind of images to people who cringe and say, “Oh my God that’s horrible.” These are also the people who love slasher movies and Dexter.
Not only do we hunt voraciously and often for pure sport, but we also raise animals for the slaughter, plan the preparations for eating it and then brag about the results.
These birds are efficient, not leaving anything behind and even clean themselves afterwards. See his “beak pick” in the second to last photo? There is no eating for snacks or overeating leading to obesity. They are surviving. We could take a lesson or two.
Cute huh? Adorable I say.
Still cute? Tasty looking I’d say.
No, I am not vegan. Most of the time I can take or leave meat. Sometimes I crave a good burger or pork chop. And who doesn’t love bacon? My point is that I wish humans would stop being so ridiculous, ignoring the truth of who and what we are in the food chain. If we could accept one small part of the truth of life and its process, then perhaps we could learn to accept other fears about life processes that are ridiculous when taken down to the their core. We are all the same in this living, breathing, cellularly connected Existence.
Now, go out and grill some dead animals if you must. Just remember to appreciate and not waste what they gave for you.
❤️🥂
This post brought to you by Linda Hill and #1LinerWeds
Dreaming Reality 
I greatly appreciate this post. As an aspiring/almost vegan, I am thankful that most humans have so many choices today, unlike other animals. If an animal gets to live it’s life in the wild and is killed quickly that’s better than animals living their whole lives in a the severe confinement of crowded, filthy factory farms. I appreciate that hawks and other natural predators have few choices and kill quickly, (with the exception of dogs and cats I’ve found playing with poor geckos). Thank you for this: “I don’t think they warrant being called killer birds. (or killer whales) For, if that were true, we should surely be called “killer humans”. I want to believe we are evolving, though it’s so slow, we usually can’t see it.
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I agree JaAnna. Often I have a hard time listening to the average human group conversation because of so many ideas such as ‘killer animals’ and just have to walk away. People who cling to beliefs cling tightly. Of course, there are many philosophical and spiritual ideals that stand to be shaken when considering the broader view. We all came here to learn but many of us are repeating grades….
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🙂 Yes. We can get stuck in some grades. That made me chuckle. But there’s always hope.
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There must be. It keeps us going…
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Now why did you have to add the photo of the chops at the end? Just kidding!
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😏
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Interesting post. The Hawk is magnificent and is serving a function in his ecosystem. The only species that lives outside of the food chain is ours.
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So true my friend.
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First, great hawk pictures!
Killing their prey is what hawks do. If we were to leave meat out for them, they wouldn’t touch it, because it’s dead and they don’t eat things they haven’t killed. We see a cute chipmunk, they see lunch. We might be horrified by it, but that’s just the way things are. It’s like trying to feed a dog or a cat a vegan diet. They’re carnivores, they eat meat. We can choose to eat a vegan diet, they can’t. It’s why cats bring dead things home to their humans: they don’t see us hunt and are afraid we’ll starve.
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You are so right John, which brings up another issue. I rarely hear anyone call their pet cat a killer for bringing in a dead mouse or bird. I used to hate when mine killed and left lizards by my door. I love lizards. 😊
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We have been saddened when the local hawk has snagged birds and bunnies our of our yard (not to mention the neighbor’s dog killing the rabbits) but it is nature at work. The hawk ends up in our neighborhood because we (someone) cut down half the woods it used to roam in order to build a 55 and over apartment complex. It hunts here because we removed his habitat. I’m pretty sure we see more dead squirrels as the result of people speeding through our neighborhood than are lost to hawks.
Good post!
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Good points Dan. Sometimes I think there are as many squrrels as ants..we hear they are the hawks’ least favorite food. Osprey are nearly pescatarians. Thanks for your comment!
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We certainly have an abundance of squirrels around here 😏
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We do too. Not as cute as your black squirrels either. 😏
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I agree with you entirely!
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Thank you. 😊
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Cheryl, my dear, thank you for bringing this up. It has disturbed me too. For a long time I heard, and even myself used, the phrase “the law of the jungle”. But the more I grew up the more I questioned it. It seemed to me the human world is more thoughtlessly brutal than the animal world. When predators hunt in the wild, they first scan the herd for the weakest. The sick, the slow, the wounded, the young, the confused, and the loners. So that when they hunt, the predators are actually culling the herd and they end up improving the species, leaving only the healthiest, the quickest, the sharpest, the strongest, and the most communal to live. This is a good thing. But when humans hunt or just look for food among their own domestic stock, they kill the best. Mostly they kill the choice animal for celebration. Even those despicable trophy hunters kill the best, the biggest, the fastest, yhe most aggressive. The big four–the elephant, the rhino, the lion and the leopard–used to be their favorites. So that pepple end up destroying species. Not improving it. Animals in the wild are still smarter than their domesticated counterparts, who have lost their skills, having been trained by humans whose survival depends on money. You heard what the trophy hunter who shot the rare black-spotted giraffe said. That the giraffe was old and was stopping the younger ones from mating. But don’t animals have their own order? For millions of years they survived and thrived. Yet in these last few years humans feel that they must be the ones determining how animals live. People can’t even fix their own lives in the first place.
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I couldn’t agree more Pater. Stupidity, plain and simple. And stupid by choice, to justify their baser instincts of showing off. What’s to be proud of? Yet when an alligator drags a human who ignores the signs warning to stay away from the water’s edge because it lives there, it must be hunted down and killed, gutted and dissected for the remains to show the public there was justification in the retribution. Hmmmm….sound like your kind of story to write. 😏
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One time back in 2014, two young Kenyan men spotted an elephant in the forest. For a reason that I still do not understand, they decided to take selfies while holding the animal’s tusks. They went to it and it killed them. Then the game rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service hunted the elephant and shot it dead. I was perplexed and enraged. It was one of the instances when I have wished I was in charge. The two men chose their own fate.
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This is exactly what I am talking about. Yet if that same elephant strode into a populated village and tried to pick up someone’s small child it would likely meet the same sad fate. And we think humans are ‘civilized.’
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Meanwhile, like you, I do not object to eating meat. I am no vegan. What bothers me is cruelty to animals. They don’t deserve it. Human lives have become too complicated with unnecessary stuff. The animals are our last reminder of the original design. The wild places are our Domhan.
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Yes they are. Funny, I am working on the story right now. I finished this chapter. If you want to read it, let me know where to send it.
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Animals kill to eat or survive a threat…..as far as I know. I’ve never heard of a bear killing a deer and bringing back the antlers to hang in his cave! An animal killing another animal to feed themselves and their family, or humans killing animals in order that we all may eat, what’s the difference? It’s the circle of life. Nature can be very harsh.
🔹 Ginger 🔹
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Absolutely right Ginger.
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Well done! People in general are hypocrites. Nature is the unvarnished truth. Not good or bad, just true.
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It is very honest, to be sure. That is why it seems a threat to so many humans who like to hide behind a facade.
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I too am fascinated by hawks. They kill only what they need to survive,
never just for sport, as humans do.
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Thanks Sandy. I have never witnessed an animal killing for sport.
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I was recently reminded by a naturalist when lamenting the mortality rate of the wild mustang foals that being eaten by a Mountain Lion though it does seem cruel, it keeps the herd numbers in balance with nature which gives them plenty of food, water, and keeps them healthy.
I love the Hawks, Eagles, Kites, and well, birds as you know. The same is true for the hawks eating the squirrels. It must be helping to keep the population in check. Although here in the city not so much.
It’s all about balance I guess.
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Thanks Deborah. I agree. I think the thing that so many people don’t (want) to consider is that humans are the interlopers and our presence throws Nature out of balance. Humans like to think of themselves as Gods of this world yet if you take the Bible literally, everything was created first and humans last, to be stewards of the Creation. That’s some huge responsibility….
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