Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Love of Money - and Birds



Well, possibly my muse is awakening, but is still not interested in my novel.  Instead, it (she?) is currently hard at work on a presentation I am going to give at my church on January 21 on “1,000 Years of English Money.”  If you go back a thousand years from Elizabeth II, you come to Canute, who became King of England in 1016.  I have long been endeavoring to collect a silver coin from each reign between the two.  It’s not complete – I’m missing ten monarchs and the two Cromwells – but I have enough to give a pretty good overview of the coins and the history of the people they represent.  And I’m also giving a very generalized history of the start of money, and connecting it to the Christian Sacrament of Baptism.  All in forty-five minutes.

Driving home Monday morning from water exercise, I saw two small hawks (maybe peregrines?) sitting side by side on the same light standard, very cute.  I was a little surprised, because hawks are territorial, each needing so many acres in order to find enough food to sustain himself.  Then I thought, I bet they’re a breeding pair!  Awwww, love in the air . . .  But in January?  Yes, because raptor birds feed their young on the young of other animals, and so need a head start in the laying of eggs, so their young are hatched in time for their parents to gather other animals’ eggs and young.  Crows, for example, are also pairing up, seeking nest locations, in order to hatch their babies just in time for their main diet of newborn rabbits.  It’s factoids like that that tone down my sentimental feelings about nature.  Red in beak and claw indeed.

4 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

I enjoy watching birds around my house no matter what time of year it is. I do have to be cautious in spring, though, since nesting mockingbirds seem inclined to buzz-bomb my dogs to potentially protect their nests--not that my dogs come anywhere close!

Betty Hechtman said...

I'm glad your muse is back. Interesting and also icky about hawks and crows. I guess they don't want to be vegetarians like me.

Monica Ferris said...

Betty, you must know that raptors, like cats, cannot digest vegetables. Another sad fact: veterinarians are sad to deal with very weak and dying cats trying to live on a vegetarian diet designed by their owners. Everything from their teeth to their shockingly short intestines are designed for a meat diet. If would-be pet owners find a meat diet reprehensible, they shouldn't choose a cat for a pet. Here endeth the reading.

Betty Hechtman said...

Monica, I wasn't being serious about my comment about the hawks and crows being vegetarians. I would never and have never tried to feed any of my pets a vegetarian diet, not my family (all meat eaters).