Nature Notes : vimarsana.com

wharfedale-nats.org.uk
A splatter of blood and bird poo on the glass, a heap of dusky feathers on the front lawn: all there was to show that a sparrow-hawk had chased a pigeon to its death against the window, plucked and eaten it. “Nature red in tooth and claw,” as Tennyson put it. No more soaring flight for a pigeon – a welcome meal for a hawk.
My generation of naturalist grew up with the Darwinian model of the natural world. Adaptability to environmental change and balance of predator and prey held things in equilibrium and drove evolution. It seemed harsh but it worked, and the fossil record made fascinating study. Consider an oak wood. Caterpillars in treetops are made of leaves, the blue-tit foraging in the foliage is made of caterpillars, the hawk dashing between the trees is made of blue-tits and when it dies will rot and feed next year’s leaves. It’s only in the last two decades that I’ve become aware of an alternative model. Inter-dependence is an equally good – perhaps better – strategy for long term survival. And symbiosis is an equally fascinating field of study.