Picture by Chamois huntress at Adobe Stock

One for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a wedding, four for a birth, five for silver, six for gold, seven a secret which can never be told, eight for a kiss, nine for a wish, and ten for a bird you must not miss. ~Crow Rhyme

One morning in early autumn, when I was still a working Iibrarian, I was in the staff room looking out the window, when suddenly I observed a peregrine falcon swoop down on a sparrow. It carried its prey to a tree right outside the staff room window, high up in the branches, and soon tiny feathers, instead of autumn leaves, began to rain down among the leafy branches from somewhere above. I was glad I couldn’t actually see what the falcon was doing. I wasn’t practicing bird divination at this time, but it was certainly a grim omen for the start of the workday.