When hunting backfires

Monday, March 3, 2014 ~ George Crawford ~ 2 Comments

A while back I came up on a hawk who appeared to have caught something. Then suddenly there was a blur, some thrashing, and here’s what I saw when I got to it. In wrestling, we would call that a reversal. Who’s the boss now? I decided to break it up for the good of the hawk. Both of those guys help keep the rodent population down and the snake couldn’t eat the hawk. It seemed a needless death to me.

This is just a re-visitation of a much older post someone recently asked me to find. Click the photo for the link.

Camouflage

Sunday, August 11, 2013Sunday, August 11, 2013 ~ George Crawford ~ Leave a comment

Some thoughts occurred recently while looking through some of my wildlife photos. Especially how so many creatures really “fit” in their surroundings.

I realize it is mostly for defense (or sometime offense) but it just makes more apparent how poorly most of us humans seems to fit our surroundings. We want to distance ourselves from dirt and sand and smells of nature and cover our scents with industrial chemicals and our flesh with cheap, poorly made clothes.

No point to this ramble really, other than to note the feeling of discord with our surroundings while displacing those who may fit in better.

I currently live in a fairly harsh place; a marginal land overrun with industrial agriculture. A land of extremes where creatures are in constant struggle for water or food. Yet we survive, and hopefully learn to harmonize and not run counter to the way of the earth.

Cautious Dog

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 ~ George Crawford ~ Leave a comment

Checking out the gopher snake on the morning walk.

Rattler in the Bush

Wednesday, February 27, 2013Wednesday, February 27, 2013 ~ George Crawford ~ Leave a comment

Last June in the Rio Grande Valley

Wildlife Battle

Tuesday, October 25, 2011Monday, March 3, 2014 ~ George Crawford ~ 5 Comments

I was fortunate enough to see an amazing wildlife battle yesterday evening. It was life at its rawest on the Llano Estacado. I wanted to be an impartial observer but, being human, I stepped in and intervened. I live in a rural area with a lot of wildlife including many raptors and snakes. It is not uncommon to see a hawk swoop down and catch a rabbit, rat, mouse, or lizard. I was heading home to eat so I wasn’t too concerned with watching when a large hawk landed hunched over some prey out in the scrub. I went past to check our back gate and came back the same way a minute later. I saw the hawk was hopping around and it looked like it was fighting something. Due to the brush and growing darkness I couldn’t tell what it was fighting with but wanted to have a closer look. There was a split second of frenzied activity and suddenly the hawk was flipped onto its back on the ground. Luckily, I had a camera so I was able to snap off this shot.

She looks shocked! I would have had a hard time believing it had I not seen it. A relatively small snake was all over the hawk and choking the life out of it. It was dark and my initial thought was that it had been bit by a prairie rattler. The hawk’s beak was open, eyes bulging and obviously gasping for air. Closer inspection showed the snake to be a gopher snake, and net even a very big one.

My presence was obviously upsetting everybody and there was more thrashing. The snake was able to hide under the feathers pretty effectively. I wanted to just grab the snake and unwind it but images of being bitten or clawed by a frightened hawk kept me at a little distance. Not sure what to do next I was able to call someone down to give me hand.

Can you see terror in her eyes? At this point I was pretty sure the hawk was done for as the snake had three coils around its neck. So, I could let it die and have one less chicken killer around or save her to help keep down the rodent population.

I grabbed a yucca stalk to help hold the hawk down while I grabbed for the snake and tried to avoid talons. I doubt it would have done much but it was all I had.