Big bird

Last Sunday, Pat and I went for a walk in Monument Valley Park. The sun had already dipped below the mountains, so it was nearly twilight but still very warm. As we were walking we came across this enormous hawk sitting on the chain link fence above the creek. He watched us while we watched him. I wasn't exactly toting a wildlife-worthy lens, but he let us get close enough to grab a few decent pictures. He was huge! Eventually he took wing and drifted down toward the water. As we walked on, Pat spotted him again, this time on the bank of the creek. I couldn't figure out what he was doing down there -- to me it looked like he was wrestling with a big stick -- but Pat correctly guessed that he was eating a snake. A SNAKE. Yikes! Well I certainly wasn't expecting to see a huge bird murdering a huge snake when I told Pat I wanted to go for a walk. I have to say, anything that willingly eats a live snake has got my respect!

If you look closely, you can see that he's got a big snake pinned under his foot.

Yup, definitely a snake! (P.S. It seems awfully early in the year for snakes. I guess the warm weather lured this one out prematurely.)