Red-tailed Hawk vs Snake
My goodness, the Holy Crap factor is majorly spiking this week!
Thanks to Jennifer who alerted me to a link of photos that her mother took of a young red-tailed hawk that tried to get a snake and things went a bit wonky. Click here to view the photos. There are three photos of the hawk in an awkward position--don't worry, the hawk gets away. Although, if snakes ook you out, you may not want to follow the link.
This is a good example of how young raptors have to learn some hard lessons on not only what to hunt, but how to hunt.
Thanks to Jennifer who alerted me to a link of photos that her mother took of a young red-tailed hawk that tried to get a snake and things went a bit wonky. Click here to view the photos. There are three photos of the hawk in an awkward position--don't worry, the hawk gets away. Although, if snakes ook you out, you may not want to follow the link.
This is a good example of how young raptors have to learn some hard lessons on not only what to hunt, but how to hunt.
Labels: Holy Crap
posted by birdchick at 9:32 PM
9 Comments:
Amazing photos, but too bad the people had to interfere. As a birder and wildlife rehaber I love hawks, but that snake has as much right to defend itself as the inexperienced raptor had to try to eat it. Snakes have a bad enough rap as it is.
Still, pretty amazing scene to come upon.
Great pictures.
That hawk looks positively shocked.
He's probably gone straight into therapy.
Great image, but...
regardless what the image says, it's not illegal to copy it and put it on your blog if you want. The fair use clause of the Copyright Act expressly permits copying for "comment".
Thanks for sharing the link! This is absolutely amazing.
I agree that the human interference was out of line. I would love to see that snake complete the battle.
So what kind of snake was it and where were the photos taken?
WOW! All I can say is WOW!
I know this is a bit off topic - Ok a lot off topic, but Bird Chick, what is your understanding of copying photos from one Internet source to another?
BTW, I couldn't see the hawk/snake photos - a lot of white! I'll try again later.
p. ollig -
The science part of me says that there should have been no intervention. However, I cannot predict what my hormones or emotions will make me do when confronted with a situation and I cannot say in full honesty that I wouldn't have tried to help the hawk. The snake looks mortally wounded, I could see myself intervening just to speed things up. I'm sure Jeff Corwin would have a different outlook.
David--
The Internet is one big fat gray area. If you take photos, you have to understand that once you put your images are on the Net--you have lost control of them. People take them and do whatever they want, no matter what warnings or labels are put in place.
Personally, I don't mind if someone puts one of my photos on their site as long as they link back to me. The only times I have sent notes have been when we found Disapproving Rabbits photos on a white supremacist site (Ick--don't need that link thank you very much) or when someone started an LOL Rabbits site and took photos of Cinnamon and passed them off as their own without a link (that one ticked me off because the site was begging for people to link to them and they weren't reciprocating).
I generally ask permission for photos unless it's a photo from a news story or a photo that is already floating around on several other sites. I try to make an effort to link back to whoever took the photo or give credit.
I try to make my images too small for print or purposes off the net. Periodically, I'll get emails from someone either putting together a PowerPoint or Newsletter and it reads something like,
"I tried to print your photo for my newsletter and it gets all these box shapes on it. Did you know that people can't print that photo? You might want to fix that."
I submitted the link to the photos, and I just want to clarify it was not my mom who took the pictures, but someone she knows, so I have no stake in whether or not the pictures can be copied.
The pictures were taken at the Norfolk (VA) Botanical Gardens. A visitor to the gardens first spotted the hawk and snake, and alerted staff. I can only assume that since the hawk and snake were in an area where a lot of people were visiting and in a public area, the people who intervened were probably doing so not only in the interest of the hawk or snake, but also in the interest of the visiting public who may have decided to take upon themselves to intervene. And then when they were injured by the hawk would have sued the gardens. Or worse, they may have harmed either animal inadvertently. The people that did intervene have experience in handling wildlife.
Glad there was some interest in the photos, although I didn't expect they would start a debate about photography rights!
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