Snow Angel of Death

[Thomas Meek]

There is a small hawk who comes around my bird feeder sometimes. She got lucky a couple afternoons ago.
I saw her in the snow, pulling feathers out of something. Then a walker approached so she took her prey and flew off to finish, but left this kind of gruesome "Snow Angel" in the spot where she had pounced on the unfortunate.
The "head" of the angel is the place where she drove her talons into the small bird.
I am not really proud of how cool I think this picture is, but I like it anyhow.

[Dented Rick]

In a morbid way, that is cool. but don't feel guilty, Death is as much a part of our existence as Life is. so it's all good. At least you got an awesome picture out of it.

[redhorse]

We get hawks around our feeders from time to time too, but I've never seen anything like that. What an amazing photo!

[goodduck]

Have people gathering around to pay and worship that holy snow spot.

[rmks2000]

I've had a red-tailed hawk take down a mourning dove in my back yard. On another occasion it brought down a grackel. It was like watching "Wild Kingdom".

[SCEtoAUX]

That is kind of neat.
I have been witness to a hawk taking a small bird four times now. The first time really startled me.

The birds that visit my feeders hang out in all of the bushes and trees which provide them lots of cover. They usually have a certain quality to their chirping when they are just hanging out waiting to get to the feeder. I can tell, though, when a hawk is in the vicintity because the chirping takes on a different quality. When I walk outside and hear that specific type of chirping I start scanning for a hawk. One can usually then be found perched high up in tree.

[peter taft]

Don't feel bad - mother nature provides for all her creatures, she even got a message to you with this ! Is this a serendipity event, or was it meant to happen - you shall never know. Great photograph that captured something special.

[ThunderChild]

Very interesting pic.

A friend of mine rescued a gecko from his pool a while back. He dropped it next to the pool on the sun baked paving to get warm when a hawk snatched it up.

[ct ertz]

My mother lives in Pierre, SD. It's the state capital, a smallish city. Lots of traffic. Anyhow, there are a lot of hawks in the city and out by the Oahe Dam there are many eagles as well. Many a squirrel has been snatched from my moms yard or from the road by the hawks. She has a small dog, and when it was a puppy she would not let it out in the fenced yard by itself for fear of a hawk getting it. Strange to see so many birds of pray in a city.

[Rick Thomson]

Interesting, the head looks like a skull.