Okay, Peeps, here is the lesson of the day. Tuesday I was mowing the grass around the airport runways, lights, and taxiways in our John Deere tractor pulling a 15 foot mower deck. It is pretty nice duty as the tractor is air conditioned and I have my i-pod nano. So I'm mowing and listening to my Bee Gees, Neil, Queen, whatever when out of the grass in front of the tractor pops out this little baby Cottontail bunny. I slow down to let it get out of the way and as I am going past it I think about stopping and grabbing it and put it in a box and take it to show Allison and return it the next day. I did this same thing for Haley a number of years ago. So I turn around in the tractor and.....
what do I see 10 feet in front of me?? A red tail hawk sitting in the field with the poor bunny in his talons. It looks me over and lifts off flapping his wings (5 feet, tip to tip) and takes away Allison's rabbit for his lunch.
I didn't see him at all until his was on the ground. He (or she) flies and circles over head when we mow and watches for the mower to disturb the rabbits, mice and whatever we kick out of the grass and then swoops down for the kill. Pretty smart guy. Last fall, I was mowing and right in front of me hops out a rabbit and I am watching him and I see this flash of movement and there comes this hawk in a power dive. I am watching close and I see him tuck his wings tight against his body and lay out flat and body slams this rabbit. This is 15 feet right in front of me. Wham! he hits the rabbit with his body, stuns it and then he hopps up and grabs it with his talons and flies off. Very impressive! I always thought they come in fast with their talons out streached, like in the pictures, and kill their prey. Well this airport Red Tail body slams his dinner.
And so the food chain goes on and on. The big ones eat the little ones. The raptors do keep the mice and rabbit population down. We have a den of foxes inside our airport wildlife fence that we see on ocasion. I always like to see them hiding in the sage or running across the taxiways.
So there you are..... Allison, I will watch out for another bunny to show you.
8 comments:
That's so cute that you were going to bring that to show her. She would love it. You always see the craziest things when you are mowing up there! We were just talking the other day about those baby bunnies you brought to show us!
Very cool, Dad. Are those pictures you took, or found online to illustrate your story?
That is the coolest story dad! When Cam and I were living at the Ft Union house a hawk flew into the carport and sat in the window sill for awhile. It couldn't figure how to get out. The window was closed, and I guess it didn' occur to him to turn around. That bird was huge! It is surprising how big they are.
And that is really cute that you were going to take the baby bunny over to Allison.
What a story! Nature is cruel sometimes and I don't think you could have found a cuter picture of a bunny to save your life.
I'm in love with that bunny.
The pictures of the bunny and the Hawk are from Google Images. Yes, the bunny is cute and is exactly like the one the hawk took. Same coloring and maybe just a bit bigger, not much though. Yeah, the big raptors are very impressive. We have Golden Eagles quite often around here and on occasion, Bald Eagles. The Red tail hawk is the biggest hawk. One of the blessings living in Wyoming is seeing these birds.
I'm glad you all liked my little story.
I want to see the foxes. They are so cute. I agree, cutest bunny picture ever. So sad, but that's life in the wild.
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