An Absolutely Amazing Day To Witness A Battle In Nature Play Out First Hand

Beautiful sunshine with a strong gusty wind from the north got me out of the house with a packed lunch in my tote bag today. Little did I know that when I stopped to have that lunch, I was less than a mile from one of the most amazing battles that I have every seen play out between a hawk and a snake. Talk about being in the right place at the right time is an understatement.

The plan was to take the lunch at a picnic table alone the lake. The gusty wind of 24 MPH was just a bit to strong to manage containers and the like at a picnic table. The elected choice then  was to just eat the lunch in the car. After having my lunch of 314 calories, and packing the containers away, I sat out to shoot the flowering cherry blossoms that I had been waiting to do with a blue sky background and today was perfect for that. I pulled into the parking lot that was just at a mile beyond my lunch stop, got my camera and headed down the trail a shot way beyond the foot bridge. There, I got that shot of cherry blossoms against a blue sky.  After shooting there for a little more than a third of an hour, I walked out onto the T-dock to see if I could spot the big old water snake that suns on a pile of downed reeds in the "L" of the dock or to see if any big turtles were on the logs to the far left of the dock You can't see the turtles from the trail, but from the dock, you get the turtles with a good reed background. But, no luck. There were spring breakers on either end of the dock with a fisherman that I have talked with in the past. He had just gotten there and was just putting his several poles into the water. So, I walked back toward the car. Just as I got to the trail, this red shoulder hawk flew past me at a bit more than eye level with this snake in its claws.

Landing in the big tree on the draining ditch that caused the footbridge to be created on the trail, I trained my camera on the hawk. Several people were stopping to look at the hawk and asking about what was going on. Just then, the hawk drops head down with open wings and was holding on to the snake in its claw. The other claw was free and the hawk was keeping it away from the snake as well.  At first, I thought that the hawk had gotten tangled in some fishing line or something when I saw the snake curl with it's tail wrapped around a smaller branch in the tree.  The hawk was hanging from the snake stretched out a bit more than about a foot and a half. Finally, the hawk was able to raise up and grab the snakes head. At which time, the snake released its hold on the tree and the hawk was able to fly into a second tree. There it could manage the snake better by standing on its head pressed against the tree branch and finally have his lunch. Even the hawk knows that if  you control the head of the snake, you control the snake.

The Hawk goes for the snake's head

Here, it's all over but eating dinner!

There was a bit of blood on both the snakes head and the hawks beak before it was all over, but "all over" was the phrase of the day and I had the shots!!!

NB---
Don't forget to click on any of the images to enlarge the shot. I will publish more of the hawk's battle with the snake with the agencies where I list. It appears that there are those that try to download the image and call it their own. So, it is getting harder to publish images on the blog. I'm retired and I supplement my income with my images and curios of those images.

Have A Happy and Safe Thanksgiving Holiday---

but look out for Black Friday!! I hear it's likely to be more wicked than in the past. No prediction---mind you---just hear-say, of course.

SOME of you don't like airplanes, I know, but it' been a long time since the Wright Brothers left the Terra Firma at Kitty Hawk. The constant change in technology has made flying more safe than ever in the states.


I have followed a young man that I have come to admire because he flew around the world solo at 16, has come back to earth long enough  to get his education at MIT and has never owned a car---more or less, but flies a Beechcraft 36 everywhere. Last night he stopped in Bryan, Ohio to refuel on his way home to South Dakota for Thanksgiving, not landing until  01:30 this morning.  after being in Vermont and upstate New York before heading for home.

He has a foundation that he set up. He travels everywhere by his own plane; has more flight hours than some first officers that fly commercially. He writes software---for lack of a better way to describe it---and enjoys life to the fullest. 

I went out to DFW yesterday after paying my annual visit to my bank's branch in Irving. I said to the tellers that every thing has come early this year--spring;summer;fall. So, here I am in November rather than December this year! I had a little check (AARGH) people still send those, that had that little annoying statement---deposit promptly. Then why use checks....electronics work fine. Also, since I get one of those annually and it's 16 miles out to the bank and 16 miles back---unless I go to DFW from there, which I did. But I wanted the tellers to show me how to use the app to deposit the check electronically so I didn't have to heed the warning---Deposit Promptly.

One of the guys came over to the desk and I explained that I wanted to learn about the photo process of depositing checks with the app and where could I get the app since I had looked and could not fine it on the website. He paused a minute and then said," Actually, I've never used it."  I said to him, Gee. I don't even know you and I love you already!" The other teller broke out in a laugh. He said, I can tell you like being honest. Any hoot. I got the little annoyance deposited and then headed to the airport.

Founder's was packed when I got there and I didn't stay long, but long enough to see changes to the new rail line into Terminal B. It opens very soon with the TEX rail from Ft. Worth to the big airport. Terminal A has had Dart's light rail for a couple of years already and it won't be long before the Cotton belt will roll in to the mix. 

A hawk riding thermals above the 18's at DFW. Surprisingly, the planes come in under him on approach and take off below and  beyond him. It's like a soup bowl and he flies right over the center as planes come and go on the rims down into the bowl. Make sense?  Also, he scares off a lowt of the birds that could cause a problem.

Atlas at UPS with the wintering grasses being cut beyond the fence to the tarmac. The tractor driver likes to watch the planes too!!

Here, where you see the crane boom, look to the right at grade level to see the canopies for the TEX rail into Terminal B. Also, the runways at the end of the 17's are getting  a re-configuration for holding and crossings. A big improvement. One side has it already.

There was an Atlas Air 747 parked at the UPS terminal. Normally, Atlas parks father down beyond the American Airline Hangers on the west side of the field. I can only make a couple of guesses as to why: 1) UPS leased the Atlas 747 for the holidays.2) Atlas is under contract for UPS during the holidays.3) Amazon is somehow in the mix of things! (they have a plane with the A to Z arrow logo on it that flies into DFW already.

At home, I got a text from my baby brother that lives here in the Metroplex. I knew that he would be going to Houston to see his daughter over Thanksgiving and we are having lunch on Saturday. He has a way of telling me things that is funny and always tries to up one on me. He said he was taking the Von Lane to Houston (google it---he said) I said in reply, Nice Buses! I have photographed them on the road! (I just had to do that, don't ya see?) Anyway, it didn't take long to figure out that he was on the bus en route already. We had an hour and a half of texting back and forth. The buses really are nice. 22 plush recliner-type leather seats with food, refreshments, WI-FI, power plugs, even table tops for video projection in the back. That's it! 22 people-no more- direct drop-off at the hotel. I'm saying, like little brother---google it!

So, my turkey is thawed and ready for the oven tomorrow. I'm going to have a quiet Thanksgiving---I'm hoping. And I'm going to try to do some more walking with the weather being nice and getting nicer again. 70s for the weekend. Clouds are high and thin and that is an old farmers observation that a weather system is moving in. So, I got to get moving to have pictures to work on tonight. I have had a run of several straight days of sales. The hard work over the long hot summer is beginning to be realized in sales. Like the old bumper sticker from years ago---"Fly Southwest. Herb needs the Money", well, media buyers I have 8,000 images on line so " Fly dallaspaparazzo.com. I need the money like Herb did !"

Tower Cranes Are Everywhre

There are tower cranes at White Rock. More at  Lincoln Park, North Park with two. Medical City has two. Love Field has four. Southwest Airlines between Denton and Harry Hines has two. Downtown has them every where in all four quadrants. Houston Street, Ross Avenue just added more.  Even Richardson High School across from Cottonwood Park has one at their athletic field. Uptown always has one or two. If one were taken down today, the guy that got it would have been waiting for 14 months plus or minus one here or there.

There are some 90 plus cranes in operation locally.

This one maybe wants to be a tower crane when he grows up.

This one playing in the water before going to work as a crane operator.

This view from the diamond's light shelf has one of nature's paradox at play.On the ball diamond field below is a field covered in pigeons. The prey of this hawk as he protects his territory from above.

Squirrel for Lunch

An amazing 40 minutes watching the hawk eat. I was photographing the Robinson-Ransbottom pottery piece and I heard this screeching call. I found this very large hawk in the tree. As I got a bit closer, the hawk launched into a long silent glide across a soccer field to a small grove  of trees. Between the trees and the street, there was the hawk on the ground with a fresh kill at about 30 yards. Patiently, and about 40 minutes later, the hawk let me get within 5-yards while eating. Not wanting to drive this beautiful bird off its kill, I turned away and walked back to the car. As I drove by where I had been, the hawk was still eating. There was another hawk in the area calling out but this hawk payed no mind to the other's pleas.