The Head of the Matter

I got to the hawk area just as one of the kids was polishing off a baby sparrow, not exactly a big meal.
Mama hawk raiding sparrow nests in the area. Easy pickings, pluck and feed.

I had a feeling that maybe the head had been snapped off the eaten sparrow and I wanted to find that head. Young hawk didn't show any interest in exploring the ground like the hawk of a few days ago. Big leaves under the dining branch. Maybe I'd be lucky. Voila!! There on a big leaf was a small round brown something. It was the head, face down. While I took pictures, my birder friend, Jean Shum, photographed me.

The Salome story is very simple. Salome does the dance of the Seven Veils then requests a silver platter with the head of John the Baptist on it. I've already shot "Salome with the head". This time I wanted the head on a platter. This head fell face down onto the leaf, the beak puncturing the leaf.

Turned the leaf over. Totally, wonderfully weird, but not optimum angle.

Anabelle, another birder, had a small knife, so I cut the leaf loose for better positioning. JOHN THE BAPTIST on a green "platter". Another once-in-a-million shot.

Meal done, head memorialized, young hawk off to puddle in rock. Bath, drink time.

The reason hawk flew out of the "pool".

Mama delivered the biggest female rat I've ever seen, cat sized.

To be continued.

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