Our Airborne Snake Patrol

Since about 1990, Lakeview Farms has had two resident Red-Tailed Hawks that nest in our woods.  While the hawk's  favorite food are  the mice that inhabit the rolling grassy slopes and small grain cover crops,  I have on several occasions seen the hawks ( 4 foot wing span ) swoop down and pick up a small rabbit or large snake on the fly.

The hawks usually perch in the high trees near the the troll bridge or cruise the sky above the farm on days where thermals ( upward movement of warmer air which allow effortless gliding in the sky ) are especially good.  Their keen distance vision can detect even the slightest motion on the ground so any snake that strays into  well mowed grassy fields or a strawberry patch  usually becomes easy pickings for the hawk.

Red-tailed  hawks are normally very reclusive and generally  avoid people but they have adapted to our  suburban farm environment and regard me, the tractor, and our customers as  sort of unpaid "jungle beaters" that drive their prey out into the open.  It is not uncommon to see them perched  high on a electric pole above a crowd of U-Pick raspberry customers patiently waiting for their  next meal to be "scared up".