Home»All Photographs»Raptors»Red-Tailed Hawk»Winter Redtail: Groundhog Kill

Here is a series of photos of a Red-Tailed Hawk on a winter groundhog kill. It is interesting to see how effectively a 2 to 3 lb predator can dispatch a 4 to 5 lb prey when it is caught unawares from above.
I did however see the initial strike as the Redtail whirled in the air and plunged in its strike but i had no camera handy at the time.
I photographed what i thought was the complete kill and as i needed supplies I left and went to town to source them out. Although i had noted previously a murder of crows in a nearby hard maple tree, i thought nothing of it and left for town. To my dismay, when a turned off the county highway onto the concession road there was that murder of crows mobbing the Redtail still mounted on his kill. He endured repeated harassment and close-quartered aerial attacks.
Eventually the mobbing drove the Redtail into the air abandoning his hard won prize.

"Music by: Kevin Macleod"