Exactly, snakes gotta eat. Though it was hard to watch the adult bird get man-handled by the snake, but exciting none-the-less to see things in nature one rarely gets to see but knows it happens. Last year I watched an American Kestrel land at a Hairy Woodpecker nest cavity and while perched on the cavity lip, it continually stuck its leg in the cavity as far as it would go to try and snare a Hairy Woodpecker chick. I never even suspected kestrels being potential nest predators of other cavity nesters. Although I didn't want to see the kestrel take a woodpecker chick, it would have been interesting to see how it was done. Luckily, the young were old enough to know to hunker down in the bottom of the cavity and avoid the lethal foot. The kestrel departed before the adults came back...which would have also been an interesting observation to observe.

Jeff Kozma

Yakima

j c r underscore 5105 at charter dot net