Hi all,


My friend just forwarded me this series of photos and the story before the photos reads:


"This has to be the weirdest thing that ever floated by me on the Snake River.



They were stuck together in death lock, each wanting to kill the other first. My guess is that the falcon snatched up the tasty snake, and it somehow got its tail around the falcon's neck, strangling it in midair, causing both of them to crash into the river.



They are both alive and well, considering. I think a few more minutes and the snake would have won. The tail was actually tied in a knot around the neck, and getting tighter by the second. I got the snake untied, and well, as you can see, they both made it.

This is another one of those stories you tell, and are always acknowledged with "yeah, right!" Well, here's the proof. Neither of them bit me or scratched me; the snake didn't want to stop biting the falcon's leg, and only let go after I had untied everything else.

I got the water out of the falcon's lungs with birdie inversion technique, and stayed with him until he was almost dried off in the sun, and flying a little.

Ball of snake and falcon, that is the weirdest thing I have pulled out of the water so far, it beats the wagon wheel!"


The dates on the photos show: 11/19/2011. I have no idea if the above story is actually the original author's but seems likely. Another interesting note is the camera time shows 1700 and by 5:00pm in mid November the sun would have already set...adding more to the mystery or perhaps the camera was just out of sync!


The bird certainly looks like a juvenile Red-tail Hawk to me and the snake looks like a gopher snake but I don't have that much experience ID'ing snakes (I do Red-tails though!).


I have watched my red-tail grab an absolutely huge gopher snake before in Colorado and as Bud mentioned, he made a rookie mistake and grabbed it by the mid-section. The snake was the largest of any species I have seen in the wild and I had to intervene before the snake bit and/or wrapped around my bird. It was interesting to see that after I separated them, my red-tail attempted to go after the snake again and stood next to the snake with his wings wide open and, dipping his wings towards the very agitated snake, tried to get the snake to bite the tip of his flight feathers so he could then grab it by the head (I guess he learned quickly!).


Hope this helps with the questions concerning the photo series. There are a few photos and I can forward the email along to anyone who is interested...assuming it is the same series we are all talking about!


Simone Lupson-Cook
Seattle, WA
Zingie at aol.com