2/22 redux

On Wednesday while driving near Bell City, I saw a White-tailed Hawk, pictured in the previous post, below.  I also saw it do something I hadn't seen a good-sized hawk do before.  In what seemed like the middle of a bout of preening, it jumped up off the ground and took off chasing a distant kestrel, easily overtaking it and then dodging and diving after it until it finally forced the kestrel to fumble whatever food item it had been carrying.  Here are some photos of the chase.  The White-tailed Hawk is the big bird that looks like it would never be able to maneuver with a little falcon.  The kestrel is the little bird that's probably wondering where in the world this strange hawk that it can't out-fly has come from.