Every week @nelinoeva hosts a fun contest in the Feathered Friends Community. This week's theme is RAPTORS.

Are you not enraptured by this lovely raptor? This is a Red Tailed Hawk. I saw this beauty scoping something out from a perch up in the trees. They then flew down into the grass at breakneck speeds in pursuit of their prey.
They landed.
Grabbed the creature.
Gobbled it up so fast I didn't have time to get a picture.

That poor earthworm. He didn't stand a chance.

True story! I didn't know that hawks ate worms. I always figured they only went after meaty things like mice and rabbits and other birds. But I guess worms make a good snack.

!!official entry photo!!⬇️⬇️

!!official entry photo!!⬆️⬆️

I took these pictures at the beautiful San Juan County campground in Washington.
At around the same time, an eagle came to land on a rock that was out on the water.

Lots of gulls, cormorants, even seals like to hang out on that rock. When the eagles show up, the other birds go bonkers, swooping and scolding the raptors, but to no avail.

I also saw a Merlin, a type of falcon, as identified by my neighbor camper, a fellow bird nerd and also an expert on birds of prey.

I was hanging out, feeding my campground crow buddies

when suddenly a tiny little raptor swooped in super fast and tried to snag one of them!

That b@st*rd!

I've actually seen this happen once before in Portland, with the same outcome. The crows growl and chase the tiny raptor off like it's no big deal. Falcons can probably capture crow babies, but I think in general crows are safe from them, especially when they are in groups. Falcons are considerably smaller than crows.

But if they ever mess with my buddies again...

Thanks for checking out my entry to the #smap contest! You can use the link at the beginning of the post to see the rules if you want to enter. It ends Sunday, so you still have time. Your pictures don't need to be professional quality, either, just fun and/or interesting.

instagram: @se_pdx_crows
Art in NFT Showroom
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