Moments: Brown Falcon—My Kitchen Rules, Tiger Snake, a la carte

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YaJustHaddabeThere.

If you feel history is repeating itself, well done. It is.

Brown Falcon are very active at the Treatment Plant at the moment, as it seems are snakes in the close of the warm weather.
This bird didn’t fool me.  I knew it had intentions.  That it only moved one or two fence posts at a time was the first clue. When a vehicle drove down the road past EE and I, and then past Brown, and it didn’t even flinch, I knew.

YaJustHaddabeThere.

Settle in for a long wait. My first frame of the encounter was shot a 1:53pm.  The last one 2:42pm. And the bird was still in residence at that stage.
Here’s a summary and then we’ll let the images tell the story.
We noted the Falcon on the fence as we drove down. It was not in a hurry to move, and it was apparent that in spite of its seeming casualness,  it was hard at work. I’ve written before that I believe Browns map everything only move when its to their advantage.

It flew along the road, and then walked into the grass. At first I missed the movement. But Brown had calculated the snake would move out into the open. Ha!  Not this one. Brown reacted but the blanket weed is much too thick. Advantage Snake.

Brown considered a new plan from a small hillock nearby. And that is where the time went. Twenty minutes of more.  Then for no apparent reason the bird moved to a higher roadside sign. And I knew an attack was in play.

YaJustHaddabeThere.
It went down behind the small hillock, and we lost sight, but we lost no time in getting up the road to see if we could get a look.
Yes. There it was mantled, wings spread out. Motionless. At the right time, the head moved and it was all over.
The next few minutes were dealing with the death throes of the snake, and it eventually got a tail twisted over the Falcon’s wings.
After gorging itself it tried to move the snake out into the open, but for some reason, the snake had twisted itself into the grass.  Pretty much exhausted from all the effort, the bird took a break, then flew on to the roadside fence.  And sat.

After a few minutes it began to preen, and we decided to move on.
I collected the vehicle from down the road, and we drove by the fence, and normally a bird would take to the air.  Not this bird, it was either satisfied we meant no harm, exhausted, or just was not going to give up its ground for its meal.
YaJustHaddabeThere.

Which ever, EE got an eye to eye encounter as we went past about arms-length from the bird.

None of these are cropped as they show both the action, the closeness, and the area of the action. For those that are guessing, I think the

markings are a Tiger Snake.

YaJustHaddabeThere.

Enjoy.

Flying from post to post. A typical Brown Falcon Activity
Now its serious. The time and location are right.
Let’s see
Hey, look, its over here. At first I couldn’t see the snake through the grass, but its just in front of the bird.
Tricky little customer. It should have moved out into the open.
Not fair. Come back
Too hard to attack in the thick undergrowth.
I know its there. We’ll just wait.
Taking a height advantage the bird sat for nearly twenty minutes.
Then, relocated
And a few seconds later dropped.
We moved up the road to get a better view, hoping the bird would not be nervous and take off. I should not have been worried. Here it is mantled, wings out over the snake.
The snake has been despatched and its time to begin lunch
The size of the snake would have been around 1.5 metre and my guess from the markings its a Tiger Snake. The tail is starting to twirl over the bird.
In the death throes, the tail curled around the back of the Falcon.
Down to business. The bird tries to move the snake to a more open area, but its somehow caught among the grasses.
Here its trying to pull it out with its leg force.
That failed, so now its the pull forward with the beak and head, but it can’t get enough purchase to solve the problem.
After nearly an hour the bird is I think exhausted and took time out for a rest and to reevaluate its next move.
Across the road for a rest
Yep, I can still see it from here thanks.
We drove past the bird and this is looking back, a nice rotund tummy.

13 thoughts on “Moments: Brown Falcon—My Kitchen Rules, Tiger Snake, a la carte”

    1. Hi Eleanor, I guess it it makes the hit correctly and disables the snake, the size is not a problem.When we left, it had only consumed less than 10th of snake.
      Must have been a pretty big deal for the Brown.

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    1. Hello AB, thanks for the comments. It is an amazing process. We tend to just see Browns as fence sitters or flying away, but they have such a process. Every time I get to work for a reasonable time and get inside their world, it becomes even more amazing. Their ability to map, to control and to patiently wait for the most opportune time, so no energry is wasted always amazes me.
      I also see the same sort of efficiency in most of the raptors that I’ve had the pleasure to photograph

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  4. Terrific series of excellent shots in this saga between the falcon and the snake. Both you and the falcon showed a lot of patience to achievea successful outcome.

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  9. G’day David, I’ve discovered this amazing story thanks to your link under the recent Cassia’s of Cinnamon image on Flickr. I had a close encounter with a Tiger Snake in January but it’s still very fresh in my visual memory. I wouldn’t believe it could be conquered by a Brown Falcon if not for your record. Awesome!

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