This weekend I got a surprise when I stumbled upon a dead hawk in the pasture. It is pretty rare to find a top tier predator dead of natural causes. It wasn’t warm, but it also wasn’t too stinky or fly covered so it must have been recently deceased. I brought it up for the kids to investigate. We were all duly impressed by the sharpness of its talons and beak, the solid strong head, and the large wing span.
![Talon](https://b2717065.smushcdn.com/2717065/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/talon.jpg?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1?w=600)
But hawks aren’t the only predatory birds around here. How about them chickens? I raised the lid on the hens’ bulk feeder and a mouse (who had improvised nicely by building a cozy nest out of chicken feathers) popped out. Whoosh, and a few hundred hens in a scrum were going after it.
![Chicken Scrum](https://b2717065.smushcdn.com/2717065/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/chicken-scrum.jpg?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1?w=600)
Out of the crowd one hen would emerge victorious, mouse held aloft by foot or tail, streaking away with her prey and pistoning in that absurd side-to-side slapping, flat footed chicken run. But she could never put the mouse down long enough to make her meal. As soon as she paused a dozen other hens would pounce and the pursuit shot off in a different direction. They went round the pasture more times than I could stand to watch. Eventually I lost interest and went on to the next chore, but the diversion apparently made their day.
![Chicken with Mouse](https://b2717065.smushcdn.com/2717065/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/chicken-with-mouse.jpg?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1?w=600)