nature!

I took a road trip back to Texas to see my family. I hauled ass along the 10 through Arizona and New Mexico. But once I cleared El Paso, I took the scenic route and swung down through Ft. Davis, Marfa, Terlingua, and the top of Big Bend, then back up to Junction and on to Austin.

I really miss road trips. I had forgotten how much you can see, even from the big highways. But the real pleasure comes from taking the smaller back roads. Sometimes it’s fun to take a little road, just see where you might end up.

Even when speeding along one of these county roads, you can still see a ton of wildlife. I saw deer, rabbits, turkeys, javelina, tons of different birds. But the highlight was seeing this red-tailed hawk and badger.

I was headed out of Big Bend and I saw some roadkill—no big deal, there’d been plenty of it on this trip. After all, I’m pretty much in the middle of nowhere. But then I noticed a hawk, on the ground. This is really unusual so I made a u-turn and went back to check it out.

When I got back, I saw that the hawk was actually a red-tailed hawk and was happily sitting on the roadkill. That bird was not going to move for anything! He’d rather have faced me down in my car than give up his meals for the next few days. It was only when I took out my camera and started to take pictures that I noticed the roadkill was a badger!

I’m going to geek out here for a minute and tell you guys that I have this sort of unofficial list of wildlife in my mind that I want to see, so when I see something new it’s a really big deal. I kind of freaked out and got really excited.

The other thing that was interesting is that hawks are birds of prey and don’t usually eat roadkill. They prefer to hunt and catch their prey live, which leads me to believe (along with the state of the entrails) that this must have been a very fresh kill that the hawk stumbled upon.

Several times, the hawk tried to fly away with his prize, but the badger was just too heavy and the poor guy (or girl) couldn’t really get off the ground. Didn’t keep him from trying though. Eventually he gave up and just started chowing down.

I took a few more photos, made another u-turn and snapped a few more, and drove away. Once I got to my hotel, I did a little research and found out that badgers are actually somewhat common in Texas, especially in desert scrubland like Big Bend. I’ve never seen one and neither has anyone in my family, including  my grandmother (who grew up on a farm/ranch).  But according to what I read, they are solitary creatures and tend toward being nocturnal. They are also burrowers (check out those long claws) so I guess that explains it.

Anyway, I thought you guys might find these photos interesting. The hawk is just gorgeous (the badger a little less so in this state). It’s nature in action!