The Red-Tailed Hawk

We walked out one evening to see this beautiful creature on the house roof.  Unfortunately he was watching the chicken coop.  We know this red tail hawk lives in the neighborhood and have seen if fly overhead multiple times but it has never before landed anywhere in the yard.  Not only did it land on the roof, it perched itself in several spots and stayed around for 36 hours. 
At one time we saw it in the grass eating a snake.  It then moved to the top of the chicken coop while I mowed the grass. It was totally unafraid of me. It watched as I mowed and even let me take some pictures.  After I finished mowing and had parked the tractor by the back deck it moved to the rollbar of the tractor and stayed there for an hour or so while we all sat on the deck and took pictures and it posed.  Sharee has amazing pictures of it.  At one point it even hopped up on the deck railing, coming within about 5 feet from us.  It was a sight to behold.  Needless to say we never let the chickens out.  I guess it figured out that they were going to be safe and finally departed.  We left the chickens in for another few days just to be sure. What an amazing 36 hours it was.  It was huge and an absolutely stunning creature.  What a blessed day we had examining it up close.