This is the last thing the mouse sees. Check out these powerful hawk legs and talons. I had been photographing this red-tailed hawk for ten to fifteen minutes as it hopped from perch to perch. Suddenly it spotted some prey. As it leaped off its fence post, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for whatever it found. You can almost feel the tension in the bulging leg muscles and trap-like talons as they prepare for the kill. Hawks can reportedly grip prey with more than 150 psi of pressure. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly four to five times more pressure than humans can exert with their fingers, although the hawk weighs two to three pounds. Their talons also have a sharp edge designed for cutting.
