Hawk playing with its prey

This happened on September 14 and incredibly, lasted more than 10 minutes. I shot more than 250 shots with a 400mm lens. Here are about 40. I have tried to choose pictures that show both the hawk and its prey and I appologize for posting so many images but it seems a great many are needed to tell the story.

My eye was first drawn to this hawk moving about on the ground in my neighbor's yard, about 300 feet distant. I had seen a hawk fly by me and toward a tree in her yard a few minutes before. I begin with what was my tenth shot and the first where I could see the hawk's prey. In later shots it looked to me like a cedar waxwing, but at that distance, it was hard to be sure. You will see it much clearer in some of the later shots.

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#23 Here he is throwing its prey into the air.

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#28 Here he throws it again, like a cat playing with a mouse.

#29 To my surprise, it seemed still able to fly.

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#31 I had been taking pictures of this ordeal for more than 6 minutes at this point.

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#38 And he throws it up again.

#39 Here a few feathers are flying

#40 And he pounces on it

#41 And starts to fly off with it.

#42 But apparently it is still moving so he drops it to the ground and jumps on it again