Capturing predator/prey relationship

To capture wildlife in photos or videos, getting to the wildlife is usually the first obstacle. With a bit of research in understanding where the animal might be, it's a matter of just going to the same place. Sometimes, you get lucky on the first try, and other times you need multiple attempts just to see the animal.

Capturing their behaviour is the next challenge.  Hunting behaviour requires both the predator and prey not being distracted by a human, so normally requires some stealth on the part of the observer (us). 

Wildlife films have made us accustomed to witnessing a successful hunt, but in reality, many hunts end up empty handed.  Last week, I saw seals catch wild fish for the first time, and today, I witnessed another predator prey interaction.

It started off as another quiet day of birding at Boundary Bay.  After about an hour, I started settling for photos of sparrows, lest I leave empty handed.  As we drove away, I noticed parked cars along 72nd St, with several photographers aiming their cameras at what I initially thought were eagles atop telephone poles.  In fact, it was a red-tailed hawk, whose gaze seemed fixed on the tall grass below.

It pounced down into the grass, and I had no idea whether it succeeded until it started flying off, vole in beak.

It wasn't until I looked at the images afterwards that I could confirm that the hawk's hunt was successful - all this happened in the span of a few seconds.  An unexpected reward at the end of what could've been an uneventful outing had we left just a few minutes earlier.