Animal Activities #92
The midday sun blazed on the savannah, sending red blades of amber and gold into flames. Kito was a grassland secretary bird, his long, thin legs lifting him up as if on the legs of a rickety tripod, a crown of black as night feathers billowing up from his head and over the acacia thicket. No soaring eagles or perched vultures here.
He was a stalker, a long, measured stride, watching the dust for that teeniest movement - nervous flick of tail or shiver of coil.
A sudden flurry of movement in the rays of the sun brought his attention to a puff adder sleeping in a isolated patch of shade. Its heavy banded body was coiled to strike. A runt of a yearling would have backed away, but Kito's body flooded with a primitive urge.
He held himself steady and spread his huge, broad wings with the charcoal markings, which dazzled the viper's eyes. The snake spat and writhed, flinging his huge bulk away in his fury and coiling to strike. The adder took one wickedly quick step at him and opened his mouth wide to deliver his deadly venom -- but Kito gracefully side-stepped with his long legs and avoided the mighty brute's fangs.
It was all in the timing. With a fraction of a second to go before the snake hit the ground, Kito saw his window and kicked out. The impact of five times his own weight was transmitted via the scales to the head of the adder in just a few thousandths of a second.
The snake sank into the dust and instantly disappeared.
Kito looked up again to check if the danger had past. Seeing all clear he shook his ruffled neck plumage. Snatching up his victim and taking a few running steps into the up drafts he soared up to the blue sky above. He swooped back to his lofty acacia tree and his nest to watch over the grasslands below.
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