Hawk and Mouse Snake

I took a walk Tuesday and watched a Red-tailed hawk swoop out of the sky and catch a rodent in the high spring grass. He flew off with it, and its tail hung down.
I watched hoping to find something to extrapolate to my human world.
I wanted something more than a photograph: a lesson, a secret, meaningful contemplation.
But there was only a hawk eating a mouse high up in the evergreen.

Afterwards he flew to the snag and looked down at me. I looked up and was really glad that I'm not a mouse.

Update: Thanks to some very observant commenters, I have learned that the prey is actually a snake. That really explains so much, like why that tail seemed incredibly long and big for a mouse.