A woman in Silsbee, Texas, was mowing her lawn on Tuesday when a snake fell out of nowhere and landed on her — only to be followed by a hawk that swooped down and attacked them both.
Peggy Jones recounted the terrifying ordeal to the local outlet KPRC-TV. Jones said she was on her tractor mowing her backyard when a snake landed on her and wrapped itself around her arm, squeezing tight.
“I was mowing on our property when out of the sky, out of the clear blue, a snake fell onto my arm,” she told KPRC.
Jones said she tried to loosen the snake but it held on tighter and began striking at her face, hitting her glasses. As she tried to wave her arms to knock the snake off, a hawk swept down and began clawing at her arm “over and over” as it tried to grab the snake.
“I just kept saying, ‘Help me, Jesus, Help me, Jesus,'” she said, adding that the hawk dove down about four separate times before it finally was able to pull the snake off.
“Finally he got the snake and took off with the snake, and I looked down and I was covered in blood, my arm was pretty tore up,” she told KPRC, adding she also had “venom” all over the right lens of her glasses.
Photos shared by the outlet showed her arm covered in cuts, blood, and bruises. Jones’s husband rushed her to the hospital, where even the doctors couldn’t believe her story. She did not have any serious injuries, but said she was scarred for life by the incident.
It’s unclear what kind of snake it was, but Jones said she thinks the hawk may have dropped it on her. Hawks primarily eat small mammals, like squirrels or mice, but are also known to prey on snakes. Red-tailed hawks are especially skilled at snake hunting, and will even consume venomous snakes, like rattlesnakes.
Bryan Hughes, the owner of Rattlesnake Solutions, told Insider that most likely the hawk had caught the snake and dropped it while flying away, causing it to land on Jones.
“It fell on the woman and hung onto her because this was a panicked, injured animal,” he said. “Then the bird swept down to finish what it started.”
He added its common for hawks to grab snakes, but that occasionally a bird will bite off more than it can chew. In those cases, the hawk may drop the snake, or even end up constricted by the snake. Hughes himself has seen a gopher snake apparently fall from the sky, landing on the ground 20 feet ahead of him, only to look up and see a hawk flying overhead. The strange thing about the incident with Jones was that there just happened to be a person directly below.
“This is not something that people need to start worrying about,” Hughes said. “It is such a freak incident.”
He added that the snake may have been a rat snake, which are common in the area, are constrictors, and could be big enough to escape the grasp of a hawk. He also said the injuries to Jones’s arm were likely caused by the hawk, noting a snake bite would not have caused them and that no constrictor in the US could cause that level of bruising and blood.
Jones told KPRC she believes the hawk swooping down ultimately saved her life.
“I think that was God’s way of letting me live because I couldn’t figure out a way — the snake was not letting go of my arm,” she said, adding: “I just feel thankful that I’m alive.”
