Owl and Its Meal

Contrary to my other photos of owls recently, this one is very much alive. In fact, it has its dinner sitting on the rock behind its tail. I realize it is always disturbing to find out that animals eat other animals, but this is pretty graphic. This was probably the least expected photo I have taken recently since I was really looking at flowers and not thinking about birds, dead or alive. At first, I thought it was dead, until it opened its eyes and looked at me. Its feathers are gorgeous but do they make up for the fact that it is a predator? It seems that a lot of very attractive things turn out to be predators. I sometimes think that about people as well as animals.