Fatal event

These pigeon feathers indicate that a raptor, in these parts probably a sparrow hawk, has caught, killed and eaten a pigeon. I was rather struck by the feathers festooning the ground on my Sandringham walk this morning. 

We sometimes get them in our garden at home, the hawk ever vigilant, pecks away, feathers are tossed this way and that and the flesh of the bird is devoured. Apart from the feathers no other mess remains. If one approaches the hawk it simply flies off with its prey to a high branch to continue its grisly work.