Pigeon toes

I went down to the woods for the first time for a month (I've been so busy since I got back). It's still bleak and wintry overall but the dog's mercury and wood anemone are out.

By the river I found an explosion of grey pigeon feathers littering the ground - the debris from a predator's meal - then this assemblage on a mossy tree trunk: the actual table scraps left after the carcase was picked clean by a buzzard, kite or peregrine. The remains were laid out neatly just I have photographed them and the feet, though no longer attached to a live bird, show none of the missing digits or lesions caused by 'bumblefoot' that are seen in urban pigeon populations. A healthy life, a sudden death - it's the best we can hope for.

(Just spotted that my blip a year ago was also of dead bird parts - isn't it funny how often that happens?)