For a couple of years I've had two resident pidgeons that visit the garden every morning. Today, unfortunately I woke up to find two patches of feathers on the lawn, not good! The pidgeons were obviously attacked in the early morning or night, but what I can't understand is the fact that there are two clearly separated patches of feathers with no trail leading away from them. Surely if one of the pidegeons was attacked, the other would have flown off?
One possibility is that it was some bird of prey which caught one of the pidgeons, then dropped it, and then picked it up again. Originally I thought it was a fox but wouldn't there be a trail of feathers were it had dragged the bird away?
Here is a photo if it helps
That's a shame about the pidegons. I agree that it does seem strange that there is no trail of feathers and that there are two pictures, I think it is very unlikely that the other pidgeon hung around long enough to get caught once the first one had. That is assuming that they both happened at the same time of course, the first one could have been caught late evening then the second the next morning.
It could be that whatever was plucking the pigeon was disturbed and moved from one spot to the other, so the feathers could all be from the same bird - unless you can show that they're not. The other pigeon may simply be giving the location a wide berth at present because of what has happened.
I will second wild canon's guess--I too think that something (probably a raptor) was plucking the bird, and for whatever reason, moved to a different spot to continue.
Kingfisher
It is likely to have been a fox, especially if it happened at night, There is no trail of feathers but if the fox was carrying the bird away I don't think there would be a trail. Was there any blood around at the scene?
Thanks for the replies. I did not see any blood around the scene so I assume it was some kind of raptor that caught the pidegon then flew off with it, I have not seen any sign of the second pidgeon but as you have said it would probably stay well clear!
I think that I might have the answer. We were just looking out of the kitchen window one day & opposite Skippy was commenting on the increasing number of collared doves. All of a sudden the doves took off & we saw like a firework explosion of feathers as the Harris hawk had come out of the sun & grabbed one in flight. The feather all fell to the ground in a similar fashion.
I think it is definately a raptor & it was feeding on the lawn, whether or not it moved from one spot to the other who can tell but I would think that highly likely.
Incidentally from 16 collared doves sat in the same tree the numbers dwindled to about 4 but the hawks in the area were extremely well fed!!!