A Bird Exploded

As I was sitting at the table tonight, I was watching the cats sitting in the windows watching the birds at the feeders and there was also a squirrel and a chipmunk eating all the seeds falling.  I looked away for a minute, and when I turned back, the shepherd's hook was shaking violently and all the birds were gone.  I figured that the squirrel had climbed the shaft and then had jumped from the feeder to the tree, so I didn't think too much about it.

Later I had to go out and put more suet in the woodpecker feeder and I noticed a load of feathers all over the ground.  It seriously looked like a bird had exploded.  So the shaking of the feeders must have been a hawk swooping down and grabbing one of the big mourning doves that was sitting on top of the cardinal feeder, at least I hope it was a mourning dove and not a woodpecker.  I didn't see any pieces, or guts strewn about anywhere, and I looked up in the trees and fence posts, but didn't see any hawks enjoying a fresh meal, but I have to believe that is what it was.