One can tell a lot about the nature of the predator by the condition of the
bird. Owl, eagles, hawks, falcons and coyotes are all possibilities here
and each will dismember and consume the prey differently. Owls tend to break
their prey into chunks and swallow these whole. Hawks and especilly falcon
pick at their prey. Often, only the breast has been eaten, leaving the rest of
the bird laid out on its back. Coyotes gnaw on medium sized prey items
usually chewing off the head first. Coyotes leavings tend to be sloppy
piles of feet and feathers.

As to night hunting, was it a full moon? new moon? clear night? cloudy night?
Diurnal raptors, especially the obligately visual (or nearly so) falcons would
be unlikely to hunt except on the brightest of nights.


>
>
>Tweeters;
>A duck hunter at work asked me a question I thought I'd forward. He was out
>in the grain fields on the Samish Flats and came across a freshly killed
>Pintail. It was very early in the morning and the duck had a full crop. We
>concluded it was picked off the night before and he wanted to know the
>likely predator. I thought a Great Horned Owl could easily take a duck but
>what about a Short-eared or Snowy? Aren't they both diurnal? I remember Bud
>Anderson telling us that Falcons will hunt at night if they can't hunt
>during the day without getting ripped off by bigger raptors. Any thoughts
>out there in tweeterland?
>
>Tracee Geernaert
>tracee at iphc.washington.edu
>International Pacific Halibut Commission
>PO Box 95009
>Seattle, WA 98145-2009
>
>

--
*********************************** I was of three minds
* Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * like a tree
* mpatters at orednet.org * in which there are three blackbirds.
*http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters* -Wallace Stevens