Hi Tweets:
A couple years ago my neighborhood had a nasty culprit that left blood and guts on the lawns but I caught him in the Act.
My neighbors nest door have big bird feeders by the kitchen and living room windows. They feed lots of birdseed from the local grocery.(El Cheapo !) Of course the pigeons discovered this as they are opportunists. The neighbor south of them put up a feeder for his kids to enjoy.
My mailbox is in a cluster about half a block away. One day when I went after my mail I noticed this awful mess along the sidewalk by Jerry's yard. The breast of the pigeon was gone as well as the head but blood and guts all over and I missed the gizzard. Made me think of my sister's pure-breed cat who eats only the head and the liver of a mouse when he catches one.
A couple weeks went by and the incident happened again and then again in Chuck's lawn. Jerry called me and wanted something done since he knows I am into watching birds. I am suppose to get a 4-10? One day I went down to get my mail, I noticed a pigeon in the drive of the house south of Chuck. It acted strange and small feathers were flying off it's head. When it saw me it flew up and toward me. Going in the other direction was a small brown hawk and it gave out a shrill call of "kee kee kee". I identified it as a Merlin. Evidently the pigeon was so dumb as to be worked over by this little hawk. The neighbors have more or less quit feeding birds as it was disgusting cleaning up these messes. This past December I had a mess in my yard North of my house as my neighbors house on that side is a two story home and pigeons like to sit on that roof.
I have read in different hawk books that Merlins eat the head. I wish they'd eat the guts and clean up after themselves. It would be nice.

Cleo Andreasen
Anacortes, WA