A few minutes too late

After hearing a bump against the side of the house I came downstairs to see this through the kitchen window.

It was already too late to save the mourning dove, so I watched for a minute and then closed the blinds. I checked back now and again.

After the hawk was gone, I went out and cleaned it up. I could have left it for the crows. But it was too close to dark and I think I would have just invited some neighbourhood rats to a feast if I left it.

A friend tells me her father used to call bird feeders "hawk feeders." Of course he was right. And who am I to distinguish among the birds I feed?