This Golden Plover was at Maxey pits on 7.4.07. Clearly freshly killed, judging by the bright red blood and still intact organs (I'm not much cop at anatomy: lungs? heart?), the wings, breast bone and a couple of organs were all that remained – plus a bit of gravel stuck to the gore. It was on top of one of the five-foot high hay bales by the 'hard-stand' on the road to Etton.
There were no feathers scattered about, so I presume the bird was killed and plucked and largely devoured somewhere else (a gravelly place I would suggest, Watson), then moved up to the bale to finish orf, before the killer was disturbed.
Sparrowhawks come through here regularly, but then a Peregrine has also been seen a few times (i've seen one or more around the pit a few times myself in the last couple of years). I like to think a Peregrine was the killer, and it somehow seems romantic that a Peregrine was sat a few feet away from where I do my regular patch-watching...
[By the way, the hand belongs to local birder Chris Lines.]
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I watched a female Merlin catch a Golden Plover last week. A gang of crows mobbed the Merlin which dropped the plover which was then pursued by the crows. It looked like it got away, though...
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