Brown Dove Down!

As I was making the previous post, there was a sudden loud THUD from the bathroom, a sound that we know well here—it is the sound of a bird hitting glass. All of our dogs and cats were in. When I went out to see what had happened, and if we should keep the animals in while a bird recovered from its blow, there were feathers floating around in the air, which boded ill. I rounded the corner to the birdfeeders and saw two birds on the ground. They seemed about the same size and I thought both were doves until one flew off and I realized it was a hawk or something similar (not so good on the birds of prey identification yet).


I went back inside and watched the little dove through the bathroom window; it seemed dead. The hawk came back and started in on the dove, when suddenly both birds rose up and went over the top of the house. I'm not sure if the hawk started carrying the dove and it got away, or if the dove flew away and the hawk chased it. I found them under the pine tree out front. When I came outside the hawk flew to a chair on the patio behind the pine, which is the first photo; the second is the hawk obscured by a lot of grass (and bad photographing) outside the bathroom window.

The hawk then flew away altogether. I came back inside and later saw activity out of the corner of my eye. When I went out, the dove was gone. Did it leave under its own steam or was it carried away by the hawk?