There's the blood splatter: a dark stain on weathered wood, and oak leaves speckled with red.
There are the feathers: primary and secondary flight feathers and the sort of small, downy feathers found close to a plump breast.There are the signs of a struggle: scuffed and gouged leaf litter, near the scene of the crime (Patrick's playhouse).
It appears to me that the victim was a white-winged dove, one of the dozen or so pass through the yard regularly and even roost in our oaks.
I'm no detective, but I've read plenty of mystery novels. I know that to solve this crime, I must consider three things: motive, means and opportunity.
Motive: there are a couple of possible motives; hunger is a good one, and a fat dove is a pretty tempting meal. Doves, as previously noted, also are the thugs of the perching bird world. I suppose it's possible another animal finally just got fed up and extracted bloody revenge. But let's go with the first possibility as the most likely.
Means: Dispatching a dove requires a certain quickness, as well as sharpness of both tooth and claw. It's possible the bird was caught on the roost, in which case some climbing might be involved. It's also possible that the bird was ambushed on the ground, in which case stillness and patience come into play.
Opportunity: Well, the doves are here pretty much 'round-the-clock. When they roost, they are not particularly observant. So it could have happened just about any time, but I'm betting it was under the cover of darkness.
After careful consideration, I'm ruling-out the neighbor cat. He doesn't seem particularly motivated, comes into our backyard only rarely and I've never seen him muster the energy to be interested in a bird.
The possums that visit our backyard certainly have the means and opportunity, but they too seem much more opportunistic than savage. They'd rather grub around in the ground and pick up leavings than actually hunt something.
That leaves the raccoons. Great climbers, and they usually show up in gangs, and they have excellent eyesight, sense of smell and climbing ability.
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