Cat or fox?? Carnage in our front garden ??

Either of the above they both hunt and eat birds or possibly a sparrow hawk we had one bring a dove down on our lawn and then proceeded to eat the poor thing.

I don't know but I saw a sparrow hawk chase a pigeon then demolish it on the lawn apart from a few feathers. It didn't leave any mess to clear up, thank goodness.
Another time a dead pigeon was left whole on the front doorstep, apart from its crop being open and a pile of corn spilled out.

we have had quite a few casualties, I throw the carcasses under the hedges. I thought it might be rats or weasels

Sounds like a cat a fox would have taken the carcass away.

I watched in horror this morning as next door's ginger cat suddenly pounced from under a shrub and took a juvenile blackbird that was pecking for worms nearby on our lawn. I didn't have time to do anything about it.

We have sparrowhawks here and they also prey on birds but they have young to feed too. The cat just kills for pleasure.

I'm just about to order a soaker gun!

Birds are prey which cats eat for food supply.

I have a flock of birds in the garden which I can't identify - brown, smaller than a blackbird, larger than a sparrow, pecking away at ants.
They don't look like starlings as they're not shiny. I've never seen them before.
Does anyone have any ideas? I tried the RSPB identification site without luck.

Just listened to bird sounds and yes, I think they are juvenile starlings which is interesting as they hadn't been seen here for a few years.

I think young starlings too. I have several families of starlings in my garden every year.

I've had the same in my garden, a few days running - then I saw a sparrowhawk hunched over a pigeon on the 3rd day.

I've always had cats, over the years, but not one of them ever plucked a bird.

My cat is sadly an accomplished hunter. He will eat his kills unless we manage to save them

I once saw a sparrow hawk or red kite - not sure which as there are both around - demolish a pigeon on the pavement opposite the house.

Red Kites are much bigger than a Sparrow Hawk and don't hunt they eat carrion. So it was probably the Sparrow Hawk.

Aldom

I think young starlings too. I have several families of starlings in my garden every year.

I don't think I've seen any in our garden for about 10 years, Aldom. Who'd have thought I'd get so excited about starlings!
We did have a lovely juvenile woodpecker visiting yesterday.

The sparrowhawk that got a woodpecker in our garden ate some of it but took the rest away. Just a couple of feathers were left.

Our trail cam has videos on it from a few nights ago of a cat chasing a mouse around the garden. It went on for quite a few minutes as it played with the mouse, then it killed it and took it away. We think it was the same cat that chased a fox out of the garden one afternoon. He's not our cat but seems to think our garden is his - the poor fox was having a snooze in the sun and the cat sat down about two feet away until it woke up. When the fox got up the cat charged it and chased it out of the garden.

Only last week I watched a large seagull bring down a pigeon. I couldn’t believe it.

I’ve never seen red kites around here (outer SW London) but there are masses around Oxford, where a dd lives.

The suggestion of a sparrow hawk is interesting. We’ve hardly ever seen any kind of hawk in our very small back garden - maybe it feels too enclosed for them - there are several mature trees at the back. But the front area is much more open - don’t they prefer more open spaces?

I don’t think it can have been a cat, anyway - I doubt that any of the spoiled moggies around here would have felt the need to eat virtually everything but the feathers. The cat we used to have could never manage more than half a small woodmouse - that is if she ate any of it at all, and didn’t just bring it in to drive us mad trying to catch the poor little thing.

We have trees down the back but the garden is fairly open apart from a few bushes. I've never seen the sparrowhawk in action so don't know how it approaches. It was sitting in the middle of the garden eating when it got the woodpecker.

I do know that one year, before we had ever seen the sparrowhawk, I was sitting in the garden under the umbrella on a very hot day when I felt/heard a rush of air pass my head and a 'clunk' on the fence behind me. I turned around but couldn't see anything. It was like a large missile had passed by me. My OH had said a few days earlier that he thought he saw some sort of hawk briefly, but couldn't be sure. It was months later before we first saw the sparrowhawk for long enough to identify it.

I'm trying to add a pic of the sparrowhawk - it's not a good one as it's a bit fuzzy but it should be clear what it is. If this works -

Our local sparrowhawk likes to slam his prey into the side of the building. Its loud, but very effective, all that we see is a cloud of feathers.

If its just left the feathers it sounds like either a bird of prey or possibly a magpie has chanced upon the carcass and had a feed. If it was killed by a fox, they tend to carry off their prey and bury it for later, unless they are disturbed.

We have a local Sparrowhawk I see him and the Red Kites often I’ve seen the Hawk dive on a pigeon full pelt then follow the injured bird down to the ground to finish it if it’s nor already dead.

There are suggestions here that the carnage might have been caused by a cat, fox or sparrow hawk. The pigeon's feather shafts might provide a clue.
Predators with teeth, such as foxes and cats, leave feather shafts which have been broken/nibbled whereas birds, such as sparrow hawks, pluck feathers from victims so the shafts remain tapered and whole.
You've commented that virtually all of the pigeon has been eaten. Sparrow hawks don't waste much. There's a graphic image on Google; if you type in 'What killed this pigeon?' an RSPB warden intern answers and comments.
A sparrow hawk hunts in my garden (at up to 50kph) and is quite predictable in her flight path and the time she arrives. She has been known to leave prey then return to eat.
Of course, the pigeon having been killed by a cat, could well become a meal for others as Savvy says. I've seen crows enjoying road kill. Setting up a camera might be the sole way to arrive at an answer.

Savvy

Our local sparrowhawk likes to slam his prey into the side of the building. Its loud, but very effective, all that we see is a cloud of feathers.

If its just left the feathers it sounds like either a bird of prey or possibly a magpie has chanced upon the carcass and had a feed. If it was killed by a fox, they tend to carry off their prey and bury it for later, unless they are disturbed.

I've heard a pigeon slamming into the window then seen a sparrowhawk demolish it in the garden.
Pigeons leave a perfect imprint on a window if they hit it, usually they fly off none the worse.

I very often get pigeons gong into the glass, usually when I haven't filled the bird feeder and they're trying to tell me, but the sparrowhawk always aims for the brickwork.