After an abbreviated windsurfing session with Susan — big waves but little wind — she headed back to the house while I hung up wetsuits and jackets. Basically I was dawdling in the boathouse, waiting for a sudden cloudburst to rain itself out when Susan called to report a raptor repast, “a hawk,” she guessed, devouring something on our front lawn.
“I have your blog post,” she said. “Come on up and take a picture. It’s not scared at all.”
She took a couple of photos in case I didn’t make it up in time. I did head up, and I did manage to take a few photos and videos before the bird attempted to fly off with its kill. Struggling to lift off with what turned out to be the hind half of a dove, the bird gave up and flew up into the silver maple empty taloned.
I came inside to join Susan, certain that the raptor repast would continue soon. I remembered “Hawk Attacks Dove”, a post I shared on April 29, 2012.
We discovered a fierce looking hawk pinning a dove to the ground on the lawn near the bird feeders, ripping beak-fulls of feather and flesh from the stunned dove’s back. (Source: Hawk Attacks Dove)
In that post I described Susan’s horror and her intervention, ultimately chasing the predator off and relocating the badly injured prey to the side of our yard. I’d been startled (and concerned) with her instinct to put herself in harm’s way to protect the victim.
And now I had inadvertently interrupted another raptor repast. I read her part of the old post and asked her if she remembered the experience. She did. I asked her why she had responded differently this time. 
“Last time the pigeon was still alive. This time it was already in parts…”
But, she explained, if it’d still been alive today, she probably would’ve tried to save it.
“You may call it nature,” she said. “I call it mean.”
A little while later, she confirmed that the raptor had returned to its repast. Nature.
In closing, I wonder if someone can help identify this raptor. My first thought was Cooper’s Hawk. Apple images disagrees, suggesting instead that it is a Buteo which opens up various possibilities. Quick, imperfect photographs are not as helpful as I would like, but perhaps there’s a savvy identifier reading this post? 
What do you think?