On my way in to work this morning I saw a dead crow underneath the sweetgum tree in front of our building. You don’t often see a dead crow, and I wondered what might have happened to him, so I looked him over for possible signs of an owl strike- no blood. His leg had a little tear in it, and his breast was damp and matted near that leg. Maybe an owl did try to take him while he was on the roost- judging by all the crow shit on the ground under the tree they roosted there last night. I moved him over under some bushes and covered him with leaves so he wouldn’t be out there in the open for everyone to see. Did not take a picture, that felt disrespectful. Poor crow. If it was an owl, I wonder why he didn’t eat him?
Appended, 4 PM: Our friend Bob Hely, who knows all things about critters and plants, says if it was an owl that crow would’ve been peeled and eaten. He said it was likely one of the Peregrine Falcons that lives over on the hospital facade or one of the Coopers hawks that lives in the park.