At midnight on Friday we were woken from our sleep by the bloodcurdling sounds of an animal screaming as if it was being killed.  The nearby owls were making their usual calls across the fields but I realized that a dormouse or field mouse or vole could not emit such a volume of noise, even if it was dangling from the claws of an owl.

In the morning we walked around the house and found

piles of feathers in three places, at the side of the house, in front of the house and next to the tree, under which was the headless carcass of a pigeon, bloodied and partially eaten.  When I went out to photograph the grisly evidence this morning, Mr Fox had returned to remove and eat the second part of his kill which relieved me of the duty of moving the remains.

The countryside is NOT quiet at night, it ( like the city) never sleeps!