Just about everybody with a bird feeder sees them sooner or later: those clumps of feathers strewn nearby like leftovers from an old-fashioned pillow fight.
The response is to cringe in recognition: A hawk must have nailed a small bird while it was trying to grab a meal on a cold winter's day.
The cringe is typically accompanied by a twinge: You are somehow complicit in this carnage. After all, you're the one who put out the feeder in the first place.
