Backyard Drama : act 1

Our garden has been a happening place since last 2-3 years. The regular visitors include a gang of hanuman langurs, a coupla mongoose, Sunbirds and mainly, the Shikra. There are times when i have spotted it perched on a mango tree on the right side of my rooms window.. Rarely, it prefers the dwarfed chikoo tree.. And luckily, the Act 1 of the whole drama was staged right on the chikoo tree..

this Shikra ( Accipiter badius ) comes visitng our backyard every now and then. But this day was special. It came down for lunch -- yeah -- it had caught upon a small pigeon and came down in the backyard to finish it off...

Now, crows - as we know - are very cunning and keen observers. Somehow one of the hundreds that dwell around my house, spotted this bird carry the delicious lunch ;)... and followed it with his own gang of croaks..

when i spotted it, there were about 4 crows surrounding the shikra and trying to snatch the meal away. Shikra kept holding on and on.. And then, out of a dark corner of our neighbour's storage shed, a cat appeared. This cat - must've been starved for a day - set its eyes on the pigeon and sat rt beneath the branch where the protagonist of all this drama was perching.

As always, i went clicking at the shikra as well as the cat.. till the shikra got bored of me and flew away with the catch ( i just hope he defended his meal successfully )
few more pics of the same drama :

the hopefuls :