Some feathers at Whiteford Point

Two dew-covered white feathers lying on the beach at Whiteford Sands, Gower, South Wales. It was a misty June morning when I spotted these feathers which were coincidentally arranged into a heart shape. Maybe it was something to do with the salt in the air, as much as to do with the fineness of the plumules of this downy feather, that so many individual droplets of moisture had formed on one small feather.

They were just a couple from a whole bunch of feathers scattered on the sand. It looked as if all the  grey and white plumes had been freshly plucked from a bird. There were no bones or meat. I wondered if a bird of prey had been roughly preparing the dead bird before taking it to the nest to feed young.

Several larger, blunt-ended, black-tipped feathers amongst the small soft, downy ones look as if they might be from the tail of the bird. I will have to defer to any expert ornithologist reading this to identify the bird from which the feathers have been plucked and possible perpetrator. 

Revised version of a post from 12 July 2009

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