Brown Goshawk eating prey on the ground

We recently moved from Box Hill in Melbourne’s east to Curlewis on the
Bellarine Peninsula. The birdlife is just a little more diverse and a lot
more numerous; a flock of at least 50 Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos flew
over today and it’s common to see 20-30 Australian Magpies fly over.

I was walking to the gate this afternoon when something caused me to glance
to my left. A raptor was on the ground eating its prey about five metres
from the driveway. It was a Brown Goshawk and the prey seemed to be an
ex-Spotted Dove. After a couple of minutes staring at each other, I
decided to try to go back to the house to get a camera. As soon as I took
my eyes off the Goshawk, it flew off with what was left of the Dove,
leaving a couple of piles of feathers on the ground. I didn’t follow its
flight through the trees and couldn’t see if it perched nearby.

I thought that eating its prey on the ground was unusual but I couldn’t
find any information about that aspect of Goshawk behaviour (my books are
still in removalist boxes!).

So far we have had six raptor species on or over the property; the Goshawk,
Black and Brown Falcons, Whistling Kite, Black Kite and Swamp Harrier, plus
a few that I wasn’t able to identify.

Cheers

David