Was it a Falcon?

The other day Marty and I noticed a large bird under one of our apple trees vigorously pecking at something on the ground. The bird was huge and looked like a falcon. It was eating another large bird. Fortunately its meal was already dead, at least I thought so because there was no movement, but I knew so when the falcon lifted its head with entrails streaming from its beak to the body of the prey.

I tried to get close enough for a photo, but the falcon didn't appreciate my presence in the yard. It spread its wings and lifted off the ground just high enough to grasp the meal of the dead bird in its talons and then slowly flew through the yard below the apple and plum trees and then disappeared.

What an awesome sight! I say awesome because we live two miles from the downtown area of our city. We are not in a rural area, why is a falcon enjoying a meal in our yard? I'm worried about that, but still amazed.

We are keeping a watchful eye on the yard because the bird taken by the falcon was large and a couple of our stray cats are smaller. If a falcon views our yard as a feeding trough with all the birds we have in our trees, we need to make sure the stray cats are safe from its hunger.