The ultimate predator

We had a great run home from London today and were back by 3pm, including a stop for a nice lunch. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of our garden sparrowhawk as it swooped down into next door's garden at some speed. So, I grabbed my camera and ran upstairs to see if I could see if it had caught something. The pigeons are normally the target despite being around the same size, and so it was the case today. It started to pluck to pigeon, mantling most of the time to hide it's prey, but then the local nuisance cat came along and frightened it away. I felt a bit sorry for the sparrowhawk after doing all that work and getting very little for it's effort. The cat sat there for a minute or two and then disappeared. I assume it doesn't eat the pigeons, just chases them and plays with them, and as it was dead, the cat got bored and just slinked off. 
About 15 minutes later the pigeon had gone, leaving a ring of feathers, so I hope the sparrowhawk came back for its dinner.