feathers

What happened here? Will this large patch of feathers and down tell a story of predator and prey?

One day late in the winter I was out walking my dog around the block with my friends when we noticed a patch of feathers on the ground. Not just one or two but as you can see from the photo, a whole bunch—big feathers, small underfeathers. Clearly, something got a bird of some sort . . . but what happened?