Hawk...or what?

I lost my beautiful white Silkie rooster, I believe to a red-tailed hawk. The chickens were out free-ranging and I had to go pick my son up from preschool, about 15 minutes from the house. I really didn't want to fight with the chickens to go inside for such a short period of time just to come back and let them out. BIG mistake! Apparently A LOT can happen in 35 minutes! When we pulled back in I took my son out of his car seat and as I shut the car door and turned I saw a HUGE hawk take off. I'm almost positive it was a Red-Tailed but only saw it for a fraction of a second. The poor little guy had put up a good fight there were 4 separate clusters of feathers, including the smallish one I found him in. It looks as though it went after a hen first as she was found, alive, with a lot of feathers missing from half her tail and backside, and the rooster acted to protect her. There are 2 things that are bothering me though and I'm wondering if anyone has any theories. 1: I always thought that hawks would carry off a kill and consume it elsewhere, however my little guy had a big hole on his side and the hawk had been at him for awhile, is this typical? 2: When counting the hens I found the run smelling very strongly of ammonia and a pile of, I think, dog or fox scat in there. My dog has never gone into the coop, never left unattended in the yard, and certainly never defecated or urinated in or near the coop. Is it possible a dog or fox killed the rooster, then marked and the hawk was scavenging, or is it more likely it is a weird coincidence? There were 2 hens in coop when I got there and they were happily settled into nest boxes to lay and no feathers in coop suggesting a recent upset in there. The attack appeared to start under a favorite "hide-out" (as that is where I found our girl's clump of feathers) and ended about 50-75' from there in some raspberry brambles. Don't know if that helps, but figured I should disclose all evidence. All-in-all, I have learned a valuable lesson, but at the expense of our beloved rooster. Below is a picture of our rooster, ironically the tail end of the hen attacked, and even more ironically in about the same place the attack began.




Rest in Peace Yeti

 

Thank you hatcherkid, we really loved the little guy. We are all upset, plus it is the first chicken we have lost, so that much more traumatizing.