The red-tailed hawk that defeathered and devoured a pigeon near the touchline should have been a sign: Nature was slowly reclaiming Rev. William T. Hickey Soccer Field in Rego Park.

Today, the field at the corner of 98th Street and 63rd Drive, just past Rego Center Mall, is a thicket of tall grasses, providing cover for field mice and rats fleeing the hawks.

The field was affiliated with Our Lady of the Angelus Catholic Academy, which closed last year. Now it’s a verdant vacant lot.

But apparently not for much longer. Like the hawk seizing that poor pigeon, an urban predator has snatched the lot. A real estate developer purchased the land for $30 million in February and plans to build a residential complex there, the Forest Hills Post reported.