Bad news...and Good news!
So...the bad news is that sometime in the night a fox got into the old chook pen and killed Quetzalcoatl, Tian-Mu, Athena, Epona and Sheng-Mu. Will found the bodies of the first four but Sheng was missing. She is the greatest loss.
It was absolute carnage in the pen and it is a wonder we did not hear them making a commotion though Will says he did hear a metal clanking sound which might have been the metal food dispenser you see in the picture but he did not get up to investigate. The fox dug under the wire again finding the weakness in our defences. Enough is enough and we are going to have to put baits out to get this fox. I like foxes and understand they have to eat but it is confronting when they kill five birds and only take one. They just don't belong here and it is very sad to lose our hens but foxes are an introduced predator that also kill the local wildlife too. 
Thankfully we still have the six birds up in Fort Yudhisthira for now...and so to the good news. Earlier in the night Will got up to answer a different call of nature and was greeted by an old friend. He turned to find Galore sitting in the tree by the deck, she took a raspberry from his hand and retired to the possum box.Here she is tonight
and she enjoyed some carrot...
It was absolute carnage in the pen and it is a wonder we did not hear them making a commotion though Will says he did hear a metal clanking sound which might have been the metal food dispenser you see in the picture but he did not get up to investigate. The fox dug under the wire again finding the weakness in our defences. Enough is enough and we are going to have to put baits out to get this fox. I like foxes and understand they have to eat but it is confronting when they kill five birds and only take one. They just don't belong here and it is very sad to lose our hens but foxes are an introduced predator that also kill the local wildlife too. Thankfully we still have the six birds up in Fort Yudhisthira for now...and so to the good news. Earlier in the night Will got up to answer a different call of nature and was greeted by an old friend. He turned to find Galore sitting in the tree by the deck, she took a raspberry from his hand and retired to the possum box.Here she is tonightand she enjoyed some carrot...
It's hard to tell if it is the return of Little Miss Galore or whether this is Mummy Galore. Will says she is Little Miss Galore because of the white tips on her ears. Mummy Galore left before we put the possum box up and only Little Miss Galore slept in that until she disappeared so the fact that this possum slept all day today in the box does point more towards her being Little Miss Galore. She is definitely one of the two because she is used to taking food from our hands. It's great to have them back whoever they are after so long and we suspect she is carrying a baby in her pouch too.It has been a day of mixed emotions.