Predator Identified

Good Monday morning. :) I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I had a busy Saturday and a not so busy Sunday. Sunday is the day of rest anyway, right?

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Okay, so first to talk about this morning is...I know what was killing the babies and the two layers that were killed a couple of weeks back. Broad daylight, I caught it trying to eat Vella! Vella is the white guinea, Dad (Ray White) named her. Fortunately for guineas their feathers come out easily when trying to be grabbed by a....mangy....

RED FOX!!!!!!

Right their on the side of the front porch. Vella and the other female guinea are taking turns setting on those eggs out in that wheat field. Vella had come back to get some water and food before going back to her motherly duties. The gray guinea sat about the first week and a half...now I guess Vella will be finishing the job.

I came out onto the front porch totally unprepared for it all. I heard the guineas making racket, and for the umpteenth time in a day I went to check, just to be sure there was no danger. One in fifty times there might be something, maybe. Well this time there was the fox. All I could do is scream at it. It took off halfway across the front and stopped, stopped to look back at me...like asking me if I really meant all the profanities spewing from my mouth! (Okay, it wasnt that bad, but still, the first words out of my mouth was GIT OUTTA HERE YOU FOX!!!). If I had had the gun. IF IF IF. I could have shot it. Would have too. It ran on out to the street and across into the field starting to grow corn.

Then there was yesterday. I was cooking supper and heard the guineas again. This time Phoenix was making his alarm sound too though. He doesnt get excited about nothing. He has the view of everything from the back screen porch, so he had seen something. I go out the back door, three steps out I look out towards the ruckus and there was that fox. It was standing on the outside of the fence looking in not ten feet away from the guineas on the inside of the fence. They are earning their keep these days, I will say that.

I run back in like a madwoman..Ian is on the computer, I yell at him to get the gun and I will get the shells, the fox is here! He comes running in, reminding me I should have just got the gun and loaded it and done the deed. I was not ready, Ian was home, he can shoot it better than I can. Out the side screen door we go. He was able to catch a glimpse of the rear end and tail scooting into the high wheat grass next door. Yeah, the same wheat that Vella is in right now. Lets hope she isnt found by the fox. Ian sat atop the fence, looking out, trying to see the grass stirring, any movement. He could here it moving. The wheat is dying off and drying up so anything brushing against it, you can hear it.

He wasnt able to get a shot off. The fox was hidden and wasnt coming out. It wont take my bait, so I am going to have to change my bait over like I did before over the winter. I am going to have to use real raw chicken. We had chicken breasts for supper last night so I am using the trimmings off of that.

Why is it coming about the same time in the afternoon? Like clockwork, between 5:30 and 6. This is also when I found dead chickens, before I knew what was killing them. With the exception of one time in the morning, it always happened in the afternoon.

This fox gets around during the day too. The neighbor, Georges owner, said he was mowing the grass about a week ago and it went running across his property. He thought it was a dog at first, then realized what it was. You just dont see them in the day. Coyote and fox hunt at night, unless desperate. Coming at night, it will never find a meal here. Everyone gets locked up, so I guess it resorted to coming in daylight.

Got to get rid of it, one way or the other.