Not dead or injured. Just catching some rays and having a deep philosophical discussion with a friend. Diana and Maggie having a moment together.
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HAWK!!!!!!

I promise to read everyone's posts but I just thwarted a hawk attack!

I was sitting in the yard, reading and hanging with the ladies. When to my back on the other side of the pool some dogs took off and scattered. The girls gave a pseudo alarm, pause for a moment and then went back to grooming and scratching.

After a new moments I noticed that it was completely silent. The song birds were gone. The squirrels were gone. Just too quite. I was uneasy. (In fact, as I type this, it has happened again. It is quiet right now. No animal sounds.)

Well that made me look up from the book. As I did I caught a glimpse of something in the peripheral vision of my right eye, above me. Lord bless me, I don't know why but my reaction was to stand up. I think my movement caused the hawk to alter course and get tangled in the trumpet vine above Sydney. It screeched as it got caught and then I moved towards it. Before I could get two steps, it was untangled and gone.

This is the view from where I was sitting.
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Lets step back and look at the geometry of everything.
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This whole party of the year has excellent aerial coverage. The magnolia tree and trumpet vine meet so there is no path through (purple arrow). There is a small gap of no more than 2 feet between the clothes line and the trumpet vine. I think the hawk was shooting for that gap.

I don't think that Sydney was the target as she was actually right up against the fence. I think the target was Sansa!

Usually after a thwarted attempt the hawk returns. So I armed myself.
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In this instance, unless it happens now, there has been no return visit. Everyone is quite fine grazing in the yard as my pulse slowly comes back to normal. That was definitely a close one.

That trumpet vine was the location of a lot of playing song birds today. I am guessing that may have first attacked the hawk.

I’m so glad you were there to protect them!
 
I've just ordered my copy from Amazon.au ~ but their shipping is a disaster. It's going to take nearly 3 months to arrive here! Ah well, I've waited this long for a decent chicken book...

I’ve ordered mine from The Book Depository. It will be here after Christmas but that’s ok, given that it’s not a present. I wonder if Dr Barber will be surprised by the little spike in sales! :lol:
 
All I have to ask is why does “he” The cow guru have such a pronounced udder? I haven’t really tried to find teats on our male calves, but they most certainly don’t look like that! He must actually be a she. Unless it is a transgender cow, which would then most certainly have my apologies (something similar does exist... I forget what they are called ?free Martin? but when the rare set of twins occurs and you have a bull and a heifer born together, the heifer is barren and tend to display bull lime tendencies)

They (the animators) probably thought that most people wouldn’t ask that question. :D Maybe they didn’t think of it themselves!
 
What a great set of pictures. Love number 3.:love
Thank you - it was a lovely moment we all shared in the sun. I wonder what they are discussing in the 3rd picture. It isn't an argument you can see Diana is relaxed and nodding off and eventually they both napped together for a while.
 
Thank you - it was a lovely moment we all shared in the sun. I wonder what they are discussing in the 3rd picture. It isn't an argument you can see Diana is relaxed and nodding off and eventually they both napped together for a while.
Probably discussing poultry politics :old
 

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