Think I had an aerial attack

[woodmort]

I'd let the chickens out as far as they wanted to go--which is about 2 feet from the pop door--taken care of my inside coop chores and notice everyone had gone back in except one black star. I left to take care of some other things on the other side of the house and when I came back here was a BS about 10 feet from the coop, kind of hunched over like she was unhappy. (This will often happen when they get crazy and fly out into the snow, decide they really don't want to be there and wait for a ride back.) I figured she had gotten out and was stuck so I walked down to pick her up and return her. As I approached I noticed more birds were out by the pop door making a racket and there were black feathers scattered between the coop and where the hen was sitting. I picked her up and felt for any damage but nothing nor were there any tracks, other than her's, leading to her position. I suspect she may have been hit by a hawk and proved too big to be safely attacked so the hawk flew off. While I haven't seen it, we have had times during past winters when a Merlin has taken up residents here and fed on the feeder birds. I suspect he's back. If that is the case, the Merlin picked on a bit more than he could chew. Either that or the Cooper is back but, again, the BS is a big bird and probably more than either breed of hawk could handle. I'll have to be vigilant though.