[TheForge] Fox news OT:

[Andrew Vida]

peter fels & phoebe palmer wrote:
> Good storys!
> We found raccoons make a fine soil amendment.
> I don't like to get up at 4 AM; so i use the have-a-heart trap (to spare 
> our cats)
>   and then pop the coons at my leisure.
> I too found that there are a near infinite supply of raccoons
> and i only had a limited supply of chickens.

	We've lost 80+ chickens since April when we moved up here to Elkview. 
Had I not caught the culprit in the middle of an attempt on one of the 
roosters, had someone told me a golden eagle was taking them, I'd have 
told them to get back on their meds.  We're lousy with them here.  That 
particular example had at least a 10' span.  When he saw me, he split up 
into a tree, about 30' up.  He flapped his wings exactly twice. 
Amazing.  I've taken many shots at the bastard since, but I'm not much 
of a wing shooter, so thus far he's managed to have the last neener.

	We're also lousy with coyotes here.  Hollow at bottom of our place has 
tons of them - they raise quite a ruckus right around sunset.

	And as if that were not enough, we have a very big kitty in the 
neighborhood, ca. 200# and jet black from head to tail.  Neighbor's game 
camera caught it about 2 weeks ago.  DNR denies there are any black 
panthers in WV.  They lie.

	So we're down to about 40 birds.  Sucks.  I am, however, preparing to 
build a new bird house for everyone.  I'm hoping 12x20 will be enough.

	BTW, the rooster the eagle was on came out without a scratch, but I 
found him on his back completely paralyzed from the terror.  He refused 
to leave the barn for about 5 days.  He's better now. :)