That's your Xolotyl!

So...I went this morning to take our scraps up to the roosters in Fort Yudhisthira and approaching noticed that the fox trap, I had set nearby, appeared to be shut. I couldn't see any movement inside it so was wondering what could have set it off. As I got closer I finally saw who the occupant was. It was a quoll, a tiger or spotted quoll to be exact.

Quolls are a near threatened species and quite rare around here so it was both shocking and exciting in equal measure.

This quoll was just lying in the bottom of the cage. It did not move, nor blink at my approach and I began to think it was dead, but then I noticed the rise and fall of it's breathing. It was alive but it didn't seem to have much life left in it.

The shock and excitement I felt now turned into alarm as I felt I had inadvertently almost killed an endangered creature.

I tipped the scraps into the chook pen but couldn't see any of the four roosters we had in there. They didn't rush up either to feed greedily and that was when I noticed one of them lying lifeless in a corner of the pen. The quoll had been in there too.

I ran to get Will. He was more Australian than me and I hoped he might have inbred quoll reviving skills. I was just an immigrant who had nearly killed a rare native species and I was feeling very guilty.

"Have you got your camera?" was the only advice he had.

"I can't take a picture of a quoll I've nearly killed," I said.

We got back to the trap.

"Should I let it out?" I asked, already opening up the trap, before he could answer.

The quoll suddenly sprang to life and dashed off into the bush. It was such a relief. My reputation as a native animal lover was still intact.

All four roosters had been attacked. When quolls attack they go for the neck, killing and drinking the blood of their victims. Two of the roosters were dead and two were barely alive, one was Xolotyl. Will had to finish them off.

It's good to know there are quolls about but when you have chickens it's not so good to know there are quolls about. It's just something we will have to live with.

I didn't get a picture of the quoll amidst all the drama but here is a stock picture of one...

Close up view of a quoll showing its cute facial features and long tail.

Night call.

So...tonight we heard a sugar glider calling. They used to visit the tree that is by Blue Moon when we were building the house years ago and we haven't heard or seen any since until tonight. It's so lovely to know that they are still about.

Up to no good!

So...last night was wild with very strong winds. Power lines around town were cut by fallen trees and much of the area around us had a night without power. Even the highway was blocked for a while by a fallen tree. Amidst all this chaos the fox decided to raid the roosters that we had moved up to Fort Yudhisthira. We heard a distress call around 9.00 pm and rushed up and saw the fox, well, it's glowing eyes in the torch light, escaping into the night. Of the six roosters up there we now only have four left. One rooster was missing and we found another lying outside the pen. Xolotyl survived.

Today I have built up the defences to keep the pesky fox out and set the fox trap.

There has been no sign of the fox for months and I was beginning to think they had moved on with our chooks all confined but no, they are back and up to no good.

Not such a bird brain!

So...it all became too much, being woken at dawn by 10 roosters competing in a daily crowing contest. Three are silkie roosters from our hatchlings last year and five are down in the old pen also from another 'hatch' of Arucana chicks from last year. The other two are Manitou, our oldest rooster and Xolotyl, who is the rooster in with our group of Arucanas.

The silkies roam the garden around Blue Moon and the others are nearby in the old pen, having been moved down there last year because of the fox attacks. Since they have been down nearer to us, Fort Yudhisthira has been damaged in a storm but the large pen at the back of Fort Yudhisthira is still intact.

We have decided that we are going to get rid of all of the roosters except Manitou. The three silkies were the first to go last Friday. We roasted one for dinner and the other two are in the freezer.

We moved Xolotyl and the other five roosters up to the back pen at Fort Yudhisthira to await their fate on Thursday night. Now the distance between them and us means their crowing no longer disturbs us.

That was the plan, but Xolotyl is not following it. Friday morning he was back down in the old pen. He had escaped the pen at Fort Yudhisthira after some netting by one of the gates had fallen down and returned to his hens. He was unceremoniously banished once more back to Fort Yudhisthira and I fastened up the netting so that it was more secure. But later that afternoon he was back again. He had found another hole in the netting that I had missed and had flown up out of it. Once more I returned him back with the other roosters and stuffed the hole he had escaped through with more netting.

Saturday afternoon I was astonished to find him out again. He had somehow managed to dislodge the netting I had blocked the hole with and was on his way back to his hens. He is one determined rooster and not such a bird brain.

I chased him back to Fort Yudhisthira and I have made sure there is no way he can escape again...or can he?

Still here.