Henny Penny Farmette

Fox on the run with a mockingbird on attack

The Henny Penny Farmette name was inspired by the English folktale featuring Chicken Little, Lucy Goosey, Foxy Loxey, and the gang. And now, it’s beginning to seem more like we’re living that folktale on our Henny Penny Farmette with the ongoing shenanigans of the foxes, wild birds, and chickens.

The foxes showed up mid-morning, no doubt to see if the chickens were out. The presence of humans frightened the four-legged gray foxes and the two of them leaped to the fence to make a quick-like-a-fox getaway.

Feeling thankful that I hadn’t yet released the chickens from the hen house, I grabbed the camera and took aim at the fox on the fence. I missed the first fox but just as I snapped the shot of the second fox on the run, a seemingly angry mockingbird dove down to thwart the fox from getting any closer to her nest . . .  or for some other reason that remains obscure.

It’s night now and the chickens are all locked in the hen house on the roost. I hope the foxes stay away because when they come around the chickens raise such a ruckus, no one can get any sleep. And it’s been a very long day on the farmette that has followed a series of long days involving those wild foxes looking for a chicken dinner.