This morning we lost Buddy the Goose, we had no idea why.  On Saturday night during the event she didn’t end up at the holding area.  We set up a search party and found her in one of the gardens.  She appeared fine except for a bad leg.

With no idea how it happened we put her in the greenhouse with Joe her mate for the night, she seemed on the mend the next day.  Joe spent the day guarding her, she ate and drank well.

There were no real visible wounds on her, it was confusing but part of the ebb and flow of life on a farm.  Then a few hours ago Dorothy yelled for me that a coyote was outside.  He killed one duck, wounded another so that I had to put it down, wounded two others that seem to be okay.

My best guess on why Buddy died now is that he had punctured her body somewhere and while not instantly lethal it was in the end.

I grabbed a gun but a piece of Lexan (thick plexi glass) was left from the workshop and when he came around the building to where I had a shot, it perfectly covered him.  I adjusted but in that split second he realized I was there and over the fence he went.  I almost tried to take the shot though but it was very thick and at a 45 degree angel and I had grabbed the 22 because it was handy.

My best guess now is that he wounded Buddy Saturday night even with 50 odd people here.  That she went first because she likely fought him when he approached the flock.  So I will consider it a heroes death.

I don’t hate predators, but I do understand them.  In this case this coyote killed a duck, left it lay and proceeded to mortally wound a second, harm at least two others and did it clearly instead of claiming his prize and taking off.  That means this is a well fed coyote, who basically went on a rampage of “play”.  So while I don’t hate predators, this one now has crossed over to target of my wrath.

Until now we have been lucky and never had a coyote problem.  I am now down 3 birds, my flock is all upset and this animal is in my sites.  I will be dusting off my old PA Mountain Redneck Trapping skills for this prick, my guess is he will be on a stretching board by end of the week, tops.

Unfortunately for Mr. Yote, I paid for a lot of my existence in my teens with trapping and I am damn good at it.  Further not many people trap around here, so this yote isn’t likely very trap savy.  My estimation is that he won’t be so brazen in the future and give me another shot at him with the gun.  If he does, great, if not, I have a #3 coil spring with his name on it.

The only upside to all this is that Dorothy is now finally on board with getting an always outside Livestock Guardian Dog and I may get a really great video for you guys as well.

Anyway it is now 2PM and I haven’t even stated yet, I am buried in a mountain of work from being gone last week, a bad storm system in due in this evening, so I am just going to take on more day off, get caught up and I will be back tomorrow.

I will have three videos coming out today, one of Joe guarding Buddy after she died, shot right before I knew what happened.  Poor Joe, he is now a lone goose.