I had repaired and then set up a security camera on the back fenceline of our pastures with the donkeys’ pen nearest to the camera.  I noticed that this camera recorded this video at 5:56 this morning.

It appears to be a coyote leaving the donkeys’ pen and heading back out to the woods.  Unfortunately there are no other videos of it entering their pen so I do not know how it got in.

I shared it with Tom, and we proceeded with the animal chores.  I thought these pig butts looked cute.

I had a rough night shift so my plan was to do the chores, have lunch and nap.  But as I was settling in for my nap, Tom ran in the house and told me he saw a coyote attacking our white peacock in the cows’ pasture (the field next to the barn’s field).  He had noticed the old sheep running toward the barn in the front field and the cows running around in the next field from the driveway and went to investigate.  He saw a coyote in the middle of the cows’ field running toward the white peacock on the ground.  Tom yelled at it, and it stopped.  It then turned and ran to the back of the property and into the wood out back.  He ran back to the house to grab a gun and headed back out. The coyote has disappeared by this point.

The white peacock was cowering in the corner of the pasture in the mud when we found him.  We moved him back to the barn.  There was no obvious injury, and he appears to be recovering.  Tom doesn’t think he was actually attacked.

We locked all of the birds in the barn with the old sheep and goat.

There were two treed peahens as well.  One was in a tree near the barn but outside of the pasture.  Our beagle was going crazy over this.  Tom managed to corral the beagle.  I tried to toss sticks to encourage the peahen to come down, but she didn’t.  So then I left her alone.

The other peahen was in a tree in the cows’ pasture.  I tried to get her to move and had no luck either.

So then Steve and I headed out to the back fenceline to see if we could find any signs of this coyote and fencing issues.  I did find a hole in the donkey pen fence that was probably large enough for this coyote to pass, and there was some short grey fiber embedded in the wire surrounding this hole.  I temporarily moved some plywood sheets over this area of fencing until we can replace it.

When I returned to the barn, the peahen in the tree by the barn was down, and I found her in the hay loft.  She was calling out quite a bit and appeared freaked out.

I then went to check on the other treed peahen, and she was missing.  I searched the front fenceline while Tom walked the road.  There was no sign of her.  I did find a tree on the fenceline that has been decimated by beavers.

And I took a photo from the far corner of our property on the southeast corner.  I rarely see this view.

I kept looking round the pastures for her but couldn’t find her.  Then Tom noticed Steve barking toward the garage and running over there.  Tom went to investigate, and then the peahen was at the gate to the alleyway behind the barn.  Unfortunately Ryeleigh caught wind of this and went crazy again.  The bird flew over the barn into the hazelnut trees in front, outside of the pasture.  Ryeleigh attacked her there, but Tom managed to intervene quickly and threw her into the pasture.  She lost a few feathers in the kerfuffle.  I went to look for her and found her cowering by the rain water container.  I grabbed her and put her in the barn.  She is freaked out too.  But now all of the peafowl and other birds are all safely locked in the barn.

I grabbed the card from the game camera in our front pasture if I could see any evidence of this coyote there.  I didn’t find any coyote images, but there were other cute images of a more peaceful time, the month of April.  (We did have the donkeys in the front field part of this month.  But I think we have learned that they are not a deterrent to this coyote.)

So now we need to figure out what to do.  I think our locking the vulnerable animals up at night has led to the coyote hunting in the light of day.  We will be replacing the back fence on the donkey pen, but that is obviously not the entire story as the camera is not picking up where it is getting in, and it left today while Tom was watching from out back middle field which has our best fencing.  So we think it is jumping our fences.  I think we need to think about guard llamas again as we didn’t have these issues when we had them.  The donkeys are clearly worthless as a coyote deterrent (although they are very popular on open farm days with the coworkers).  I am thinking we will direct the animals toward the alleyway and try to keep them from the front pasture for now.  The security cameras may give us more clues too.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My napping plans were completely obliterated today.  But I almost lost my favorite bird today, and it is only because of Tom’s awareness and observation skills that he is alive.