Foxes, The Trelawnyd Flower Show and Unseen Turkeys

Snowdrops next to Harriet Ellis' 1900 grave

This morning was damp and fairly miserable but not cold, so I have spent an hour or so putting up chicken wire fences against the Churchyard wall. Two hens have taken advantage of the wind damaged barriers between field and graveyard and have been seen wandering around the Church in the afternoons, so not wanting any complaints, I have repaired the damage.
From my vantage point above the field, I had an ideal view of the day's miniature drama which unfolded around 8.30.To start with the guinea fowl started their warning chattering , but there was something more desperate in their cries that made me lift my head from my work to see what was afoot. The three guinea with their heads craned skywards stood screaming from the centre of the field. Immediately the hens , ducks , geese and even the turkeys stopped their feeding and raised their heads, then the birds seemed to galvanise themselves into a collective action. The more nervous hens glided quickly away from the edges of the field to stand next to the safety of the church wall at the same time as the old hens congregated silently behind their hen house.. The cockerels Stanley and little Pirrie took up positions next to the guineas and the geese, with their heads extended low to the ground joined in with the invisible line of defensive positions, honking sharply.
It was fascinating to watch the different species act as one unit and I just knew that there was a fox around.

As I reached the field border, the guineas followed me almost into the hawthorn hedge, and following the gaze of the turkeys, gobbling away angrily a few feet to my left , I saw the "flash" of red/brown as the fox tottered away through the riding school field, scattering the horses as he did so.
I stayed on the field for an hour to watch over the flock, which settled down with minutes of the fox's departure

The hens starting to run in from the field edges

Last night I received the new printed schedules for this year's Flower Show. Without our Post Office, we no longer have a village distribution centre so to speak, so I suspect that if we have enough copies, I will need to hand deliver them to the village houses directly. We moved our show to August 13th so it would not clash with a neighbouring Village of Llanasa's open day.....I learnt recently that they had also moved their day, but thankfully not to the same weekend



For those interested an "on line" schedule can be seen at http://trelawnydflowershow.blogspot.com/

Finally I have posted a video of our "unseen" turkeys ( usually Boris gets centre stage) hope you like it Mrs Fickle!