Ericson the Brave
The other day I reached into the chicken's nesting box to collect two eggs and noticed they were splattered with blood. Then I notice that the whole inside of the A-frame chicken coop was splattered with blood. Then I noticed that Ericson's whole head and neck were covered in blood and his neck feathers were chewed and mangled, although I couldn't actually see any open wounds. I suspect that whatever took him on came off second best. I had a good search around and couldn't find any animal or evidence of any other animal. It's a real mystery. Of course I quickly checked our three cats and none had blood on them. I think there is a stray cat in our shed but I haven't seen any evidence of blood anywhere else but the chicken coop. It's been a few days and Ericson seems okay. He doesn't look as handsome as he used to and still needs to stand out in the rain to wash his feathers, but I think he'll be okay. He does a wonderful job of protecting the chickens from swooping crows and magpies and now it seems had to actually fight off something inside the coop.