all is not happy

With the flock of sheep in the field behind the house, in fact decidedly unhappy I suspect. I noticed that they were behaving oddly the other morning. Instead of grazing peacefully, the sheep were walking purposefully in a line astern of one another; I looked for the farmer who could potentially be the cause of this behaviour but it was unlikely to have been him as it was only about 6.30am.

Instead the cause turned out to be a young fox who had strayed into the field, probably looking for an easy meal, to his dismay the sheep started to herd him and one fox was no match for 30 sheep all stamping their feet and being vocal at their disapproval of his presence in their field.

While I watched, he retreated into the shade of one of the trees trying to hide from the sheep but these are no ordinary sheep these were supermum sheep out to protect their youngsters from becoming the fox's next meal and they were out to get him.

It was like watching a battlezone, first he tried one manoevre to get him out of their sight, but one of the observer sheep soon had him spotted and a platoon or 4 or 5 other ewes soon turned him back. This went on for about 10 mins before he finally admitted defeat and legged it; heading for the hills and his foraging.