Ready to drop...

A small icicle melting away.
I was going to try to take a picture of my chickens tonight but they aren't in a photogenic mood... Warning... chicken tragedy description:

Last night I went out to shut up the ducks and chickens. I went to the duck house and looked in and was shocked to see a big flapping bird in the house. It was a red tailed hawk and it was beating its self against the window trying to get out. I went to get Dan and when we came out it flew out but was a little addled and flew into the bunny barn window. It was then very stunned. Dan herded it into a corner and it was fanning it's wings out trying to look bigger. It was  a big bird. With his gloves he could pick it up and take it across the street and let it go. It was a pretty stunning bit of events.
Sadly when I went back to look in the duck house I discovered that it had killed my old girl, Goldy. The one who lays the green eggs. There was another chicken in the duck house hiding who was okay. They clearly ran to hide in there and the hawk followed them in. I guess we will now keep the duck house door closed during the day.
It was very upsetting for me. We normally would have buried her in the garden area but can't because of the snow, etc. So I had to take her far out into the woods.
Today, the birds are very nervous, understandably. That dang hawk is still hanging around too. We need the snow to melt off so it can hunt for mice and leave my poor chickens alone. We've been very lucky for a long time. I hope our luck will return.