Wren improved, chickens attacked

Wren is feeling better this evening. Its been a long day though and his mouth looked awful this morning - clustered with tiny blister-like canker sores. He has alternated between periods of happy play and periods of screaming in pain if he tastes / touches / remembers about his mouth. This evening he has improved enough to drink broccoli potato soup through a straw (sores on his lips make it hard to bite) and have some soft bread with butter between long drinks of flat soda. He has drunk a whole cup of milky cool hot chocolate. Mrrmr! I have hope that he will eat normally tomorrow and feel much better.

Meanwhile, I have neglected to write about a startling day for our chickens. A couple of days ago Wren noticed "a vulture" in our garden. It was in fact a raptor which had swooped down and tried to catch our chickens. They screeched warning and scattered - one under a bush and two under the deck. They spent a long time clucking and squawking alarm and refused to come out. The bird flew off when I opened the door but came back and sat on the fence. It looked like a young hawk. We think that it was unable to have flown off with a chicken but could have done one a serious or fatal injury if it struck while they were on the lawn.