Quoll Attack

The day before Christmas we very sadly lost our little black duck to a quoll. My poor lovely little girl who used to fly over the house doing vertical take off and landings, steal the dog's food and wander around the garden searching for snails came to a sad vicious end by one of the most nasty little critters you would ever come across in Australia.

The Spotted Tailed Quoll or Tiger Quoll. Half the size of Lilli and ferocious little bastards.

We shut the remaining geese and ducks in a pen and all seemed to be ok.
Today on Boxing  Day we thought we might make a fairly substantial duck house that they could go in at night if ever the little bugger should come back again. It was part of the netted veggie garden that backs out on the orchard.

 A few modifications and it would spruce up ok

 Half mesh and half timber so they can peek out into the vegie garden!

Looks decidedly ramshackle but that's ok! Recycle, recycle, recycle is the motto!

 Named in memory of our Little Black Duck of course.

We put the ducks and geese in the little penned area tonight but thought we would give them a day or so to work it all out. They have access from the outside via a ramp which will take a  bit of getting used to.
We thought that was sorted and was the end of the story. The idea of penning the little ducks in a smallish area with the three big geese ( including one officious gander) was that we would hear the geese carrying on if a Quoll returned. WRONG. This is why l am sitting here at 2am calming my frayed nerves down after miraculously waking up and hearing 'something' going on outside. l ran out (luckily with a huge torch) and found a goose flapping in the corner of the run. l assumed she was stuck under the ledge where she was lying but as l walked up to my amazement and horror there was this little Quoll firmly embedded in her neck. No fear of me at all. l brought the torch down hard on its head and it let go and ran away. My poor goose and on further inspection, my poor little Peg the one winged duck had almost been a victim as well and was there bloodied and savaged like something out of a horror movie. l went and got Geoff and we caught them all individually and put them up into the house and shut the door. l considered bringing them in to see their injuries but they are very traumatised so we decided leaving them alone tonight was the best thing. They are standing and relatively intact so tomorrow l will examine them more closely.
l had no idea a). A Quoll would attack a huge goose and b). the geese would never make a single sound. l didn't hear the geese or ducks shrieking l have no idea what woke me up but thank goodness l did. Not fun. No idea how l will be able to go back to sleep in case it returns. It was so tiny and Googling them reveals they are brilliant climbers and can get into tiny nooks and crannies if determined enough to. Our great little Duck House is now seen through Quolls eyes and is still very flawed and not secure enough at all. Tomorrow l get stuck into it again.........then there's the Chook House to do..............................