Birdbrained Plans

Written for Crispina’s Crimson’s
Creative Challenge Pic #1 and
Esther’s Writing Prompts – ‘fence’

BREAKING NEWS: Birds Foul Up Local Man’s Plans!

Good evening. Tripp Meadows reporting on location in Whitlingham. Tonight, a local landowner’s fight with waterfowl has taken a turn for the worse. Gerald Pemberton put up a brand-new fence around his lake last Tuesday. By Wednesday, the birds had simply flown over it.

“They have wings,” Pemberton told reporters. “I didn’t factor in the blasted wings.”

Witnesses say a swan checked out the fence “like a bloody building inspector,” while a pair of geese stood on the shoreline looking smug. A coot was seen loitering nearby, its intentions unclear. About a dozen gulls also flew in, in what experts are calling a show of solidarity.

Pemberton has since added a scarecrow, which the gulls now use as a perch.

The birds were unavailable for comment, though one goose was heard honking in a tone described as “frankly rude.”

Back to you in the studio.

NAR©2026

This is “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #112

Writing Prompts

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