No deer rewarded us, but passing a turnoff onto a gravel road, we were surprised to see a peacock, roaming free:
We stopped, of course. And while we took photos of this one, another jumped to the porch railing of an adjacent house, then to the roof.
He walked to the far end of the house, sweeping the roof with his folded tail, then flew away, into the trees. And another one followed his tracks, from porch to railing, to roof, and away.
The owner of the house told us that the peacocks "belong" (if belonging is the right word for wild things) to someone down the road, but that they are not penned and often visit him. In the spring, breeding time, they delight him with their flamboyant displays, but there's a down-side; they also keep him awake at night with raucous cries. The females, are probably in the trees somewhere now, sitting on nests.
They've been in the area for a couple of years. We are amazed that they have not been caught by the cougars that hunt in the woods by night, or by dogs or foxes. It's probably safer, their neighbour said, around (and on!) human habitations.
As we left, we looked down the road. Peacock # 1 was walking home:
Good luck, and keep safe, crested one!
My neighbor had peacocks for a while when I was growing up. They are certainly pretty, but the noises they make sound like someone is screaming bloody murder. My neighbor ended up giving them away to someone who lived a little more rurally than we did!
ReplyDeleteThe cry of the peacock was always a standard sound in the old jungle movies. When I was a kid, I heard the peacocks calling almost continuously through some of the Tarzan movies. I always wondered why we never saw a peacock on screen.
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