Peacock Memories

January 22 – As you no doubt have read about in previous blog entries, for several months last fall we had two peacocks living here in our yard, having come over from our next door neighbor’s place to enjoy our company.

[ Big birds for the bird feeder ]

They grew tamer and tamer over time and finally came to spending much of their time in our garage if the door was open. They would recline under the truck and do much preening while they were molting. We collected a lot of beautiful feathers, and Chris took many pictures.

On October 29 our neighbor stopped by to ask if we could come up with some way to corral these birds so he could take them back to his place. After a little thought, we backed our vehicles out of the garage and threw in a little dry cat food to help lure the peacocks in. Carefully I urged them in and once they were several feet inside, I motioned to Chris who was looking in via the small side door, to push the close button. She did, and down came that big door, and the birds were trapped.

Our neighbor then came over with his truck, a big wire cage a net, AND three assistants. In they went through the side door and after only a brief period of flapping and running around, both peacocks were captured and put in the cage and taken off to their rightful place. We were all surprised at how easy things had gone. For many days afterwards we looked out, half expecting to see peacocks in our back yard, but they were apparently locked safely in some kind of enclosure, experiencing a different environment, faces, food, etc.

[ Waiting on the back porch ]

Of course, this was a little hard on both Chris and me since they were so friendly by the end of just a month and would sleep during the day in the garage. When we came back from church or shopping, we always found them resting on the back porch. Not once after they decided they would wait for us in the same place until we got home did we ever find them anywhere else. But when they heard the garage door going up, off they came to welcome us home.

And that’s the way they were when the neighbor and his crew came to pick them up and take them back where they really did belong. Since they are fenced in and can’t get out of their enclosure we don’t expect to see them again.

With all this cold weather and white snow lately, we thank you, peacocks, for letting us enjoy your colorful beauty close at hand for all those weeks! – DALE