I live out in the country, sort of – a couple of miles outside of town, back in the hills a ways. Anyway, there’s a peacock wandering around the neighborhood, and has been for a couple of years. Beautiful, just gorgeous bird, bright blue with a big 'ole tail that I’ve seen him (her? the “hims” are the ones with plumage, right?) fan out in a big display.
He’s kind of shy, but I’ll see him wandering through the area behind my garage where I can see him out of my office window, this big 'ole bright blue gaudy thing. Very cool. Nobody around here knows where he came from, and he’s obviously not a native to here; I’ll see him wandering around several of the properties here, mostly hiding in the woods up on the hillside near my back fence. He seems to come out in the spring and summer, and this last week or so I’ve seen him a bunch of times.
He does have the most annoying song, though. Here’s a sample (stolen from a blog, I hope he doesn’t mind the bandwidth pilfer). That darn bird has been up on the hill all day, calling for his lost love or something. kaayaa! kayaa! At times sounds like a distressed cat, and I have to stop myself from checking my kitties.
Peacocks do have an annoying call, but they eat snakes, so be glad you have one nearby. We have been looking to get one or two for our yard, since we are in snake central, er, I mean TN. Be careful, they can be really mean and agressive, even if they come across as shy.
Hmm, its getting to be a menagerie around here – I just popped over to the store, and I noticed on the way back that one of my neighbors is keeping some llamas on their property. Unfortunately, the great blue heron that usually hangs out in February missed his appearance this year.
Hi, squeegee, we’re neighbors! I live in Morgan Hill. We live in town rather than the country, but we can be in the relative boonies in about a five minute drive.
There’s a peacock that hangs out on one of our country drives near the reservoirs just west of MH. We usually see him associating with a wild turkey flock, and we never see any peahens, so he probably assumes he’s a wild turkey.
[hijack]There’s a new honest-to-god real gelato shop in Morgan Hill - the real deal![/end hijack]
No, you’re not alone, though I prefer peatwat. It must be a Chicago thing.
My dad was a guest at some rich guy’s villa in Jamaica, and they had a bunch of peacocks in their yard. When the sun went down, they walked up the trees to roost. My dad said it was a kind of eerie thing to see.
Teela: howdy, neighbor! I’m by Day Road near Lions Peak (that big, bare “bump” hill surrounded by sub-hills on the northwest side of Gilroy, visible for miles, west of 101 & Masten). Take a short drive down West Day Road this weekend – the wild California poppies are 10-100x more plentiful this year for some reason, especially down near my house, really pretty. Look for them up on the hillsides, its just orange everywhere.
Yeah, I get a bunch of wild turkeys out this way as well. They’re pretty cool, but they flock all over near my house, and poop on everything. There was a male out back strutting his stuff like a Thanksgiving poster a day or so ago, really cool. I like the idea of a peacock that thinks its a boy-turkey (turcock?).
The peacock cry scares me. Once at the zoo a peacock let loose close by and I wanted to duck and cover.
I have wild turkeys too. The female are fine, they are skittish, I’ve seen the male once doing the Thanksgiving walk, staring you down from 50 ft away, trying to decide if YOU are going to start trouble with his harem, and if he should try to chase you off.
I used to think peacocks were very interesting and fun creatures. I looked forward to seeing them wandering around the zoo.
And then went to Mexico, and stayed at a hotel that had one of the creatures in a cage outside. Where it cried/cawed/chirped/whatever ALL NIGHT. The first night, we thought someone nearby was doing unspeakable things to cats. The next morning, we found out it was the bloody peacock. Peacocks lost most, if not all, of their charm during my stay at that hotel.
Funny that this thread should come up now: I saw three peacocks walk through my yard last Saturday, and I’ve lived here for 25 years and never saw one before.
Apparently, yes. Or at least feral. Its not like peacocks are indigenous to Gilroy.
I’ve taken pix of him before, none of them good. I’ll try to see if I can dig one up. Or if I can catch him on the property I’ll take a new pic – if this is the same peacock, he’s really gaudy this year.
Where do people post pics for free that I can point this thread at?
It is my understanding that they do. The only reason I came to know this is that a while back, I came within about 6" of stepping on a rattlesnake’s head. He was a big old boy – about 6’ long. I mentioned something to our vet about my FIL bringing us a shotgun for use on the snakes and the vet tech told me about peacocks being snake hunters. She said they are excellent hunters and will hunt down snakes and eat them, I assumed since I mentioned a rattlesnake, the tech knew I wanted venomous snakes dispatched
Funny enough, aside from the occasional black racer, that is the only time we have seen a snake around here.
ok, I found a couple of pics from a two summers ago. He was smaller (if its the same bird), but still gaudy. We were doing some grading on the property, that’s why all the raw dirt in the background. But, yes, this was really in my backyard (or rather, just outside), and a peacock really did just happen to wander by.
I can hear him Kayaa!-ing out the window now. Which is cool, but, jeez, he’s going to town this year on the love-sonnet screams.
All the farms back home seem to keep peacocks. I could never understand why. They aren’t good for eating and they have an irritating call. It must be because they look good.
