Almost exactly
a month ago, a mature male peacock made an unexpected visit to my garden. In fact, he toured it twice in the same day. While there are plenty of peacocks on our peninsula, there have never been any living in our neighborhood and we thought Mr Peacock's visit was a fluke. This morning, I received evidence that this may not be the case when I turned a corner and came upon not one but two peahens inspecting my back garden.
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| I never managed to get a photo of the two hens together. This is the one bringing up the rear. |
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| She followed her sister to the dirt path just inside the Xylosma hedge and, when I followed them, they both ducked through the hedge and down our back slope |
The hens are large birds but not nearly as flashy as the males.
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| This is a photo of the male during his visit on May 13th |
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| I can't squeeze under or through the hedge, so I had to take the long way around, down the concrete steps leading through the back slope. This is the best shot I got of the hen, which regrettably highlights the mass of weeds along the boundary between our property and that of our neighbors on the south side |
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| Unlike the male, who took a relatively leisurely stroll through our entire garden, the hens scuttled away from me, moving too fast for me to do a good job focusing the camera |
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| This was the last shot I got of her |
She hustled through the thicket of ivy that marks the transition between our neighbors' property and ours, presumably following her sister. Unlike the male, they didn't make a return trip so I'm hoping they didn't find the garden to their liking and won't be moving in to raise a family here. This morning, a friend (same city but miles away) disclosed that she came home following an appointment yesterday to find a peahen with three chicks nesting on her front door mat. Cute as the little family may have been, I'd prefer that they take up residence elsewhere, preferably some distance away. They can chase away other birds, make a lot of noise, and cause
significant damage to gardens and property. As it is, I'm still having enough trouble with the resident gopher...
All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
