His freedom.
As regular readers know, we have a peacock (Blue) and peahen (Missy) who visit us. Actually they now live at our place, but birds are never really anyone’s, so I like to refer to it as “visiting.” We also have a peacock chick from Blue and Missy whom we’ve raised and kept alive through all manner of challenge and adversity. See, the peacock’s goal when chicks are born is to kill them all, because they’re territorial and the fact that you can’t tell a peacock (male) from a peahen (female) for months. Peacocks are the very definition of alpha male. So, when the chicks hatched, my husband Mark and I fenced off an area for Missy and her two surviving chicks, one of which was an albino that didn’t live past 3 months. Sweet little thing. Very tragic, but she just wasn’t strong enough.
Anyway…
So once it was time to let Missy and her young male chick out of the wire pen, Blue starts stalking the young male peacock. It was a serious case of catch and kill for Blue. One day months later, after Jack had gotten his coloring, I peeked outside the back door to find him trying to hide behind our wood pile, with Blue towering over him ready to strike. I shooed Blue off, but Mark and I then had to make a big decision. What to do with Jack?
To make a very, very long story short, leaving out the first patio open, as well as the pea hen we got from a reserve as a buddy who tried to maim him, I’ll cut to the chase. Mark built a huge pen out back. You should have seen the sight of my husband trying to engage this growing, but still very young, male peacock to capture him! Squawking like you can’t imagine, with tale feathers flying everywhere, not to mention Mark trying to stay away from his very sharp claws.
So now our beautiful, young male peacock was safe. He had plants, sod, a soft bedding to walk on, a pond, with plants everywhere, plus shade and cover, with some sun as well and a nice perch and plenty of food. For instance, Jack began his day with walnuts. Getting the picture? Spoiled peacock.
It didn’t matter.
With Blue and Missy walking free, the young male was very unhappy. Peacocks can be content penned, but I believe seeing Missy and Blue walk free, as well as sit close to his cage, drove him crazy. When they were up around the house it made it worse. All Jack did was pace. However, he was still too young to fight off Blue.
Fast forward to just a few weeks ago. At a year and one-half, Jack was finally starting to grow his plume, which should be in full glory this summer. He’s an adult, and as I told my radio listeners recently, I looked at my husband and said it was time to let him out. So, we took a deep breath, walked out to his pen and opened the door.
Nothing.
Jack continued to pace.
Mark started tearing down the fencing.
Still nothing.
I tried to draw Jack out with walnuts.
He wouldn’t budge.
Jack continued to pace within the confines of the cage, jumping up to his perch, even though there was no cage left to hold him in.
We knew to stand back, but Mark got too close and all of a sudden Jack jumped on to the railroad ties then took off with a whoop. Up he went… He’ll land on our second story, I thought. Then up and up and OVER the house he flew.
We rushed to the front yard to see him perched on our neighbor’s roof across the street. Then, as sunset came, Jack took off.
We were crestfallen.
Would he come back?
We waited.
Then two days later Mark woke me up, “He’s back! He’s back!”
I stumbled out of bed and we went running down to the backyard like two kids on Christmas morning. Jack was back and they were all together again. There’s been some territorial issues, but Jack will have to learn to deal with it. Come spring we expect Blue and Jack will fight. That’s what male peacocks do.
Every sunset for the last couple of years, Blue and Missy wonder back over to our neighbor’s house where they were raised to sleep high in the trees. When Jack was young, before we realized the dangers of Blue, he did too. But since we let him out he doesn’t anymore. The first couple of sunsets after he was free I couldn’t figure out where he was perching at night. But then just a couple of days ago I saw him fly up into one of our backyard evergreens close to the house. We’ve never had a peacock call one of our big evergreens home.
We do now.
I’ve had a thing for birds my whole life. But now it’s on a whole different level. Being blessed with this experience has been something almost sacred to me. As I’ve said before, you never really own birds. You have to understand that your attachment is yours and will never be there’s. Get too close or threaten them, breaking the bonds of that trust, and you could lose them for good. Jack is still very leery of Mark. After all, he caught him twice and Jack doesn’t understand we were actually keeping him safe.
Giving Jack his freedom this Christmas gave us great joy. We kept him alive, sheltered him and now he’s on his own, though we still feel responsible. It’s an experience I will treasure the rest of my life, Mark too.
Last Christmas Jack was in his pen, safe and sound.
This year he is grown and now free, as it is meant to be. Merry Christmas, Jack. It’s a Christmas gift for us, too.
TM NOTE: When we moved to D.C., saying good-bye to the glorious gift of our peacocks wasn’t easy. But at least we found them space where they’d be safe… and free, which is what matters most to birds. Same for our beautiful koi, which now reside in gigantic ponds at a water garden, taken from the 3,800 gallon, cascading pond that Mark built from scratch (a beauty truly astounding). What a cherished experience all of these amazing creatures were to care for, watch and share our property. I’ll never forget it… or the Golden Eagle, the hawks, the pheasants, and water birds, and all the other amazing birds that visited the land we owned for a time. It was magical.
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