The Peacock
Sue gets up earlier than I do. Every morning she leaves me in bed, walks down the stairs and towards our kitchen, and opens curtains along the way without thinking. That morning, a beautiful bright blue and green peacock stared back at her through our dining room window.
We encourage wildlife to visit. But, even though we live in the country, we’ve never seen a peacock parade around our garden. We scattered a little birdseed, and a few nuts and this one stayed with us most of the day. The following day, our surprise visitor was back, and the next, and then the next.
Now the peacock visits us on most sunny days. He’s smart as well as handsome and knows that we keep bird food in our shed. He’s friendly and now eats peanuts from our hands. He’s less concerned about visitors than they are about him. He likes to perform, often strutting around our lawn with his tail feathers raised which is a magical sight. He likes to spend his afternoons on our kitchen roof and sometimes peers in at us through our giant skylight. When the sun goes down, he disappears into nearby fields, and we can hear him crow until it gets dark.
There’s talk in the village that this peacock comes from a nearby farm where he was raised from an egg. But honestly, we don’t know where he came from. Peacocks roam, so maybe one day he’ll wander into someone else’s garden—like he wandered into ours—and stay with them for a while before moving on again.
Maybe he’ll stay with us for a while. We hope so. Having this magnificent bird visit us has made the last month very special.