About that peacock...

As I type this, the peacock is roosting on one of our second floor balconies. By the looks of that bird, he seems quite content and I've been noticing his daily pattern since we've returned from our trip. On more than one occasion, I've told my husband that the peacock's calls have sounded very close by. Well, no wonder.... the peacock has probably been sleeping up on that balcony at night.

Most of this afternoon, the peacock was perched on the porch railing by the back door. I watched him from the kitchen window as I ironed (finally all caught up with the laundry from the trip), and the peacock just sat there watching the world go by.  My husband went out the front door and walked around the porch to take some photos of the bird, and Sweet Pea was watching from the TV room windows.  Poor Sweet Pea probably thinks there's a dinosaur out on the porch because he didn't look too happy to see such a large bird out there.

This peacock really belongs to neighbors down the hill, and we've seen him in their yard for nearly a year now.... they originally had three very young peacocks, but they all turned out to be males, so they gave two of them away.  About a month ago, there were two peacocks in our yard.... one mature male with fully-formed tail feathers, and this particular peacock who had been calling out desperately for a mate.

For now, the peacock has made our property his home away from home.  Maybe he doesn't like all the hens and roosters in the neighbor's yard.... or maybe he thinks he has a better chance of finding a mate on this side of the hill. Whatever the reason, this peacock has chosen our yard, our porch railing, and our upstairs balcony.  We won't feed him (not counting the Meow Mix that's on the porch for the cats) and there's always fresh water outside in the birdbaths and the fountain.

I can't keep calling him 'the peacock.'  In memory of last week's trip to London, I'm going to name the peacock "King George."  With his beautiful plume of head feathers, and his glorious blue/green chest of color, he's very much king-like.  And he does look like a "George" to me.

So King George it is...... Long live the King.... and I hope he doesn't start leaving peacock droppings all over the porch.