The Birds We Didn’t Eat

Blue and Missy rule the roost… until Rasha shows up. Then they quietly depart for another part of the patio.

As an original small town girl turned city gal, making friends with birds has become a real treat. But not a treat as in eating them. These are a few of our feathered friends who choose to visit often. The peacock couple belong to our wonderful neighbor and his wife who escaped Cuba many years ago. They have taught us much about peacocks, an amazing breed of bird. The peacock and peahen are Blue and Missy. The bird in the very large pen is their peachick, now adult, named Jack, a perfect name for a peacock, if you ask me. Missy gave birth to an albino chick, but the poor thing died at around 4 months, which was heartbreaking.

Meet Jack, a 16 month old peacock. He’s a big one, too. Much bigger than his dad, Blue. We keep him penned to save his life, but we hope that won’t be forever. He doesn’t like it much, but peacocks can be happy penned if they have enough room. It’s a huge area, which my hubby built. We’re going to put in a pond next year.

Now, I’m sure you’re going to ask, why is Jack in a pen? Well, Blue almost killed him before he was quite 1 year old. Missy also began keeping him away from food, as well as pecking him until he was limping. It wasn’t pretty. Seeing my husband capture Jack was an adventure for the ages. We’d certainly prefer to let Jack roam, but his life was in danger, something he doesn’t understand. After Blue and Missy became so mean to him, Jack simply started to wander to our neighbors, also walking in the streets. Not a good idea. We’ve tried to find him a buddy, but that didn’t work out very well either the first time around. We haven’t given up on that idea, but it hasn’t happened yet. It’s got to be the right age and gender, which is hard to tell at first.

Anyway, just wanted to share a couple of our very good friends. We’ve got quite an ecosystem going here, which also brings some serious predators around. We’ve had golden eagles visit and hawks are a regular around here. You can always tell when the predators are prowling. Blue, Missy and Jack start honking and don’t stop until the predators take their leave, which usually happens when Mark or I show up looking to see what all the fuss is about.

Rasha, the queen of “Paradise,” which is what I’ve named the beautiful peace of property on which my hubby invited me to live with him.

Rasha and the peacocks get along just fine now. She’s our black cat. Our male cat A.L., who has passed, didn’t take to the peacocks too well, though. My husband came down one morning to see A.L. staring face to face with Blue and Missy, his gorgeous tale bushed out as if he’d seen a ghost or a monster. He looked at Mark as if to say, WTF? But Rasha and the peacocks pretty much ignore each other now, unless, of course, the peacocks get inside and starting eating her food. That’s annoying for us all.

This is Mark’s cascading, 4,000 gallon pond, which was created from a former shrub haven. My husband is the greatest surprise of my life, also my greatest gift. After years of research trying to find out all I could about relationships, he’s taught me the most. I never expected to learn about love from a man. That about says it all.