My new friend

This little guy showed up early August and he's still here. I guess we're his new home.

I hadn't gotten back over to the ranch for two weeks due to a class reunion and then a funeral. When I finally got here Wednesday, I found him waiting.

One of my first pix. I sensed something nearby... And got a rushed picture as it wandered away. Hey, that's not a turkey!

And it's as curious about me as I am eager to get a photo. We circled the cabin, and each other, for 10 minutes.

Gotta be somebody's pet. He simply hangs around all day.

He even expects to be let indoors at bedtime.

And he's pissed I didn't let him have the cabin for himself. He walked right by me, maybe four feet away.

Then flew up to roost in the Redwood tree like he does every evening at dusk.


I have more photos if anyone is interested. He's hilarious burrowing into the ground for a nice dust bath.

The herl from the tail feathers of the male peacock make excellent fly tying material. Their iridescence has amazing fish attracting properties. Aside from that, all I know is that these birds can be very noisy when a group of them are together... obnoxiously noisy.



Note the sparkle in the green bands from the peacock herl in this Royal Coachman fly.

they make great watch "dogs" and alarm clocks.
nice pics!

I hear they taste like chicken.

That's pretty cool. I hope you don't have too many coyotes around. I had a neighbor that tried to keep some peacocks but the coyotes got them pretty quick.

He's adorable!!
Yes, more pics please!

Where the hell do you live???? Peafoul just walk around over there???

Deadly Sushi said:

Where the hell do you live???? Peafoul just walk around over there???

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CALIFORNIA???

great pics. Thanks and more would be great.

Deadly Sushi said:

Where the hell do you live???? Peafoul just walk around over there???

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pirate_girl said:

CALIFORNIA???

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Yeah.. that deserves a "dee dee dee" if I have ever heard one...

California said:

And he's pissed I didn't let him have the cabin for himself. He walked right by me, maybe four feet away.

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Our neighbors had Peacocks. They would hang out in the trees and at night they went inside the barn. They were kept in the barn all winter. They tried moving them to another farm but they eventually left. I am sure they didn't make it through the winter.

awww how cute good pics!

pirate_girl said:

CALIFORNIA???

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I know THAT! But WHERE??? Peafowl are not indiginous of California that I know of. So.... where in heck do they run wild IN CA?

Deadly Sushi said:

I know THAT! But WHERE??? Peafowl are not indiginous of California that I know of. So.... where in heck do they run wild IN CA?

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Apparently, on Chris' property.
Perhaps Mr. Pea Cock escaped from the San Diego zoo and preferred the lush warm countryside, and found his way there, as opposed to being caged and squawking.
He's a cutie. I want him.

Beautiful colors I must admit! Seems to love the grounds!

I love the little combs that stick up off the top of their heads.

Have friends a few minutes away; they run on her property and those around her house. Someone had a few; they got loose, procreated. The go right over fences.

Funny, if you drive by our friends house and honk, all the peacocks starting making a racket

I'm about an hour and 20 minutes from the "California's" property.

Deadly Sushi said:

I know THAT! But WHERE??? Peafowl are not indiginous of California that I know of. So.... where in heck do they run wild IN CA?

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RNE228 said:

Have friends a few minutes away; they run on her property and those around her house. Someone had a few; they got loose, procreated. The go right over fences.

Funny, if you drive by our friends house and honk, all the peacocks starting making a racket

I'm about an hour and 20 minutes from the "California's" property.

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Thats sounds and looks like a FANTASTIC place to live in! Very beautiful. Ive only seen them in zoos

More pix by popular demand.

I also have photos showing the iridescence in feathers I've collected, and that dust bath set, but it's 9pm and I haven't had dinner yet so I'll just post these for now.

Sushi, I'm an hour north of San Francisco and 10 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. Peafowl aren't native but people around here have occasionally owned them, well just because, since I was a kid. Wild turkeys are the same size and are native. Peacocks fit in well alongside turkeys in the same ecological niche, in fact they occasionally join the turkey flocks from what I've read. Big Bird (what we've named him) grazes all over the orchard just like a turkey. His only difference is tameness.

And he's silent, I'm glad to say. There was a noisy, screechy, one living down in the ravine a couple of years ago. Probably also an escaped pet but a little wilder. I walked down to see what all the racket was and he went silent, then before I saw him he jumped off a head-high limb 10 ft from me, feathers all puffed up and screeching. Scared the heck out of me for an instant before I recognized it was just the Peacock and not a mountain lion jumping me. As soon as he reached the ground he simply walked off, screeching 'catch me if you can'. I doubt his owner wanted that one back.

Apple harvest season, and a hot day. Big Bird waits out the heat sitting in the shade.

I put this one in for Erik- My second Yanmar, the abused one I bought this summer. Looks like heck, runs like new. I'm harvesting a family pear tree in the middle of the apple orchard.

Look out the window nearly any hour and Big Bird is out there.

Big Bird likes to 'hide' and play peek-a-boo, just like a baby.

Since I was working in the shop, he nestled down in the shade under a little Redwood tree right outside my window, where we could see each other. (Sorry about the blur. I last washed that window in maybe 2001).

Today's photo. I though I saw him way down way down by the willows so I went to maximum zoom, 10x optical x 4x digital, 40x, and look what I got. What I thought was Big Bird's long neck was a jackrabbit's ears. Plus the autoexposure, severe overexposure, showed a doe napping in deep shadow that I hadn't noticed given all that glare. She didn't bother to get up, just kept an eye on me until I was out of sight.


More pix later.

'Ja get another Yanmar?

Those are very nice pictures to share Chris, thank you.
Your property looks so warm, wild and rustic.
The "visitor" only adds to it.
I hope he hangs around.

JEV said:

The herl from the tail feathers of the male peacock make excellent fly tying material. Their iridescence has amazing fish attracting properties. Aside from that, all I know is that these birds can be very noisy when a group of them are together... obnoxiously noisy.

Note the sparkle in the green bands from the peacock herl in this Royal Coachman fly.

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That fly is gorgeous! My cousin who ties flies asked me to save tail feathers for him, especially the ones with an eye. I had never heard this before, but he said it is impossible to buy complete eye feathers. No matter what the source, some part, I think the most iridescent portion, has already been removed. And he could afford complete ones if they were available. He belongs to a wealthy people's fly fishing club that even went fishing in Siberia one summer!

Yes, 'obnoxiously noisy' nails it. I haven't heard them recently but a few years back we heard continual loud screeching, and that farm is at least a quarter mile away.

PBinWA said:

That's pretty cool. I hope you don't have too many coyotes around. I had a neighbor that tried to keep some peacocks but the coyotes got them pretty quick.

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We had never seen a coyote here but we had heard howls sometimes. Then earlier this summer my wife went to pick blackberries, right where that overexposed jackrabbit is, and she said she met a coyote. They both retreated. She said she was certain, it looked just like the ones we've seen in Yosemite and Death Valley lurking around waiting for handouts. But we have so many gophers that I expect coyotes find those easier to catch than any bird.

thcri said:

Our neighbors had Peacocks. They would hang out in the trees and at night they went inside the barn. They were kept in the barn all winter. They tried moving them to another farm but they eventually left. I am sure they didn't make it through the winter.

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Winters here are mild; once in 10-20 years it gets cold enough that people panic about exposed pipes and faucets cracking, and we might see a little snow that melts off by noon. I don't think the weather is hard on any wildlife.

jpr62902 said:

'Ja get another Yanmar?

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Yep! I put a ROPS, rollbar, on the first one due to the spooky slopes here. Then I still needed a tiny one to drive under the trees in the orchard, to mow and disc where the tall one won't fit. There's more, and more photos of my place, over on NetTractorTalk if you're curious.

pirate_girl said:

Those are very nice pictures to share Chris, thank you.
Your property looks so warm, wild and rustic.
The "visitor" only adds to it.
I hope he hangs around.

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Thanks! I love this place. Dad's parents bought it as their final retirement home in 1950. Then Dad had it as a second, getaway place, and finally moved here his last 3 years. Now me. What's remarkable is that everything is just as it was 60 years ago. Most of the neighbors have replaced their orchards with premium vineyards, or sold to people who did. Now my role in the community is 'Mr Greenbelt', where everyone else's wildlife retreated to when there was no place else to hide. I love it just as it is.

JEV, here's a picture showing some of the iridescence in the peacock feathers. They are brighter in natural light outdoors. (The brown feather only shows, underneath, when he flies.).


And the second photo shows why all the wildlife moved over here. It's a quarter mile to the buildings in the background. That's a 20 acre new vineyard planted next to my orchard. It was orchard like mine last year, in fact the two orchards were run jointly as a single orchard for the last 50 years. Now she contracted her land to a vineyard management company, and all her critters have retreated over here.

Great thread, Chris!
Bummer your neighbor had to ruin the scenery that way.

I found Big Bird flat on the ground in the tractor tiretracks in front of a harvest bin. Where's his neck? Why are his feathers all crooked? Was he hit by the tractor???

Why is he twitching??? Paddlewheeling lying on one side????

He staggers to his feet blanketed with dust.

That one wing hanging down doesn't look right. What happened???

Whoah! Dance time! In fact I took several dud photos here because the camera couldn't focus on a huge ball of dust.

This whole episode lasted at least 2-3 minutes from the time I found him. Finally after all the dust settled. "Whatsa matter? you never saw a peacock bathe before?"

Yes. They like to dust off and scratch out an area to do it in. They help keep insects down and are a hoot to watch. we had them for several years till they killed the wife's teacup chihuaha. Then they got sent to a farm upstate. Neighbors never liked the noise they made but you sure knew when anyone came around.

Big Bird walked right up the porch steps and hopped up on the rail 6 ft from me! This has to be someone's abandoned pet.

I see some white down, ('goosedown') in the middle of his back in this photo. I've seen a little more as he walks around. And he doesn't have any long 'eye' feathers to make a fan with, just short ones covering the top third of his back. The middle of his back has scraggly green feathers like you see on his tail. Muleman, anybody, does he simply look immature, or could someone have stolen him and sheared his fan feathers?

He flies fine. One leap-and-flutter and he's sitting on top of a 6 ft fencepost. Liikewise, going to bed he flies straight up 15-20 ft into the Redwood tree faster than I can photograph.


Caption: Big Bird comes to visit.

Looks to me like Big Bird has found a loving, inviting place to take up residence, Chris.
He is simply adorable.

We try to entertain him with meaningful conversation. Important stuff like 'cutie boo-boo'! (That's nothing. You should hear her when she sees a field of newborn lambs!)

Several times now I've been at the workbench on the near side of the tractor, and he has walked halfway to the back of the tractor next to the workbench on the window side. He must have had barn shelter whenever he wanted it.

My wife has seen him walk up quietly to watch me without me noticing, when I was working at that workbench by the windows.

Awwwwwwww!!!!! he loves his Daddy (and Mommy) LOL!
Face it Chris, BB is there to stay.
That is such a heartwarming photo.
Looks like he's asking your wife if it's ok to be there.