An interesting visitor

[kiwigeo]

This guy wondered in off the street into my neighbour's garden and decided he'd polish off a few of my neighbours strawberries:

[Allen]

Karen would just love to have a few of them around the yard. My boss has a couple dozen that call his neighbourhood home. He's willing to move them all, but I'm not sure that my other neighbors would appreciate them.

[Nick]

For such a small diameter neck, they sure produce a loud sound! Not sure I'd want that sound instead of the morning rooster call. Was he loose from someones yard Martin or just one of the local transients?

[P Bill]

We have a feral flock. When we went bush in '91 we could hear them at night . We called them " catbirds " , then finally we found out they were peacocks. We also found out they could fly when the dog rushed them .

[kiwigeo]

LOL......the bugger came back this morning and made a bee line for the neighbour's strawberries. This bird's not stupid.

[Kim]

There is a good size flock of these that have gone wild on Great Kepple Island off the coast of central QLD. They live out at an old abandon homestead that is number of kilometers inland from the coast. The old place has been renovated to be a tourist attraction, it looks the part but no one actually lives there but the flock of peacocks and a heap of feral goats. Tourist on the island must travel everywhere by foot so for those wishing to visit the homestead, it is a reasonable hike inland by dirt track but it promises good views as it is up hill most of the way. This also means that to make it back for dinner at the resorts, they must start the trek back well before sundown because apart from the very crust of a small part of the coast, the island has no lighting.

This made the homestead an ideal local for those few island staff members who 'do' have access to motorised transport to escape the tourist and enjoying the sunset over a few glasses of wine. Its a great vantage point looking out over Kepple Bay and across Puttney Beach to Middle and Pumpkin Islands. It was also a great spectacle to watch the flock of peacocks, about 24 in all, slowly make their way back up the hill from Leaks creek as the sun was setting. Each day they would come to roost for the evening in the branches of a huge old Norfolk Island pine standing next to the verandah of the homestead. They have a set protocol, a true pecking order which sees each bird take it's place behind the other to form single file, and as they approach the big pine. Once at the base of the big tree they would leap one at a time onto the lowest branches. Then would begin the process of jumping one branch at a time around and around the spiral of the pine as they followed each other toward the top. When the first reaches it's roost, the rest stop in spiral sequence, branch by lower branch, back down the tree, and that is where they would remain for the night, safe from harm.

For those of us who camped at the homestead for the night despite all the stories, (most of which I had made up myself ) the morning held and equally amazing spectacle as one by one from the highest bird on down, the regiment makes their way up the tree to the launching point. From there, one by one they take the leap of faith that carries them gliding in single file from the top of the tree some kilometers back down the hill toward the coast and the fresh water and food that can be found at Leaks Creek. Then starts the gentle, quite, foraging journey back up the hill to the tree so they could do it all again tomorrow...such is life for a Kepple Peacock and its not too bad when you think about it.

Must agree completely with Martin, this bird is not stupid.

Cheers

Kim

[Nick]

Now it would be a true tourist attraction if it was the goats that carried out the roosting performance*!
I wonder what happens when there are more Peacocks than branches
Sounds like a great place to camp Kim.


*any resemblance to Monty Python's "flying sheep" sketch is purely unintentional.