PEACOCK UPDATE

Since my last post there's been a new development on the peacock front.

Look very closely and you'll see a peahen laying on her nest of eggs. Her head is in the middle left of the picture. Her face is white with bright green feathers on either side. They're more blue/green than the leaves. The feathers of her body almost exactly match the color of the ground. The light area is a sun spot with the shadow of me reflected in it.

She's very well-camouflaged, but she's right outside the den door. (Right below the window in the picture above.) She's not disturbed when people go in and out of the door (at least not visibly). This sure seems to be a very dangerous spot, right on the ground where any predator could reach her. There are a lot of coyotes in the area. I've heard that coyotes don't bother peacocks because they're so big but I'm not sure this is true. My tenants (who live here) say that they saw two male peacocks fighting nearby. Maybe one of them is the father and is protecting the mother. Or, as my tenant said, fighting over the paternity.

Apparently a snake tried to get at the eggs while the mother was away but the young boy who lives here shot it with a b.b. gun. I'm not sure this story is true but if so, he's a hero. But now I'm worried about a gun in the house. I'm very anti-gun. Now I'm going to worry about the safety of the peahen and the boy with the gun .( He could shoot his eye out).

Here's some info I found on the internet : The hens usually lay 2-6 eggs in their 2nd - 3rd year, hiding the true nest in the woods in leaves or just plain dirt, but first laying eggs right in the open. She may lay several eggs, decoys, which just sit around, until she gets serious about it and lays a clutch or group and sits on them. She sits on the nest for 28 days, producing pea chicks which look like turkey poults (babies), yellow and brown. She leaves the nest once a day to eat and take care of personal needs, flying from the nest with loud cawing noises to distract predators from the hidden nest.