The Troublemaker

The other day, when I wrote about our local peacock flock, I wanted to write about this little guy, but thought my end of day pics were just too bad.  But now that I've had another encounter with the flock, I couldn't resist. I'm certain there is a troublemaker in flock. See him on the outside of the fence?

The other night as I watched the flock, he was one of the set of four belonging to one peahen. She jumped the fence and two of her chicks followed. Another went under. This guy comes strolling up long after all the others were inside the fence. He panics and frantically twerps and runs along the fence. He can't get over and can't figure out under.

The other peahen and her two chicks as well as the childless hen were way up the hill. And this one's mom and siblings were now headed out the gate on the other side of the property. The big male flew up to the top of the fence and called out to this little chick who scurried around to dad and finally joined up with the others.

I would have chalked it up to just a lost little chick if I hadn't encountered the flock again yesterday. I was driving home from the BFF's early morning and sun was in my eyes. There in the middle of the road, backlit by the sun was a pea chick, then a mom, then a chick. I slowed and the oncoming traffic stopped. Another chick crossed, then the second mom slowly strolled into traffic. Two more chicks raced past her. Then nothing. My heart sank. Oh, she's lost a chick! I was so sad. Our peacocks have a hard life in our desert mountains full of predators.

But mom was still standing in the middle of the street, proud and defiant. And then out of some tall grass, here comes the little troublemaker...lagging behind. As he passed his mom she nipped him in the butt! Once he was safely out of the road, she crossed the road where the others were and the big male and large childless hen were already waiting.

It's been a few years since we've had babies and I'm so loving running into these guys. We've never had this many chicks. The last set of babies was three males that the neighbors named Ed, Larry and Larry (after the Newheart show). Larry and Larry were identical and Ed had a deformed wing.

But with this many, we may not get to name them...not all of them. But I do have a name for one of them.