Breakfast was over. Church would begin in a quarter hour. I savored my cup of coffee while staring out our kitchen window at the bird sanctuary on the other side of the glass. In my line of sight a huge bulking mass of feathers appeared at the top of the fence. I blinked.
What the. . .
The creature extended his neck and turned toward me. The shimmering blue feathers and the black top knots took my breath away.
We’d lured a peacock into our domain.
My retired husband developed a fascination with the species of birds around our neighborhood when he found he had time on his hands. He hung bird feeders in various sizes. Many of them were cylinders that contained wild bird seed supposedly mixed for the birds in our corner of the world. We regularly fed finches, wrens, and a host of other small birds we couldn’t identify. Hummingbirds had their nectar. The flickers, scrub jays and other larger birds enjoyed suet feeders suspended on a tall pole to encourage them to feed here. The pole also discouraged the voracious appetites of squirrels. Of which there were many.
But none of the feeders could accommodate a peacock!
He strutted along the top of our concrete wall, pecking at the ivy growing there. He stopped to examine the corner of the roof that blocked his path. He didn’t raise his tail, those colorful blue circles characteristic of his species lay deep within his feathers. He seemed quite content to satisfy his curiosity by staying on the perimeter of our patio.
His nonchalant approach made me think of the verse:
Matthew 6:25: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food and the body more than raiment? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
He didn’t stay long, moving to the next roof in line on our street. Research said his plaintive cry of ‘help’—like a goose being strangled—is used during mating season. He didn’t visit again, but we could hear his call several days later. As far as we know he hasn’t found his girlfriend.
We didn’t know from where he’d come, but his search continues.