jmgoyder

Some mornings it sounds like the clicking of highheels back and forth across the roof. Other times it sounds like running races. This morning it was like a herd of buffalo. I do not need an alarm clock!

I am getting more attuned to the sounds of our many peafowl; their rooftop antics, their honking, their gentle clucking when I feed them bits of bread.

One of the sounds that took me awhile to figure out was the feather-rustling sound when a peacock displays his (and sometimes her) feathers into the beautiful fan they are famous for. Okay, this might sound odd, but it sounds exactly like the kettle boiling over on the Aga – that sizzling sound. Other times, it sounds like the whoosh of light aircraft – a wind sound.

All of our peacocks (most of them are teenagers) are displaying their ‘fans’ almost constantly now. I think they are practising for spring as it is winter here now. They obviously have very good muscle control because, once they’ve achieved the ‘fan’, they then turn circles, very gradually, and with incredible poise and balance. As they turn around and around, they continually rustle their fan feathers (that’s the sound that makes me think the kettle is boiling over).

They remind me so much of catwalk models (even when they are scrambling around on the rooftop, fighting to be the best).

I love them so much; they are a lesson in sound, beauty and strangeness.