peachicks | jmgoyder

The magic of nature!

by jmgoyder

Okay so here is how the Queenie, the peahen, and her two chicks go to bed every night.

Firstly, she looks around anxiously from the pen (in these photos both peachicks are underneath her).

Then she starts to sort of purr at the chicks, almost as if she is saying ‘follow me’. She begins this restless ritual at 6pm.

She stirs the chicks up a bit and they begin cheeping loudly. At 6.30pm she flies over the fence into the adjacent yard. This photo is just before she launches herself over and away from the chicks.

The two peachicks go into panic mode and try repeatedly to fly after her while, from the other side of the fence, Queenie purrs encouragement. Eventually, one by one, they fly/climb the fence until they reach an opening they can fit through and plop onto the ground on the other side. The smaller peachick takes at least fifteen minutes longer than the other one but once it’s through the fence, they all have a bit of a hug. By this time it is 7pm.

Queenie then flies out of the second pen straight into the avocado tree, then down to the ground to once again beckon the chicks through the second fence. This photo is an old one but it shows the two pens with the avocado tree on the left. It is a long journey for the chicks.

Eventually the chicks get through and arrive at the base of the avocado tree. These two photos don’t include the chicks themselves because they were quickly climbing the trunk to reach their mother. But as you can see it is a well-chosen tree and easier to climb than any of the others.

Queenie then flies up to perch in the avocado tree and purrs at the chicks to follow.

By this time the chicks are cheeping so loudly that it is almost deafening. They try repeatedly to fly/climb the tree only to plop down to the ground again and again. Queenie remains in the tree, purring encouragement, until finally they succeed. It is difficult to spot the chick in the first photo!

Finally, all is quiet. Here is Queenie curled up on her branch with the chicks underneath her wings. It’s 8pm.

The most amazing thing about all of this is that each morning they are all back in the safety of the yard again!

Animal Family Happiness Wings

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‘Cheep cheep’

by jmgoyder

A bit over a week ago I began to hear cheeping every time I went out in the evening to feed, water and put the gang (geese and duck and turkey) into their pens. None of the peafowl have ever been penned because our dogs don’t attack them and they fly up into the trees at night to sleep.

We have five peacocks (one white and the rest blue) – and seven peahens (two white, four green and Gutsy9), but during mating season all except one peahen and G9 disappeared. I assumed they were all nesting somewhere, or trying to, and I hoped for the best that none of them had been killed by wild foxes. But as the weeks went by I began to lose hope and the peacocks’ cries became more mournful.

I didn’t even let myself hope for chicks because, with the crows and foxes, I knew they had little chance of surviving, so I put the cheeping sound down to my imagination and/or the sound of wild bird chicks somewhere. I did a bit of a search every afternoon/evening, but nothing.

Then one evening, I saw them! Two chicks with Queenie (our oldest peahen) foraging under a shrub. I was delighted, but decided not to intervene because I could see they were a great little unit, so different from when I found G9 a year ago, obviously abandoned.

I didn’t hold much hope for them but for the next couple of evenings they were still around! Our dogs hadn’t detected them, they hadn’t drowned in the pond, and they were surviving without human intervention. Nevertheless, I knew these tiny creatures were in great danger from predators so a week ago Ming herded Queenie and the chicks into our smallest pen. I put a shallow water bowl in the yard and lots of wheat grain, which is what I feed all of the birds, and, when they were all still there the next morning I breathed a sigh of relief. The bottom of our three animal yards is meshed to prevent foxes getting in so I assumed Queenie and her kids were sleeping there.

And maybe they were! But then, the other evening, they weren’t; they were gone! I assumed the worst until they were back in that same pen the next morning. This has been going on now for a few days: Queenie and chicks in pen during daylight; Queenie and chicks gone from pen by 7pm.

How do they do this magic trick? I will tell you tomorrow. In the meantime:

Animal Family Happiness Wings

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Another little blog break

by jmgoyder

One of the unexpected bonuses of blogging for me has been the very real friendships formed, the mutual support, the shared humour, the shared grief. The lessons of life that I have learned through other people’s stories, and interactions, have taught me how to better do empathy and sympathy, and forced me to feel the difference.

Thanks so much for those of you who have commented, ‘liked’, and given me your friendships. For those of you who are bloggers, I am struggling at the moment to keep up with your writings, so please forgive me for that. For Facebook friends, same thing really!

Ming goes to court in three days. Apparently he and I simply appear, his charges will be read out, and the case will be adjourned by our lawyer until the end of February. So I really need to concentrate on all of this at least until the beginning of February, and blogging will go on the back burner for the time being.

Hard to believe now that when I began blogging it was all about the birds.

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Good news!

by jmgoyder

Yesterday, after wearing a head-to-hip spinal brace for three months, my niece was allowed to take it off for good. When I heard the news I couldn’t stop laughing and leaping crazily around the house! She was the last of the five children to be given the green light, so things are definitely looking up.

Here is a photo of her next to her brother last year. And yes that is Gutsy9 (as a baby) on her shoulder. Bravo, my lovely niece!

Animal Family Friendship Happiness Wings

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If something is beyond your control, stop trying!

by jmgoyder

We have five peahens (female version of peacocks) who have been missing for about a week. As it is mating + nesting season here in Western Australia, it is quite likely that they are either hiding together and sitting on their eggs. But it is also likely that they have all been killed by foxes, and their eggs eaten.

All of the males are still around and call out constantly (imagine a wildcat’s yowl multiplied by several hundred decibels), but the only peahens still here are the two white Princesses and Gutsy9.

I have looked in the hayshed, listened for chicky sounds in the paddocks, and driven around the block in this little country town, searching for them – all to no avail – so now I don’t have any choice other than to give up and let nature take its course. I miss seeing those five girls fly into the trees at dusk and I hope they are okay and that we will see a few chicks but I am beginning to wonder now.

This didn’t happen last year because all but the two adults (King and Queenie) were still too young to do the mating thing properly – and I am still not quite sure how G9 survived before I found her!

I hope the peahens come back but maybe they are gone. There is no point trying to control what is, what was, and, sometimes, what will be, so I have stopped trying.

What will be will be.

Animal blogging Friendship Happiness Wings

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My muse is a peachick

by jmgoyder

Gutsy 9 is one year old today (yes I got the date wrong in a previous post – I thought I found her on November 9!) For those who don’t know, G9 is the peachick I found scurrying around outside on 9 December 2012. I knew she wasn’t a duck or a goose but I thought she might be a chook, or a turkey, or even a guinnea fowl, and it took me awhile to realize she was a peachick. Since none of the peahens seemed to want her, I brought her into the house and raised her until she was big enough to go outside. As she grew, I discovered that she was pied (half white and half blue) and recently that she was a she after all (we had thought she was a he). She is a daily delight – she runs to me whenever she hears my voice and still does funny little twirlies, then follows me like a dog. Here are some photos of her a year ago – on my shoulder, Anthony’s lap and in Ming’s hands – and her birthday photo today. She has brought all of us a great deal of joy.

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My baby chick becomes a show-off!

by jmgoyder

This is Gutsy9 flaunting her unusual feathers today. She is ‘pied’ – half blue and half white. We still don’t know who her parents are exactly because we have too many peas (three whites and 12 blues) and none of them wanted her so she was mine from day 1. (Previous posts describe this).

Peafowl are tactile defensive (they don’t like being touched) but they will take bread or any other tidbits from your hand if you are patient. G9, having been hand-raised by me, is unusual in this respect. For example, today, she came up to me when I was hanging out the washing and she sort of purred until I reached down to stroke her neck and every time I stopped, she chased me for more.

Happy birthday Gutsy9!

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Mating season again for our peafowl!

by jmgoyder

If any Gutsy9 look-alikes turn up in the next few weeks, I have already found a home for them at http://www.fergusonfarmstay.com.au/‎ (a lovely place closeby.)

Animal Australia Birds Happiness Humour Wings

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Gutsy9 is a girl after all!

by jmgoyder

For those who don’t know, or who have forgotten (as I had until I looked it up on my blog!) last year, on December 9, I discovered a peachick running around outside, apparently abandoned by its many possible parents. So I picked it up and from that moment on, it became my kid via the interesting phenomenon of imprinting. I raised that chick with great joy and for its first week of life took it everywhere with me, inside my shirt, to the nursing lodge, to the shops – even to a restaurant once!

I called the chick 9 (because of the hatch date), then Gutsy (because Ming thought it was a gutsy little thing) and now Gutsy9. A few weeks later a friend came over (who also has peafowl) and said G9 was pied (a hybrid of white and blue) and most likely a male. But, when my friend saw a recent picture, he recognized immediately that G9 was a female after all and I am so delighted because I am overrun with males – son and husband, two male alpacas, two male dogs, predominantly male geese and ducks, AND, half of our peafowl are males, which is annoying for the females (especially now that it’s mating season!)

I love remembering G9’s first days – in Ming’s hands, on Anthony’s lap, and on my shoulder.

Whenever she hears my voice G9 gallops (yes gallops!) to me. Of course, she is always hoping for bread, a favourite treat for all of them, but even when I don’t have bread, she will sit beside me to have her neck stroked. The other peas watch this little ritual with fascination because peafowl don’t like to be touched and, even though they will all take bread from my hand, they shy away if I try to pat them. At least they all accept G9 now – they didn’t to begin with. In fact, they seem to sort of look up to her, amazed at the way she follows me around the garden, doing little twirlies, around and around, like a funny little puppy!