Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!

Subject: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: harpgirl
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 04:47 PM

...Honey, the puppy, was growling out the back door a little while ago and we went out to find a peacock on the roof! What do they eat? Do they like music? There's farms behind my house and one used to be an ostrich farm but I've thought the peacocks were wild...hg

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 04:55 PM

Harpy, how crude!! Peacock? Peacock? Why not just say a peafowl? I mean you'd be all over my ass if I said something about a peacunt..........Let's keep it clean here.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: GUEST,Ella at a strange computer
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 05:04 PM

Right, this is what they like....

corn, and loads of it!

The wee buggers will eat you out of house and corn - they can eat for ever... but very pretty, and probably worth it.

DOn't expect him to stay long, he's probably strutting hiself round looking for pea ladies...

Ella

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 05:06 PM

Haha...harpgirl, we had peacocks and peahens when I was growing up. Never knew they could fly until then. I used to "talk" to them. That's how we came to have some. A lady came looking for her lost ones one day because someone told her they'd "heard" ours. It was just me they'd heard, but we wound up buying a pair from her for $15!

They eat bugs in the grass, cracked corn, etc. I would imagine there is plenty in the wild stuff around there for one to get along just fine, but whomever lost it may be wondering where it went.

They are kind of stupid in some ways. Ours pecked at his reflection in the chrome bumper of the car, so we stood an old mirrow against the porch, thinking he'd like it. Well, we had to take the mirror away because he pecked himself bloody trying to kill his "rival."

I have seen them take off flying and go for great, long fell swoops, over a large valley area. They are great watchbirds, scaring the bejaysus out of unknowing prowlers. When I ran a 3 inch nail through my foot, ours set up a huge squawking alarm, bringing the household at a dead run to see what had happened. They would roost in the trees in the winter, but in the spring and summer, we'd find them high up on the gables, waking us at 4am! Despite that, we really did enjoy those silly birds.

Hope this is helpful!*bg*

kat

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Desdemona
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 05:07 PM

This is the most intiguingly titled thread in recent memory; I imagine they'd enjoy what most other fowls would: a nice cabernet, a medium rare staek w/bearnaise sauce, some lightly steamed asparagus....or corn.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: gnu
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 05:59 PM

Yup... a trail of corn down the roof and into the kitchen is perfect. Set the oven to 350 first.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: GUEST,Hille
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 06:12 PM

Well, shush or everyone will want one :)

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: 53
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 06:50 PM

Does he work for NBC?

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 06:54 PM

'spaw...t'aint funny.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Nemesis
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 06:54 PM

Get a peahen and breed? Feed them the same stuff as chickens I think....

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 06:59 PM

Slid that one in nicely Bill....Much more finesse than I have.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 07:16 PM

For 27 years, I ran a folk concert series, and we had outdoor concerts during the summer. If you think Pea fowl are beatiful, try having a couple of them sitting on the peak of the roof on a massive English Tudor mansion making that God-awful sqwauking call while someone is trying to sing. They never seemed to fail to fly up onto the roof in the evening where the concerts were held. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? Anyone who could make such a beautiful, dumb bird with such an ear-shattering call has got to have one. And dumb? The Pea Cocks would spend hours vainly displaying their beautiful fan tails in front of ducks and chickens. Meanwhile, the pea hens would be sitting over in a corner of the farm doing their nails. Makes you wonder where the Pea Chicks came from.
Jerry

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 08 Feb 02 - 11:50 PM

mmmmmmmmmmmm peacock!!!........shoot it.....Im sure they are a delicacy in some far off country!!!

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: CapriUni
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 12:36 AM

Actually, CatsPHiddle, they were once a delicacy in Medeival Europe... They'd be plucked and roasted like a turkey, and then the tail feathers would be put back in place, and they'd be brought to the table in all their glory...

And I agree with Jerry... when I was growing up we had a neighbor 1/2 mile away who raised them, and even from that distance, their call was ear-splitting.

For those who've never heard a peacock, the best way I can describe it is the scream of the blonde in a horror movie... No wonder they scare the bejeebers out of burglars.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Deckman
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 05:57 AM

Let me have the feathers! They're great for the body on a Royal Coachman, dry or wet, on a # 12 hook. CHEERS, Bob (weird thread)

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Banjer
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 06:24 AM

There is a horse stable down the road from us. They board horses and have a lot of acreage for their excercise. There is a group of peacocks that live there. Every once in a while while driving to work traffic stops for about five to ten minutes while the cock struts his way across the road with his harem in tow. So far as I know there have never been any hit by cars! it is quite a sight to see, the parade of peacocks holdin up traffic on a two lane road. Amazingly enough folks that travel that road on a regular basis are aware of the peacocks and don't seem to mind having to yield to them. Their call sounds like someone yelling 'Help, Help' and it IS LOUD. Fortunately we live far enough away taht we only hear it when the wind is just right.

According to Jerry's post above, maybe it is the pea chicks that holler for help for their peacock guys!??

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 07:36 AM

Peacocks for Thanksgiving.. I have a musician friend of mine who grew up in India, and he told me that peacocks were wild there and they hunted them like wild turkeys and had them for Thanksgiving Dinner. It sounded reasonable to me.
Jerry

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 07:47 AM

Cheers CapriUni I learn something new every day!!!!!

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: harpgirl
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 08:24 AM

...I discovered my feathered visitor likes lettuce. I'll entice him with corn when he comes back. I don't mind the peacock cries which I hear quite often behind my house. Do they taste as good as pink flamingos?

Ostriches make a booming sound that is much more unpleasant to my ears!

and catspaw, your mind has hit a new low, if that is possible!

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: breezy
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 09:44 AM

We had them walking round our school and into the gyms.Then they would try and fly out of the clear ,closed windows.Crash!Down they would tumble only to try again.Each time unloading rectum loads of matter all over the place.The farmer shot the buggers as they were fouling the animal feed.
Stuff 'em, they're a health hazzzzard.Attractive but still a health hazard.
And now for the song,it goes as follows, please join in the chorus,

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 10:51 AM

I'd hate to see anything so beautiful killed. They were not a health hazard when we had them.

The closest I can get to writing out what they sound like is "er-roo" repeated over and over. BUT, here's a better idea: click here. Then click on DOMESTIC & PET BIRDS, and scroll down a bit.

For info on having them as pets, click here.

kat

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: GUEST,Skiboo
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 11:12 AM

If your roof is a hot tin one.....mind the fiddler doesn't grab your bird!

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: lostbunny
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 11:22 AM

Our neighbours used to have peacocks. But they were slightly substandard ones - they didn't make proper peacock noises. They just sort of made a croaking sound, and ate the entire garden. My mother sprayed one with a garden hose and it didn't come back.

That's how you get rid of them humanely...

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Jock Morris
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 12:08 PM

When I lived in Dunfermline the peacocks from the local park would ocassionally take a stroll up the street and invade our back garden; not what you expect in the gardens of a run down block of flats!

My cat Lucy tried stalking one once, crept up to it real slow and low...that was when I discovered that as well as giving their high pitched cry they can also honk link a fog horn. Don't think I've ever seen Lucy move so fast as when she ran from that bird and cowered behind me:-)

Scott

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 12:24 PM

Yeah...lol...our cats walked very wide of the peafowl! The male can also be very menacing when displaying his tail, not just visually, because they look as though they are scowling and because their tale, when fully spread can reach a vertical height well over 5 feet, but also because there are a second set of shorter, thicker feathers behind the "fan", which support it AND which he will rustle in an attempt at intimidation. This can be a very loud rustle, very startling the first time! If you can observe it from the back it brings to mind furiously fluttering fans of those femme fatales who, behind all of the flighty stuff, really are in control.:-)

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: GUEST,SharonA at the library
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 01:49 PM

A couple who lives a few miles away from me keeps peafowl. Every time they have a yard sale, they sell peacock feathers, too. I imagine that if you cared to raise the birds on a larger scale, you could sell the feathers to the Mummers organizations in Philadelphia PA or any number of other organizations that create parade costumes and floats. Hmm... Mardi Gras is coming soon, y'know... :^)

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Grab
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 07:27 PM

"er-roo" doesn't do it justice. "AW-RAAWWW" might sum it up better. Or maybe "AW-RAAWWW" (I don't know how to do 50-point text as well ;-)

Graham.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: DougR
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 09:30 PM

Where is Kendall when you need him? He has a way with critters, and I'll bet he could solve your Peacock problem in a jiffy!

DougR

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Peg
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 10:06 PM

In Oxfordshire there is a roof thatcher who make s small peahen of thatch and attaches it to rooves (or is it roofs?) he has thatched; his signature. In the village of Dorchester-on-Thames and its environs there is a large proportion of homes with these beautiful rooves...or is it roofs?

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: DougR
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 10:14 PM

I believe it would be roofs, Peg. :>) DougR

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Gypsy
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 11:34 PM

Nah, they say HELP!, just like bluejays say THIEF. Peacocks are inordinately fond of their tails, and always worry that someone will steal them.....

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: CapriUni
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 12:44 AM

Gypsy --

Every bluejay I've ever heard has yelled: "Cat! Ca-a-at!" ;-)

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Melani
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:09 AM

There used to be peacocks in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in the last century. One of the gardeners there was given money by his wife to bring home a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but he stopped off at the local pub on the way. When he eventually realized that he'd drunk up the family's Thanksgiving dinner, he hit upon a clever plan--captured, killed and plucked one of the peacocks from the Park, and delivered it to his wife as a turkey. Upon tasting it the next day, his wife said, "John, wherever did you get this turkey? It's terrible! Don't ever go to that butcher again!"

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 04:48 AM

If you have been to the Gower Folk Festival which is held at The Gower Heritage Centre in where else - but Gower, Swansea, Wales, UK. (that is for the benefit of our American friends, who according to a recent report, didn't where Wales was, let alone Swansea!!)

Anyway, I digress. There is a peacock who is a resident of the Gower Heritage Centre who is determined to join in the choruses of songs and sometimes insists on having a go at the solo parts. If you have heard a peacock (or is it a peahen?) "singing" then you can understand that its efforts are not entirely appreciated by the artistes!

But the fun really starts when the ducks join in!!

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: lostbunny
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 12:26 PM

Wow! Peg, I used to live opposite a house with one of those peacocks on the roof - it was in Oxfordshire, too - in a very small village called Hinton Waldrist which very few people have heard of. Are you from round there too?

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 12:43 PM

I thought this was a lead in to that ancient joke..."Your mother is out on the roof and I can't get her to come in". He sounds like a wonderful new pet, harpie. I don't think I have ever seen a peacock outside of a zoo - NYC is famous for pigeons...nasty, dirty boids. We did have a falcon show up in our gardens once but the crows sent him on his way.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Gypsy
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 11:45 AM

CapriUni....your bluejays must be better adusted/less paranoid than mine! ;0)

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: gnu
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 12:02 PM

DougR... in Oxfordshire it would be rooves. In the US it would be roofs, although incorrect.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 12:05 PM

I can remember my son - he was about 5 at the time come running into the house to tell us exactly the same thing. We obviously didn't believe him. In fact my wife was talking to her mum on the phone at the two of them had a good laugh about it. We thought that Julian was either trying to trick us or that he'd just mis-identified a common bird. In the end though, he was so insistent, we had to go ouside - then we had to eat humble pie because it was true - in Bromley ! There was a sort of mini farm down the road and it had gone AWOL. I don't know if they got it back because it carried on fluttering from roof to roof and off into the distance.

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: harpgirl
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 03:29 PM

...well the local birders are all agog over the Tundra Swan spotted at the waste treatment plant over the weekend!

kat has convinced me that the peacock is a departed friend's latest joke!!!!

hg

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: DougR
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 10:39 PM

Gnu: In Texas it probably would be Rufs. (Just kidding fellow Texans)

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 10:51 PM

All this talk of peacocks.........I'm so ashamed of ALL of you! Where is your decency, your sense of equality? If you cannot say peafowl, then at least refer to the male as a ....... a, uh...........Hmmmmm............okay, how about a peapeter?.........No, that's no good............lessee here..........uh, no..........well.........no, that won't do..........gotta' be something, maybe....er, no...not that either..................................wait a minute....I got it now...A Peapud!!..........Yeah, that's it a peapud.........Peapud......I can live with that..............peapud...........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help, there's a peacock on my roof!!!
From: harpgirl
Date: 12 Feb 02 - 10:36 AM

oh catspaw, you're just a...just a.....just a.... SHALLOW-RUNNING CRANKBAIT!!!!