Peacocks on the Farm Roof

The day I knew I would have to leave the farm was when the peacocks showed up out of the blue.

 They were not anyone's peacocks...no neighbor nearby had lost them. The police had not a clue as to who they belonged to.

The lovely pair just strutted out of the woods and onto the property and decided to stay.

We fed them dog and cat food and raspberries and raisins. They ate it all up and began to dance and be happy together. Which means a lot of feather fluffing, and tail fanning....with the peahen ignoring the male peacock. He was so happy to strut his stuff over and in the gardens and around the house. They perched and preened on the farm fencing,on the table saw and on our piles of lumber. They made a point of ignoring everything...the cat, the pug, and the passing cars...paying attention to only each other.

Occasionally the female would give out a "hoot, hoot" and the male then knew to follow.

At nightfall's  approach the female flew up onto the big low branch on the huge old maple out front and she roosted. The male was quite clever, as he went around back, using the carport roof to make the three jumps to the highest point on the upper roof near the chimney where he could scan the road, woods and fields.

The last photo of the peacock made lots of local and state newspapers.  Ben sent it out over the net just as we were leaving Maine. We were honored and blessed to have these incredibly loving bonded birds for company for a couple of days. We could have kept them as they were quite tame and had been hand fed before (Ben hand fed them blueberries and cat food) and they belonged to no one as we found out when we called the local police.

They say peacocks are a symbol for everlasting life. Gregory Wilbur's The Meaning of Symbols blog had some insight and comments that I thought could relay how they made us feel. The feathers supposedly attract ghosts....I do not believe in this but they are almost too superb and awsome to believe a bird could be so decorated....especially on a down home Maine farm.