A Peacock Walked Down My Drive

One day a peacock walked down my drive. This would be unusual for most people I think. But this is particularly the case where I live, half way up a mountain in Central Italy.

A Peacock Walked Down My Drive

Doing A Double Take

I was washing dishes at the kitchen sink and glanced out of the window to see this vision of blue splendor ‘swish’ his way down our drive with his long tail feathers making a dust trail. I am sure you can imagine me standing there with my mouth open?

Having decided this wasn’t a mirage I went outside to take a good look at him. And he checked me out. I got the feeling he had decided this looked like a good place to hang around for a while.

Naming The Peacock

I called him ‘Indie’ because peacocks are the national bird of India, heavily featuring in religious traditions.

Indie stayed with me for quite a few months. I tried to find where he had come from by asking around and posting on social media and everyone was as stunned about him as I was. No-one had a clue where he could have come from.

Feeding Him

I decided if he was going to stay I needed to find something to feed him. The local animal feed merchant did a brilliant job of hiding his surprise at being asked for peacock food…

A big metal tin was allocated as his feeding dish and he took to it quickly. So much so, that if it was empty and he saw me around he would pick it up and throw it to draw to my attention the tragedy of the whole thing.

Getting My Attention

Indie would come and tap on the window of my studio. I thought at first he was reacting to his reflection in the window. We had a blue tit that would hurl itself at a particular window because he could see his reflection. In the end we got over that by handing something in the window to stop the reflection. But Indie knew what he was doing. He knew that my bedroom was next to the studio. Our house is upside down so the bedrooms are downstairs and the living area is upstairs to take full advantage of the glorious view. Indie figured out that if he tapped on the glass I would hear it. When he saw me look through the studio door he would peck pointedly at his feed dish.

If I was at the front of the house he had an unnerving habit of flying up onto the metal pergola and standing on the top of it so he could see through the living room window. I remember once we had people over for a dinner party and they were sitting in the living room, glasses of wine in hand. Suddenly, Indie’s head appeared and hammered on the glass with his beak. Frightened the life out of the visitors. One of them said “That’s put years on me Dorothy”.

What To Do With Him?

We had long debates about whether to try and catch him. Local animal rescue didn’t have a clue what to do or how to catch him. But as there was nowhere obvious to take him if we did catch him somehow, we decided to leave him alone as he was doing absolutely fine as a ‘wild’ peacock. We talked about creating a shelter for him, but at night, Indie would roost high up in an oak tree in my woodland. He had obviously been doing this sort of thing for a long time. As soon as I opened the front door in the morning he was there asking for food.

Indie Was Lonely

Displaying At Anything That Moved

The thing is, Indie was lonely and I think he stopped with us in the hope of finding a mate. Plain and simple. When I was in the garden, he would display at me, rattling his tail feathers and looking magnificent. He displayed at the kittens as they watched in amazement. He then let them ride around on his tail feathers. My heart was in my mouth the first time, as Indie had huge claws that if he kicked out could kill a kitten. But he seemed to like the kittens and they loved Indie so it was a match made in heaven.

Indie’s constant displaying did cause some problems. I had a workman repairing the roof and was outside when I heard a startled yell followed by the sound of scurrying footsteps. The workman came down his ladder without touching the rungs! He had turned to pick up a roof tile and there was Indie walking towards him rustling his feathers in full display mode. The workmen asked me if you could eat peacock but retreated swiftly on seeing the look on my face. I mean, I know peacocks were a delicacy in medieval times, but really!

But if you think about it, it takes some intelligence to realize that if he did his dancing strut on the roof he could be seen for 26 miles around. Surely there must be a female that wanted to come and live with him? His call was really loud and traveled a long distance. I have to say, I didn’t mind the noise but then I don’t have any neighbors! It would have been different if we did I am sure.

Trying To Find Him A Mate

I did try and find a mate for Indie but to no avail. Animal and bird rescue centers talked to me very strangely when I asked them if, just by chance, they had a female peacock (peahen) looking for a home. I was offered two peahens but they were cage reared and Indie was very definitely free range. The peahens definitely wouldn’t cope out on our mountain side, not least during hunting season!
In fact, I am still not sure how Indie lived as long as he did given the circumstances. Given the length of his feathers and his full coloring he was no spring chicken!

Indie Moved On Elsewhere

One day Indie disappeared but I could hear his call way off in the distance. he had moved on to my nearest neighbor’s house a few kilometres away, having decided there was no female at my house. After a few weeks he moved even further up the mountain to another house. I only know because someone was talking about how a peacock turned up at their house one day and how weird it was. You can say that again!

One day someone from further up the mountain and came and complained about the noise ‘my’ peacock was making. I pointed out he was wild, had stayed with me for a while and was now way up the mountain, a long way from me. And I had no control over any noise he made! I got the usual look of stunned disbelief that one day a peacock had walked down my drive. Stayed awhile and then moved on. Thinking about it I would have been doubting the whole thing if I hadn’t experienced it!

Eventually Indie moved out of the area completely and no-one ever heard of or from him again. After he had disappeared I heard that many kilometres away there were some private gardens with peacocks who wandered freely so we wondered if he came from there originally. If so, I hope he found his way home. I also hope he found his female companion(s), he deserved to with all the effort he put in. I still have a bag of his beautiful downy feathers that I used to pick up after he had been preening. He brought such joy into my life in his short time with us. I will certainly never forget the day a peacock walked down my drive that is for sure!

Based on an article I originally wrote on Bored Panda in 2018.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

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Thank you for reading!