Thursday, August 04, 2011

Make Way for Peachicks!

Does anyone remember the children's book Make Way for Ducklings? A mother and father duck decide to lay their eggs in the middle of the city and when the eggs are hatched the whole city comes to a halt to make sure the babies make it safely to the nearby pond. I thought of that this past Sunday when the day finally arrived. Three new baby peachicks!

I heard the momma squawk in the early morning hours and didn't think anything of it since she has made a habit of that lately. Later when I was up fixing breakfast I peeked outside and saw that the eggs had hatched. She had three out of five eggs make it. Woohoo! She had moved the babies to another part of our yard and was sitting on them while they got their bearings. I think she wanted to be away from the bad eggs. At this point I didn't get to see the babies, but I feel pretty confident she was nesting on them still since it was only a few hours since I heard her commotion.

We left for church and missed the chick parade as they marched back to NPS where I assume they will stay safer since there is a good sized gate that can keep out a few predators.  Unfortunately, the hosts of the peahen and eggs did not get to see the babies; we had dinner after church with a family. Our neighbors snapped a shot of them making their way across the street.

Here is the Daddy, one morning he woke us up early before the eggs were hatched. I think he saw himself in the reflection of the french doors to our bedroom. He would not stop squawking. I mean, incessant, loud, peacock squawk. It was pretty annoying. I had to see what he was doing. As soon as I walked him away from the door he stopped and I didn't hear him again. So territorial of his lady and her eggs.




This was a common sight when we would get home from errands. He often hung out on our porch. We all got so used to seeing him watching over the peahen and eggs.



The vigilant momma.


The two bad eggs left whole and the cracked eggs.

Make Way for Peachicks!

They are so cute! Even though we didn't get to see them I am still happy for this fun month of checking on them and the frequent visits from the mister. What a neat bird!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

So exciting! I can't believe the peacock would just sit on your front porch like that. What a neat story!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the daddy bird was a good role model for Daniel.

Tony said...

Good post in conjunction with your tutorial on the nesting habits of the peafowl.

CLR said...

So Awesome!

Appollo Schloss said...

Congratulations on your new flock!

Mom G. said...

Love your story about the peachicks and their hatching.