Many Happy Returns

After a very busy Saturday, we were glad to be finished with chores and headed back to the house. We made it to back porch when we heard a loud “whoosh!”

Imagine our surprise when we discovered the peahen we thought lost for good had just made a landing in a nearby tree! We hoped she’d fly right down in the yard and go over to the aviary, but she remained stolidly in place.

While she was spending the night in the tree in the back yard, we had another night time visitor in the front yard. I’d left the old peafowl eggs in a bucket on the front sidewalk, hoping to entice the raccoon back so I could take a picture. Instead, there was an opossum helping himself to a free meal: Sunday morning when The Farmer got up and looked out, the peahen was still perched in the tree. However, by the time I went out to do chores, she was on the ground and walking up and down the outside of the aviary with her sister on the inside doing the same.

I think all that time on her own addled her brains, because she couldn’t seem to SEE the open doors and go back inside. I tried opening the back door and easing her in, but she got flustered and wouldn’t go near the door. I was afraid she'd take flight again, so I gave up on that. Then I tried the new front door, and she walked past in a couple of times without any inclinaton to go in. Finally her sister poked her head out the door and she got the idea she could get back in by going through that space.

Thus ends the “Peafowl on the Loose” saga with each and every one of them finally back at home. That’s many happy returns indeed!