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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On the Road and In Your Backyard

On the Road and In Your Backyard

by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)|  January 3, 20185:00 am| 29 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

There are issues with the form; they are almost resolved.

Today, something neat from valued commenter and playwright Mustang Bobby:

Where it was taken: My driveway in Palmetto Bay, Florida.
When: 02-21-13
Commenter screenname: Mustang Bobby
Other notes or info about the picture: I live in a suburb of Miami.  Many
years ago some genius thought that having peacocks roaming their Biscayne Bay estate would add a touch of exotic to the place.  Of course they bred, flew the coop, and now they are practically feral in my neighborhood.  They are noisy, mean, messy (their droppings are the size of golf balls), and stupid beyond repair; they attack their own reflections in the side of cars. They are both invasive and protected, so there’s really nothing to be done with them.

I apologize for the lousy quality of the pictures, but when I took them I
was using my flip-phone camera.  I went out to the garage to get in my car and this dude strolled up to me like he owned the place.  He’s done with his showy phase so he’s moulted his tail feathers, the ones that got him the gig with NBC.

I’ve encountered them in Africa (Zambia I think), Florida, Texas, and Singapore. On Sentosa Island (Singapore), they strutted like they owned the place. Being so protected and spoiled, they may be correct…

 

Thanks Bobby, do send more!

One again, to submit pictures: the form is broken so Send an Email

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Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 3, 2018 at 5:09 am

    We have them near the LA County Arboretum in Arcadia. There are even signs.

  2. 2.

    Schlemazel

    January 3, 2018 at 5:35 am

    There was a male & some females near us when we lived outside of COcoa Beach. I heard stories of physical confrontations that made the things sound dangerous. The only reaction I ever had to them was that they could make enough noise to deafen everyone in a 2 mile radius
    Pretty though/

  3. 3.

    Sab

    January 3, 2018 at 5:38 am

    Better looking than wild turkeys, but probably slightly more obnoxious. Wild turkeys are infesting northern Ohio.

  4. 4.

    Sab

    January 3, 2018 at 5:39 am

    @Schlemazel: What wereyou doing outside of Cocoa Beach? I went to elementary school in Volusia County probably before you were born.

  5. 5.

    Major Major Major Major

    January 3, 2018 at 5:57 am

    The Mountain Goats–“Peacocks”

    Sorry about the form, folks. A simple update but I’m out of town.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    January 3, 2018 at 6:07 am

    I suppose peafowl behave like that because they see themselves as the mighty dinosaurs of olden days.

    @Schlemazel:
    If there was only one peacock, did the peahens fight among themselves?

  7. 7.

    tybee

    January 3, 2018 at 6:07 am

    a ritzy neighborhood out on one of the islands around here had a resident who raised pea fowl.
    until one of the other residents took it upon himself to rid the area.
    police, law suits, air guns, fireworks.
    was a hilarious to read/hear about it all.
    the pea fowl are no more.

    and it could snow up to a foot here today. weird.

  8. 8.

    Quinerly

    January 3, 2018 at 6:11 am

    ??❤

  9. 9.

    Mustang Bobby

    January 3, 2018 at 6:24 am

    Thank you, Alain; the pictures turned out better than I thought they would. You’re a genius.

    It’s still dark at 6:23 a.m. and I just heard a peacock sending out his “love call.” Sheesh.

  10. 10.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    January 3, 2018 at 6:32 am

    Those are great phone pictures, Mustang Bobby! Thanks for sending them in. I’m another in the peacocks aren’t even worth the pretty tail feathers on their best day club. Loud, unpleasant, and unfazed by the notion that other creatures share the environment.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    January 3, 2018 at 6:34 am

    Beautiful pictures ?

  12. 12.

    Schlemazel

    January 3, 2018 at 6:54 am

    @Sab:
    I worked at Kennedy Space Center for a few years in the early 90’s. Really closer to Titusville but nobody knows where that is

    If you went to school before I was born you have to tell me, what was life like during WWI? :)

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    January 3, 2018 at 6:55 am

    @Amir Khalid:
    I never saw them but at times the whole crew made a lot of noise, heard them a lot more than I cared to

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    January 3, 2018 at 7:14 am

    I like the little spray of feathers on their heads. Makes them look like they’re in a marching band.

  15. 15.

    ArchTeryx

    January 3, 2018 at 7:24 am

    Yep, peafowl are generally evil, particularly peacocks with that air-horn call of theirs. And worse, they’re herbivores – thus the huge (and frequent) droppings.

    Think of them as sort of brightly-colored, modern-day apatosaurs.

    You want a little catharsis watch Kung Fu Panda 2 some time. The primary villain there, Lord Shen, is played by Gary Oldman, and is a black and white peacock. Yeah, I could EASILY believe a peacock villain. ^.^

  16. 16.

    Mustang Bobby

    January 3, 2018 at 7:45 am

    @Betty Cracker: Well, with their parading through my backyard and their screeching, they look and sound like rejects from the River City Boys Band (“The Music Man”).

    They also stand in the middle of the road, and when a car approaches they do their Ratso Rizzo “I’m walkin’ here!” routine and nearly cause rear-enders.

  17. 17.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 3, 2018 at 7:54 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, makes ’em look like fucking Trojan Marching Band. /UCLA Alum.

  18. 18.

    Jager

    January 3, 2018 at 8:18 am

    Some friends live outside Bend Oregon, the nice country house they bought came with a god damn Peacock. They thought it was neat, at first! Their Golden Retriever went after it shortly after they moved in, the Peacock kicked the dogs butt. About 6 months after they moved in, Rusty the dog must have called his coyote relatives, because they stopped by and all our friends found was a pile of feathers down by the irrigation pond. Our friends and Rusty are much happier now.

  19. 19.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 3, 2018 at 8:44 am

    I don’t get all the peacock hate. I think they are beautiful, especially when they dance with all their feathers making a fan, signifying the arrival of monsoon. Peacocks symbolize love and lust. Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his movie Ramleela, (his take on Romeo and Juliet) uses peacock imagery to great effect.

  20. 20.

    MomSense

    January 3, 2018 at 8:49 am

    They may be trouble but they are also very handsome birds.

    I guess our version of nuisance fowl would be the wild turkeys.

  21. 21.

    sherparick

    January 3, 2018 at 8:51 am

    @Sab: I would phrase it that their population is recovering as Ohio was well within the original habitat range of the wild turkey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_turkey However, game departments have pretty much spread them through out North America and turkeys, like deer and Canada geese, have found suburbia a safe and pleasant no-hunting zone in which to live. Hence, your perception of this noble bird as a nuisance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_turkey and https://documentarystorm.com/my-life-as-a-turkey/

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    January 3, 2018 at 8:57 am

    @schrodingers_cat:
    A peacock in his full splendour is indeed a beautiful and inspiring sight. No one here disputes that, or could. When they’re not occupied with looking beautiful, though, peafowl can be noisy, messy, and disagreeable or sometimes even violent. These are surely legitimate grievances.

  23. 23.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 3, 2018 at 9:07 am

    @Amir Khalid: I am not advocating to keep them as pets.
    ETA: Also, gloating about coyotes eating/killing a peacock rubbed me the wrong way.

  24. 24.

    Waratah

    January 3, 2018 at 9:14 am

    Majestic even without the tail feathers. I might feel different if I had to live with them but I love looking at them. I also love the flamingos.

  25. 25.

    Mustang Bobby

    January 3, 2018 at 9:21 am

    I have a lot of other wild birds in my neighborhood: ibises, ducks, herons, egrets, even the occasional vulture stops by (but they don’t stay long because they only have a little carrion…). But the peafowl have made themselves nuisances with their destruction and noise. I certainly don’t advocate killing them, but there needs to be some kind of control. A plan was proposed to ship them off to a preserve in Iowa, and I’m all in favor of that.

  26. 26.

    Jager

    January 3, 2018 at 9:23 am

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Not gloating, coyotes do what coyotes do.

  27. 27.

    tybee

    January 3, 2018 at 9:25 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    they don’t stay long because they only have a little carrion

    stop that

  28. 28.

    Sab

    January 3, 2018 at 9:49 am

    @Schlemazel: Okay, so you are old. I was there before they built Disneyworld in Orlando. I watched Alan Shepard’s launch on tv and then ran outside with my class to the playground to watch the booster stages drop off while the rocket went into space.

    Most of my classmates fathers were rocket scientists working for GE and NASA.That was in the 1960s.

  29. 29.

    Mustang Bobby

    January 3, 2018 at 11:05 am

    @Sab: My first trip to Orlando was in 1966 when it was still a sleepy Southern town. It’s now Anaheim on crack.

    Speaking of NASA, I just watched “Hidden Figures” again. Wow, what a story.

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