The Peacock of New Beach Road

Intermittently through the summer of '21, through lockdown, sightings of a young peacock yet to grow his elaborate tail feathers, have been reported up and down our road.  A solitary vagrant (?) that has taken a liking to the neighbourhood?

13th Dec 2021 was my close encounter.

The morning starts with a light drizzle, hmm, terrace walk, to go or not, tussle between my id (relax!) and my overactive superego (no you must go, don't be lazy)...sigh, superego wins, and off I go to our terrace. 

Emerging from the door, I gasped, there was the peacock just beyond the door, and not in the least perturbed or shocked at seeing me!  I stood stock still and watched as he strolled across the terrace to the wall and hopped up.

My first of several pictures of the young chap. Pavo cristatus - Indian peafowl

I moved slowly and kept my distance, took a few video clips and many pictures as it strolled and explored our terrace, at leisure, in the jerky fashion that many of these big birds have.

I admired the brilliant "peacock blue" of his neck.  Got a close look at the leg spurs.

I later read that,  that spur on the leg comes when they are around 2 years and tail feathers begin developing around 4.  So then was this chap between 2-4 years of age?  Why was he on his own like this?  I have always seen them in small groups, when I have seen them in India's sanctuaries, be it Kanha or Kaziranga.  I remember in Manas how there was a congregation of them at the entrance of the park.  Our first "Darshan" everyday before we headed in.  

All through the stroll, the house crows of the neighbourhood made their displeasure known, swooping close to his head, hopping closely with loud caws.  

The crows seemed bemused, not knowing what to make of this large bird, something new in the neighbourhood.  I remember when we spotted the Grey Hornbills, the crows behaved in the same manner. In that case, they successfully chased the pair of hornbills away, but our friend the peacock was not too bothered.

Finally, after a complete stroll around, with crows constantly swooping around, he hopped onto the eastern wall, before he launched off.

I peered over the wall, but lost sight of it.  Saw the beautiful reddening leaves of the jungli badam instead.

And then I spied him, across the road on the neighbour's roof!

It was an amazingly rewarding morning - I saw these 4 blue-tailed bee-eaters, as well and enjoyed their insect-hunting sorties and acrobatics.  Initially I wondered if they were chestnut-headed, but their long streamer tail made me conclude that they were Blue-tailed.  Here for the winter.

I also saw scaly-breasted munias, and this beautiful tree.

And here's the complete video.

21st December

An alert neighbour found the peacock once again - in the trees. And Sekar took these pictures through one of our bedroom windows.

We were able to admire the crest on his head, and the beautifully descriptive eyes.  That blue.... I had some sarees in that colour....silk, gorgeous.

He was feeding on the little berries and the young shoots...peck, peck, look, look, duck from the crow, peck again, neck in, neck up...we observed his motions.

And then he did something interesting...he lifted his undeveloped train of feathers, and quivered them, did a pirouette on the branch, showed us his rear.  Did this a couple of times, to a disinterested couple of crows as audience!  (Besides us of course!)

Getting ready for the breeding season?  Or is he immature still?  I wondered.

Further encounters ensued.

23rd December - on our car - seems like a photoshoot - blue on blue.  
Picture taken by our neighbour.

27th December evening - on the coconut tree, surrounded by crows, who were behaving in an indignant fashion - I mean, the coconut tree, this is the limit, I could almost imagine them muttering among themselves.

This was today - 28th December - on our neighbour's tank.  He was there for a good length of time.  Seemed to survey things around, and kept gobbling something - maybe ants - from around that brick he's standing on.

Wishing him a happy 2022, when he finds some other birds of his own feather - and maybe we will see his trail developing? And hear that characteristic peacock call, which has been completely absent.  Very quiet for an adolescent!

3rd January update

Spied this morning too, on the neighbour's fence, eating berries.  His neck caught the morning sun and I gasped with delight watching the shimmering colours through the binoculars.

A dog barked, and he was all alert.  A crow swooped close to its head and settled on the fence too, and immediately this chap put up his yet-to-fully-grow tail, and did his kathakali moves to the crow. So was that an act of aggression or is he (Heaven forbid) thinking he has to woo the crow?!

The neighbour's dog came bounding to the fence, and with a roll of its eyes, the peacock hopped across to the other side and vanished.

5th January - further update

Peacock evening it was!  My friend was on the neighbour's roof once again, and once again being heckled by the crow.  This time, I was able to catch its offensive actions on camera.

Up went its unformed tail, and it faced the crow - was it as a threat or in courtship?  The crow like the peahens, looked totally disinterested, looking the other way.

The crow hopped around on the wall, seemingly trying to deflect this attention, but the peacock moved in true kathakali style, quivering its feathers and also kind of rattling its beak, giving the crow his full attention.

In what felt like a slow-mo, the peacock swivelled as the crow moved.  

As i watched this scene in total rapt fascination, the crow decided it had had enough, and took off, (I like to think), when faced with the rear end of the peacock.

Immediately the tail came down and the peacock kind of peered over to see where the crow had gone off to.  

14th January

After a long hiatus, he was sighted this morning again.  Was it the overnight rain that brought him into view? on the roof of the bungalow across the road, once again in conversation with the crow.

I want to give him a name.  No inspiration at the moment.