Reba and Uma had ten baby peachicks arrive at their mountain home in Sonora, California, this year and as of July 22, nine have survived. Ladybird, a hand-raised chick from 2015 now has her own family, but lives in a protected cage under the garage porch. She was the first to arrive. The other two peahens were left to roam on their own, one with six babies and the other with two, but only after the resident cats had been corralled into various homes. The turkey babies came earlier than the peachicks and are almost grown and were not in the group that came demanding breakfast this morning. The mother peahens are very protective of their babies and fiercely defend them from other peahens who did not care for the chicks. The male peacocks were around, but quite subdued as they had all lost their long beautiful tail feathers and were quite humbled. There was also a white peahen (no photo) named Jewel Thief because she had plucked a precious orange sapphire earring from Uma’s ear while roosting on the back of Uma’s chair. Uma searched the peacock poop for days, but never found the lost jewel.
Uma sent me this photo of Merlin who also dines at the Uma Hilton on a regular basis. The day after I was there he came with two of his buddies.
No scenic trip along state route 49 this trip as the road was closed due to a couple of wild fires. The plumes of smoke could be seen, but the wind was blowing it eastward and away from Sonora.
Click for more photos of peacocks, peahens, and peachicks from 2015, 2016, 2018-January, 2018-June, 2019, and 2020.
September 13-14, 2017: Returned to watch the entire ostentation of 20+ peachicks, peahens, and peacocks fly to their roosts along with a rafter of turkeys in their trees across the road. Eight of the ten babies have survived and been joined by a late hatcher who holds his (probably her–most of the chicks seem to be female) own with the other babies. The males have started to grow their marvelous tails.
JUL
2017