Peacocks on the Roof

by Niki Chanel

There’s no argument - Palos Verdes is a beautiful place to live. Trees, ocean views, lush landscaping, and tastefully designed homes. Before I moved here I was told there were wild peacocks walking the neighbourhoods. I remember saying “Riiight. And are there pink elephants, too?” See… I was a disbeliever. How is that even possible!? I wondered. So, I did a little research and found out a few facts from Maureen Megowan’s realty page. Apparently, William Wrigley, Jr. who had plenty of his own on Catalina Island, gave 16 of the turkey-sized birds to Frank Vanderlip, the original mastermind behind the creation of Palos Verdes, in the mid 1920’s. Vanderlip kept his birds on his estate in Portuguese Bend. It is suspected that some of bird’s offspring may have been introduced deliberately to other areas of the hill at a later date.

I forgot about the issue in the moving effort and was awakened some days later by the screams of a woman in peril… or so I thought. No, I was told, that was the call of a peacock.

Not possible! I thought. No birds could sound like that! Birds tweet and sing or caw or cackle or cluck or …wait a minute; birds seem to make every sound under the sun! Some birds can even imitate human speech! Why couldn’t a large bird make a sound that will carry? Clearly, I was in denial.

Then the morning came when I was having coffee and looked out my kitchen window; about a half dozen of these creatures were on my neighbour’s roof. Suddenly awake in a way coffee could never achieve, I stared slack-jaw, as the fan of rainbow colours from the tail of a peacock - the male - shook in front of several plain brown birds – the peahens, displaying front, side and back in a dance of elegance until… he fell off the roof! I laughed so hard I spilled my coffee. I can only guess what the peahens were thinking.

So, the truth has been revealed: I do live in paradise and paradise has a sense of humour.

LiveJournal Tags: Peacocks,Palos Verdes,Valmonte Living Magazine,Valmonte,Niki Chanel,homeowner humour