Why did the peacock cross the road? The turkeys showed him the way

One day in mid-October the dogs were barking like maniacs, so I ran to the glass door to see what it was all about: a peacock strutting across the yard. The property is no stranger to animals — a bear cub came right up to the door over the summer to catch a glance at me. And wild turkeys often stroll through for a tour.

With the bright green grass and the fall foliage, this iridescent blue bird looked rather stark and out of place, though, perhaps straying from a nearby farm. So I nicknamed him The Lone Peacock.

A week later I was checking the mail late one brisk afternoon and saw our new friend again, this time flummoxed by a wire fence. But he wasn’t alone. There were about eight wild turkeys with him, all as perplexed by the fence as they were.

One by one the turkeys hopped up awkwardly on top of a square pole on the road bridge spanning Christian Creek in Swannanoa and walked across.

Lastly, The Lone Peacock followed his foreign friends and awkwardly lunged up to the same place. I stood in the road because a car was coming, and the stopped driver and I watched this stunning bird lumber across the asphalt to join the turkeys on the other side.

Quite a colorful avian tableau and one that gives us hope for international bird relations.

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