A peacock of all things. The daughter and I were headed down Hwy 17 yesterday afternoon and a rather large bird walks out into the road. I thought it was a turkey at first. She was driving her "new" car. As we get closer I see the blue feathers and the long tail. She ended up stopping to avoid hitting it. It finally turned and ran back into the woods. This happened in the middle of the Francis Marion National Forrest. WTF. It's not like there is a zoo close by that it escaped from. Can a peacock even survive in the wild in South Carolina?
Anyway, it kind of blew my mind and I thought some of you would get a kick out of it.
TJ
SuperDork
8/8/10 8:02 a.m.
If I were a peahen roaming the woods of South Carolina, I'd watch my back.
I would think they would be easy prey for coyotes.
Apparently, there ARE feral peacock populations in the US.
[wayne] I was not aware of that. [/wayne]
I used to see them occasionally when dirt biking out there. Tell you what: if you haven't seen the wild turkeys in the FMNF, those suckers are HUGE. 
I've seen them on my property up here.
There is a hare scramble course that's part of the national circuit, 10 minutes from my house. Almost every time I ride it, I chase wild turkeys. You don't have an appreciation for just how big they are, until one flies out of the bush at head height right in front of you.
We have a rafter of around 15 turkeys that live around my parents house on Edisto Island. I also see them on the side of the road all around the lowcountry. But peacocks. In almost 30 years of playing in and around the national forest I have never seen one. Apparently in some states feral peacocks are so common as to be annoying. They are apparently hard on car finishes and sound like a truck horn. I would have never guessed. Learn something new every day.
I had a friend with a game preserve in south Georgia. His Mercedes was coverd in little paw prints. The Peafowl loved to roost on his 560 SEL. If you ever hear the call of a Peacock you will never forget it. It sounds kinda like a woman calling for HELP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IF-UXYyilw&feature=related
Will
HalfDork
8/8/10 9:23 a.m.
I moved to eastern Tennessee from SoCal about 5 years ago. The first time I saw a peacock just roaming around in the wild I thought I had lost my mind. I didn't tell anyone about it at first because I was afraid people would think I was nuts. Once I finally did mention it to someone I found out that it was just common knowledge they're around here.
porksboy wrote:
If you ever hear the call of a Peacock you will never forget it. It sounds kinda like a woman calling for HELP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IF-UXYyilw&feature=related
I associate that sound with the Cleveland Zoo. They have free-roaming peacocks there.
A friend of mine lives in D.C. and almost hit John Kerry the other day. True story, he was driving down the street (in his E36) and JK was preoccupied talking to someone and stepped right out into the street before he noticed there was a car coming.
porksboy wrote: If you ever hear the call of a Peacock you will never forget it. It sounds kinda like a woman calling for HELP.
When I was a kid, one time we heard this Help, Help, Help coming out of the woods. After an hour long search for a woman in distress, we finally found this stupid big bird wandering around. Turns out there was someone local who had peacocks, and one of the hens had got out of the pen.
This was in northern Minnesota, by the way - I don't know what they did with the birds in the winter.
As far as being able to survive in the wild there, I'd have to say yeah, they can. I know there was a farmer in Big Timber MT (yeah, I know...
) that raised them, so So Carolina should be no problem. Turkeys...now those we have lots of here in eastern MT; at least 2 flocks around Colstrip. Probably 30-35 birds.
Good job she got the car stopped before creaming it. IIRC, they're slooow getting out of the way. Would've made a dandy story to gross out grandkids, though.
16vCorey wrote:
A friend of mine lives in D.C. and almost hit John Kerry the other day. True story, he was driving down the street (in his E36) and JK was preoccupied talking to someone and stepped right out into the street before he noticed there was a car coming.
And this is germaine because Kerry's a peacock? I would've guessed he's just a ***cock. Not the same thing at all...
stuart in mn wrote:
This was in northern Minnesota, by the way - I don't know what they did with the birds in the winter.
They had some strange Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner traditions...
4cylndrfury wrote:
Mikey52_1 wrote:
16vCorey wrote:
A friend of mine lives in D.C. and almost hit John Kerry the other day. True story, he was driving down the street (in his E36) and JK was preoccupied talking to someone and stepped right out into the street before he noticed there was a car coming.
And this is germaine because Kerry's a peacock? I would've guessed he's just a ***cock. Not the same thing at all...
True, true...I did (wrote ) a bad bad thing. My bad,
Knurled wrote:
stuart in mn wrote:
This was in northern Minnesota, by the way - I don't know what they did with the birds in the winter.
They had some strange Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner traditions...
One of the things I read earlier said they roast up like a turkey and taste pretty good.
Toyman01 wrote:
Knurled wrote:
stuart in mn wrote:
This was in northern Minnesota, by the way - I don't know what they did with the birds in the winter.
They had some strange Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner traditions...
One of the things I read earlier said they roast up like a turkey and taste pretty good.
There again, you have the whole Minnesota experience to consider..
Toyman01 wrote:
Knurled wrote:
stuart in mn wrote:
This was in northern Minnesota, by the way - I don't know what they did with the birds in the winter.
They had some strange Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner traditions...
One of the things I read earlier said they roast up like a turkey and taste pretty good.
Hmmm. I may have to carefully consider a possible Thanksgiving invite.
cwh
SuperDork
8/8/10 6:18 p.m.
Here in SoFla, every wild ting lives, including peacocks. I always thought their call sounded like a cross between a cat being thrown into a blender, and somebody stepping on a baby. I mean, a NASTY sound.
16vCorey wrote:
A friend of mine lives in D.C. and almost hit John Kerry the other day. True story, he was driving down the street (in his E36) and JK was preoccupied talking to someone and stepped right out into the street before he noticed there was a car coming.
That sort of thing happens all the time there. Seriously.
motomoron wrote:
16vCorey wrote:
A friend of mine lives in D.C. and almost hit John Kerry the other day. True story, he was driving down the street (in his E36) and JK was preoccupied talking to someone and stepped right out into the street before he noticed there was a car coming.
That sort of thing happens all the time there. Seriously.
dumbest pedestrians evar, almost creamed two tonite. I got over berkeleying with them on my bicycle a long time ago. they're so dumb they walk under the front wheels of buses all the time to the point where the Post has labelled THE bus-drivers as near-homicidal, sheesh.
dumbest pedestrians evar, almost creamed two tonite. I got over berkeleying with them on my bicycle a long time ago. they're so dumb they walk under the front wheels of buses all the time to the point where the Post has labelled THE bus-drivers as near-homicidal, sheesh.
