This is Henry and he has a bird origin story that is actually true.
When I was in high school, we lived up against the woods that buffered the Birmingham Zoo (Alabama) from suburban surroundings on one side. We were close enough to hear the lions and peacocks at dusk and other animals almost any time.
Well, one day this beautiful male peacock just showed up in our suburban yard. My step-mother fed him some leftover scrambled eggs, which he gobbled up gleefully. The rest, as they say, is history. Somehow he ended up being called Henry and the neighborhood thought of him as the collective pet.
He roosted on my toddler sisters' swing set, which made them lose their interest in swinging immediately.
He decided to hang around, hoping for more left-over scrambled eggs and vegetable trimmings/leftovers, which were always offered. Our yard was used as home base for this bird of beautiful plumage. He would slowly strut around, visiting other neighbors, probably also mooching vittles from them.
Oh my!! Was eating scrambled egg leftovers cannibalism?
We were building a new wing on our house, and I spent a lot of time outside working. Henry was a confused boy, mistaking us for female peacocks, I guess. He would come right up close, shake his feathers erect, and turn in slow circles displaying his prowess and annoying ego. He was trying to entice us to...what?
Henry was so beautiful and I gathered many long, colorful feathers with "eyes" on the tips as he shed them. He would roost on the swingset with his long mass of feathers hanging down and would vocalise every day at dusk.
My dad was concerned that the zoo would miss him. He managed to catch Henry and carefully cram him into the back of our 1973 Chrysler Town and Country station wagon (the ugly beige model with fake wood side panels...ick). He would then drive the short distance to the zoo and deposit the freeloader at the back service gate.
Dad tried this personal taxi service 2-3 times and each time Henry beat my father back to the house. I never saw the bird fly, but he must have been able to do so. I guess he liked scrambled eggs over Purina Peacock Chow.
Our street was very quiet, and soon everyone knew to drive carefully around both children and peacocks.
My family moved to Mobile when I went to college. I drove by the house a few years later and saw that the name of our street had been officially changed to Peacock Lane!
Queen Mary's ostrich is named Ditsy (and no, we did not have a pet ostrich when I was growing up...). Ditsy was sent to Scotland from England by Queen Elizabeth I (Mary's cousin) after England's first sponsored sea voyage to the African continent. This was when they were still on speaking terms, before insecure Lizzie wanted to cut off the head of her kin.
Ditsy got her name from continually, and clumsily, running into trees, large rocks, people, carts, and other animals when she would run too fast in confined spaces. Outside the castle grounds and gardens she found a nearby loch where she learned how to fish for herself. I'm not sure Ditsy ate many fish on the plains of Africa.
Mary, Queen of Scots is in the Garden! She tries to walk in her garden at least twice a day. She tosses crumbled oat cakes for the birds and presents special treats of pink berries and little fish for her two favorite companions, the peacock and ostrich. Henry and Ditsy are really quite spoiled.
All hail Queen Mary!
Teresa - - - - - - - -
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