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Surrey’s peacocks have hatched

Sullivan Heights family thrilled mama and her three chicks haven’t flown the coup —their front porch
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Sullivan Heights’ celebrated Mama Peacock with one of her three recently-hatched chicks. (Photo: Jerry Barr)

Mrs. Peacock is a mommy.

And the Barr family of Sullivan Heights continues to be thrilled that this small family of exotic birds — mama, and her three chicks — haven’t yet flown the coup, which in this case happens to be the mat just outside the Barr’s front door.

In the July 14 issue of the Now-Leader we brought you a report about this mama peacock commandeering the welcome mat on Jerry Barr’s family’s porch and laying four cream-coloured eggs. Barr figures one of them was a “decoy” egg.

Three of the eggs hatched this past Friday and Saturday.

“Who knows what’s going to happen?” Barr said Monday, “almost about 28 days after they were laid.”

He said his jaw dropped when he saw the first eggshell. “I was so happy.”

“It’s completely crazy, I’ll tell you that.”

Surrey’s peacocks have been living in Sullivan Heights and other neighbourhoods for about a decade now, colorful refugees, as it were, from a hobby farm that closed down.

SEE VIDEO: Mama peacock lays four eggs on Surrey doorstep

“They might hang out there for a week or something, a couple of weeks, I have no idea,” Barr said of the wee bird family on his porch.

“I put out food; I’ll know today when I come home if the chicks are starting to eat it,” he said Monday, “because they’ve got to eat right away. I put out grains.”

Mama likes pumpkin seeds, he said. “We kind of threw a couple of pumpkin seeds at her yesterday before we putting anything down and she went after those pumpkin seeds like she hadn’t had anything for a few days. She was bluddy hungry. She went after those pumpkin seeds.”

Barr said his kids Brooke, 12, and Colson, 10, are enjoying the front-seat nature show these birds have provided. “Oh, they’re over the moon,” he said.

As for Mrs. Peacock, he said, “We never named her.”

“The kids wanted to name like normal names for the chicks like Joe, Bob Christopher, that kind of stuff,” Barr said. “That’s what my kids wanted to do.”

tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com



About the Author: Tom Zytaruk

I write unvarnished opinion columns and unbiased news reports for the Surrey Now-Leader.
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