New Roof Ornament

Just before the sun went down, I took a photo of our new peacock roof ornament.

The file photo above of the house mid-day shows the "witch's hat" on the front of the house where the peacock is mounted. Truth be known . . . this is a real peacock . . . escaped from the Tracy Aviary just a few blocks from our home.

I was concerned about the safety of the bird and called the Aviary, but only reached a recording, at which point I left a voicemail, reporting the escaped bird. Making a long story short, omitting a few of the finer details and "officials" I spoke with, the SLC animal control (not interested and said the bird doesn't belong to the aviary---there are wild peacocks wandering all over the valley. I said, "So you mean to say, there are feral peacocks out and about all over at any given time?" He "assured" me this is true. Yea, right and I often see pink and blue fine-feathered-feral ostriches standing in the ticket line at the Broadway Cinema.) and a very persistent SLC police department dispatcher searching for chain of command in such aviary "emergencies" finally made contact with aviary officials. She had left voicemails containing my personal contact information with everyone. Eventually, I received a phone call from the Chairman of the Board of the aviary followed by a call from the Director of the aviary, both claiming the bird most definitely belongs to the aviary. The Director indicated that it is an adolescent bird (that was my guess, too) who hadn't gone through a full season yet. Those young fowl "sometimes get out of the aviary and roost at night, but always return to the aviary for breakfast." Some things, such as adolescent behavior, apparently translate across species. The Director gave me a bit of background on the aviary site: It used to be the site of the Hogle Zoo with elephants and such zoo animals. He assured me that our "escaped peacock is nothing compared to an elephant in the close line." :o)