Beautiful Peacocks

Thursday, Rajan and I went to the Folsom Zoo, a delightful, sprawling area on the edge of town that is actually a sanctuary for rescued animals. We like zoos, although we haven't been to one for a long time, but we especially liked that this was for rescue animals, many of them the local wildlife.

Our reason for going to the zoo Thursday was to meet with the Recreation Director in connection with an author reading and book signing I may have in June.  But afterward, as we bought tickets and wandered around, we were delighted, with what we saw. The animals are considered rescue animals if they have been raised in captivity (because they will never be able to function in the wild after that), or had been found to be mistreated or used for entertainment, etc., or used for breeding purposes in captivity by those who planned to sell the offspring. Other causes for rescue: accidents that rendered them unable to function in the wild (a bird's broken wing, for example). 

There is a wonderful array of wildlife in enclosures that are constructed to give the animal a sense of its natural environment.  We saw mountain lions, tigers, and bobcats. Deer wandered around in what looked so much like open space, it took a lot of staring to finally figure out that there was a distant fence that kept them from the road. We were not able to see the black bears, because they were sleeping inside their dens. Likewise the foxes in their burrows. But we did see raccoons (which we also sometimes see in our back yard, lol). And a good variety of birds, including horned owls and the peafowl.

I have always been entranced by peacocks. You normally see pictures of them fanning out their tails. But folded and trailing, they look fabulous, too. I normally think of the lovely teal blue color of their neck and body. But look at the sparkling emerald green of the tail when it's folded. 

You can tell he knows he's gorgeous. He started strutting regally down the boardwalk we were on, and let me follow along, taking pics. The less spectacular peahens sedately roosted nearby on a tree, watching (and no doubt commenting, privately.) Here he is, strutting his stuff:

It seemed fitting to meet up with peacocks on this visit. One of the stories in the book I'll be signing involves peafowl. 

And it seems fitting to include these pictures on my Victorian Scribbles blog, since the Victorians were charmed by peacocks as well. There is a nice blog post by Mimi Matthews HERE if you'd like to know more about that. 

Are you intrigued by peacocks? Are you intrigued by birds in general? What catches your fancy about plumage? (At the opposite end of that question, have you ever been frightened by birds?)