Saturday, May 01, 2010

The Green River Peacock

"Hey, look at that!" It's still the early part of the ride. Mark Canizaro and I left my place a bit after 8:00 AM, paused to refuel at the Black Diamond Bakery and have now just rolled over the tiny bridge spanning the Green River Gorge. Eventually the day will be Mark's longest ride this year. We'll have lunch in Buckley and climb into the wind up the Carbon River Valley before taking a long loop back home. We never know what we'll find on these rides, but there is always at least one unexpected thing.

Today's thing is a peacock. An Indian Blue Peacock to be precise. This is why we bring cameras on our rides. While Wikipedia tells me that peacocks display their tail plumage to attract mates, I don't think this peacock was getting fresh with me. It was clear to us that he was trying to make himself look big and scary so we'd go away.

We took our pictures, thanked the bird and went away.





Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

7 comments:

  1. I love the peacock's call. It sounds like something out of Jurassic Park.

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  2. What kind of gloves you got there?

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  3. Cool! You look kind of like an astronaut in that outfit.

    Bob

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  4. D Housley,

    My gloves are Manzella Windstopper shells which I wear over SmartWool liners.

    Kent

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  5. Kent,

    Many of the vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, Solano, etc. have peacocks as pets/guard beasts. The first time you ride through the night on a 600km and hear one of these call out in the dark, it's a bit unsettling. I'd say I'm used to them now, but the next 600km I'm sure I'll get surprised. One some of our routes you can find a spot where you'll see one of these, plus an ostrich within a couple miles. When my son was younger he'd ask what birds I saw on my rides and one time I really made his eyes bug out.

    On other routes, the milestones are bakeries instead of exotic animals. Next time you are down in the bay area, promise we'll do a 7 bakery ride (perhaps supplemented with a stop at a taqueria (or two))

    rob

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  6. I like peacocks especially when they flip their tails!

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