Cribblog 2017

   March 28 Peafowl.

On our first night out out with the grandchildren last summer, we were moored by Hungerford Marsh Lock 73. This is right in the middle of Hungerford Common and is surrounded by marsh and pasture land with not a dwelling in sight. This was the grandchildren's first camping experience so the proximity of wild and ravenous beasts of the night could have been alarming. Actually, it was Terry and I in the tent so we were likely to be the first course of any midnight feast. Sure enough our slumbers were punctuated by the sounds of large beasts just on the other side of a thin canvas sheet. Towards dawn, we heard ghastly screams and thought our end was near. 'That sounds like peacocks' I said 'but its not very likely way out here.'

Needless to say the children slumbered unencumbered through the night.

In the morning, Terry moved the car up to our next mooring at Great Bedwyn but passing the thatched cottages opposite the farm shop on the Bath road saw peafowl perched on the thatched roof.

So that was the explanation of our night screams.

I have been moored all winter and Froxfield and have passed that house many times in the last five months. Each time I have kept my eye open for the peafowl.....with no luck. I thought I saw them the other day on my way towards Hungerford but by the time I had turned the car round and returned they had gone. Then i decided that it was the satellite dish I had seen and that the peafowl were a construct of my brain.

However, Sunday evening as I went by, there they were. Out I hopped camera in hand!!!

Two peacocks and a satellite dish.