Tamara Star opened her door in south Boulder on the second day of the new year and found herself face-to-beak with what she is taking as an auspicious omen for 2018.
Two of them, in fact.
There, just outside her home on Shanahan Ridge, was a pair of peafowl — a peacock and peahen, in all their iridescent splendor.
Star recalled the first meeting with her newest neighbors on Friday, saying, “I swear to God, I thought, ‘Whoa, this is an excellent sign for the new year.'”
Star moved into Shanahan Ridge, at the extreme southern edge of the city, just about a month ago.
“I just fled a black mold situation in north Boulder from a rental — I’ve been very sick,” she said. “And the sign for peacocks, I looked it up in Native American (literature), is rejuvenation, like the Phoenix rising. I had so many chills when I read that, because I thought, now that’s a beautiful omen, to open the front door. Rejuvenation, Phoenix rising, integrity, grace and royalty. I thought, I’ll take all of that.”
Star said her cat has been particularly intrigued with the exotic winged visitors.
But she has cautioned her cat, saying, “That’s way more bird than you can handle.”
Another neighbor, Stephen Jones, past president of the Boulder County Audubon Society and author of the monthly Nature Almanac column for the Camera, has also enjoyed their surprise presence.
“For us here, it was really just amazing to see them here in the dead of winter — whatever the dead of winter means in Boulder,” Jones said. “To see these exotic birds right on our porches. I think they’re coming on my porch because we put quite a bit of salt down for ice.”
After posting about the birds on Facebook, Star established contact with the owners of Shanahan Ranch, located directly south of Shanahan Ridge, and a ranch owner told Star she is going to come to corral the birds, which may have gone astray in recent high winds.
A representative of Shanahan Ranch could not be reached for comment Friday.
While the appearance of a brace peafowl in south Boulder has caused a stir, such sightings are somewhat common in north Boulder — despite the fact that the birds, which originated in Asia, are not considered native to Colorado, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
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