84. Mothers
His strategy had changed. Jack decided to wait in the woods for what was hiding there to make itself known, rather than running outside. He grabbed a pair binoculars that were lying on his bedside table and looked through them into the darkness of the woods.
Jack and Bonnie were waiting with baited breath as the brush in front began to tremor.
A swarm came out of the darkness, a huge flock of brown and heavy birds. Bonnie whispered, “Mothers.” “Momma peacocks.”
85. Momma peacocks
Peahens are good mothers even though they don’t get the same attention as males. They normally lay their eggs in dense shrubbery but in this case they appeared to have mistook Jack’s dense corn fields for shrubs.
Peahens are fiercely protective and will not hesitate to smack the unwise for coming too close to their young.
Half of their chicks had disappeared.
