Lonely peahen finds love after rescue

Liam Barnes - BBC News, Nottingham
·3-min read

A lonely peahen has found love after being rehomed in Nottinghamshire.

Penny was first spotted roaming around Ollerton and Wellow in the north of the county during the pandemic, and became a much-loved sight among villagers.

After concerns for her safety a plan was hatched to catch her, and she was taken to Mansfield Wildlife Rescue on Friday.

On arrival she met Peter the peacock, and now the pair are birds of a feather.

Lisa Dean, who runs Beauty's Legacy, a charity that helps reunite owners and lost pets, first got to know Penny when she landed on her roof last November, but she has been a fixture in the area for years.

"She was standing on the patio talking to the animals," she said.

"We believe possibly something happened to her owner in lockdown, but we don't know - she just suddenly appeared."

While Penny has been a much-loved site locally, Ms Dean said there were worries for her safety.

"She was just visiting all the residents, she'd never be anywhere longer than a couple of hours, and she got tamer and tamer," she said.

"No-one had claimed her, and I was getting more and more worried because, as much as everyone loves her, she walked into the road and into traffic.

"One lady said she saw a fox track her, and some people complained about her destroying plants, but we were worried for her."

'Match made in heaven'

With social media and newspaper appeals failing to find the peripatetic peahen's proper proprietor, villagers decided to come up with a plan to take her to a rescue centre.

Ms Dean used her experience in handling other animals, and the idea took flight.

"The rescue centre said 'if you can catch her, we'll take her', then I became a peacock expert," she said.

"I studied their roosting habits and everything, I started following her with cameras, and I found she went into the high trees at night to avoid predators.

"Some people had tried to catch her, and she moved over to Ollerton, but when she went into a garden they contacted me, thanks to social media.

"I noticed she was looking at her reflection in windows, because she was lonely, so I put a mirror in a dog cage, and when she came in we used a pulley to shut the door, and it was job done."

With the new-found feather in her cap as a peacock catcher, Ms Dean said she plans to volunteer and learn to help more stricken animals.

"I've got quite a lot of equine knowledge, I've lots of experience with dogs and cats, but I haven't got a lot of experience with birds," she said.

"I've helped find dogs, cats, the occasional pony, even a ferret, but this is the first peacock I've ever caught."

As for Penny, she can now look forward to a happy life with Peter, and Ms Dean said she would call in to visit when she can.

"Peter was also missing a mate, and she just went straight to him - it was a match made in heaven," she said.

"It's sad for Wellow, and I'm not particularly popular with some people, but she's happy and not lonely any more."

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