The identity of Kyle, a beloved peacock known to roam Lower Gibsons before his death on March 12, may have finally been uncovered.
Although Jill Ballam and her husband Donald Warkentin moved away from the Sunshine Coast more than 15 years ago, the Winnipeg-based couple like to keep tabs on Coast news. While perusing Coast Reporter to see if there were any obituaries for old friends, they found a different kind of obituary: the story of Kyle’s untimely death.
It was previously reported that how Kyle came to be on the Coast and roam the area was unknown. Based on Kyle’s size and maturity, Ballam told Coast Reporter their peacock Peabod “could fit the bill.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s our bird,” she said. “He was very capable of looking after himself… He was very independent.
“I think he had a good chance of living a full life and staying out of trouble.”
Ballam and her husband acquired their peacocks — along with some ringneck pheasants and small quail — around 1991 or 1992 from a farmer in Abbotsford who was raising the birds for food. They brought their mismatched flock back to their Roberts Creek property on Leek Road.
Among them, Ballam believes, was Kyle — but back then he was known as Peter or Peabod. He was a yearling when they got him, and over time Peabod had two peahen wives and a chicken as a mistress, Ballam jokes.
The assorted flock would nest overnight in a fir tree next to the house. At the time, Ballam and Warkentin had around 100 laying birds.
He enjoyed watching the Wimbledon Championships on TV with Warkentin and would often wander his way into the couple’s home. Peabod enjoyed stealing food from their dog’s bowl, stealing herbs from the garden of what was then the Creekhouse Restaurant, and laying on the sunny roofs of nearby residences. He later moved with Ballam and Warkentin to Cheryl Ann Park Road, where they built a house.
Then, in 1994, Peabod left home never to return. The couple had rescued two white peafowl, and Peabod became defensive with the other male. Ballam thinks he left to find a mate (he was quite the ladies’ man). For years, the couple looked for their beloved bird and heard he had been seen going toward Gibsons. In 2007, after more than 25 years on the Coast, much of which Warkentin spent as a teacher at the alternate school in Gibsons, they moved away. Though Ballam would love to own a peafowl again, she says their garden is too small.
“I’d have one again in a heartbeat. I love them,” Ballam said. “I think with the right care and kindness, they develop a real bond with you. When I would come home after a day's work, he would just run as fast as he could to come and visit me.”
Though they got complaints about Peabod’s calls for a mate and his habit of foraging food, others on the Sunshine Coast requested Peabod’s feathers when his plumage shed every year. His feathers became household decor and, for at least one Gibsons resident, fishing lure.
According to PBS, peacocks can live between 10 to 25 years in the wild and domestic peacocks can live between 40 to 50 years. Peabod would be around 30 years old. And so Kyle may in fact be Peabod.
Ballam said she was surprised to learn how fond community members became of Kyle the peacock. “To know that he possibly had 30 years, I’m thrilled.”
