The Day of the Bully

Sept. 13, 2010

I walk into backyard.  An  autumn chill fills the air and a fine morning fog hugs the coastline. A cold breeze slips into the yard, making me catch my breath and shudder. I love the fall and officially its only two days  away.

Unofficially, it’s here already because mother nature has her own calendar – “it’s a whenever-I-want-to sort of deal.” Later than usual due to budget cuts, Los Angeles students streamed back to school this morning including my son. He shouts:  “Bye Mom!”

So I launch into my  new morning ritual to enjoy nature’s secrets in my own backyard. Looking up our large Pine, I’m surprised to see a clan of peacocks still roosting away at 8 a.m. and cooing, their heads beneath a wing. Isn’t that awfully late? I wonder. Usually, it seems they’ve awoken and fled, their gawky, giant par dactyl -looking wings-flapping across blue skies.

A “co-co-loo-co-co-loo”  streams out and I spot a single crow emitting this sound that roosts with the peacocks. Six of his larger, feathered-friends are sitting sporadically in the tree.

Suddenly, the crow decides he wants a female peahen’s perch.

He inches toward her  and starts to peck her face. Beak to beak, they’re going at it, until he forces the peahen  out and she gives up and flees to another branch. The other peacocks don’t lift a feather to give her any aid. Why should they? They are lazy and sleeping in on this morning.

“Co-co-loo-co-co-loo,” the bully garbles out again. “Co-co-loo-co-co-loo,” in honor of his coup. Suddenly, he flies away and the peahen can rest a spell from her tormentor.

 Even in nature, it appears there are bullies.

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the peahen. We’ve all been there from time to time. My motto always was: go around, go over, go under and do anything you can to avoid bullies. But then this happens:

Two seconds later, the tormentor flies back and goes for an attack on the same peahen! Peck. Peck. Peck! Stab with the beak. Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab. The crow flits off, returning once more. This time, when he returns, she decides to make a statement. She moves to sit on top of him.

Off the crow goes again, not returning anytime soon or he might be squished. Life is full of bullies, even in the wild. But what I learned from the peahen that day is if you can’t go around, under or over a bully – just sit on them.

That seems to work just as well.