Residents strive to look after peacocks
DESPITE Formby being known as a home for red squirrels and the pine woods, few know about the colourful residents just across the busy bypass.
Down a quiet, unassuming road on the edge of the town, anybody driving down there would be completely unaware that around 10 peacocks come and go as they please.
The flamboyant birds are residents of Moss Side, and their neighbours absolutely adore them. Despite them being loud and boisterous, they are loved by those on the road.
Mike Mawdsley, of Formby Golf Centre, said: “We had one recently with just the one leg.
“There are probably eight or nine and they wander across the road. They just wander up and down the road. People feed them, but we don’t.
“They’re great birds and I’ve been seeing them for 10 years. The young ones are very, very cute. It’s nice for us to have them here. I can’t tell you another street in Merseyside like this, but we do have to clear them off the driving range and they flutter over the houses.”
The birds are known by all who live on the quaint road, with most neighbours having their own memories of them. However, one resident, Sarah, had the shock of her life when she recently moved in.
She said: “People are protective of them. I’ve seen about eight or nine of them since moving in a month ago. There’s two males and I think they’re father and son. There’s a number of females and lots of young ones.
“They were in the garden before, they come virtually every day at certain times. It was a bit of a shock when we moved in. We have a balcony upstairs and one was just sat there one morning.
“I spoke to one person who said they’ve been here for years. They’re just part of the area. It would be a shame if something happened to them, they’re just great.”
With the peacocks making their way round the different gardens in the area, they are only seen at certain times of the day, with the residents keen to protect them from danger. A number of people in the area spoke about how a number were killed last year, with people putting it down to foxes.
With the peacocks being a quirky feature of the road found just off the Formby bypass, locals are wary of inviting unwanted dangers to the road.
One resident, who asked not to be named, said she has seen them every year since she moved to the road.
She said: “I love them.
They come in everyone’s front gardens. It’s great. I have to keep an eye on them in case they cross the road. We lost a few of them because of a fox last year.
“There were nests across the road and we all get attached to them. It was heartbreaking. We see them daily. They’re just walking down the road. If there’s several of them in the road, they just look at cars and refuse to move until they’re ready.
“I’ve lived here for 25 years and I’ve seen them every year since I’ve been here.”
Although no one really knows how they came to live on the outskirts of Formby, rumours still swirl, with people speculating over neighbours housing them and others mentioning how they live on one of the farms on the road.