Mystery peacock chases the blues

The principal of Yardley Primary School heard the distinctive call long before he saw the bird.

Ka-ka-cawwww! Ka-ka-cawwww!

It was an unfamiliar sound, not like the usual cooing of gray pigeons found in this suburb of London.

Three days later, as Chris Evans entered the front gate of the school, he saw it: A bright blue peacock “standing proudly” on the roof “as if he owned the place,” its long feathered tail glistening in the unseasonably warm March sunshine.

“I thought it was surreal,” Evans said.

In those relatively early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Yardley was still reeling from the country’s abrupt closure.

Seven months on, the bird — since christened Kevin — is still calling the Chingford neighborhood in this northeast section of London home and the Yardley school his home base. For locals who use Facebook to document his travels, Kevin has become a source of joy and solace, a symbol of freedom in this age of lockdowns and a new means of connecting with neighbors at a time when many have never felt so isolated.

Nob o dy knows whe re Kevin came from, but to honor the bird’s decision to set down roots in Chingford, the school decided to name its sports teams the

Yardley Peacocks and held a competition that asked students to design a logo for its sports attire.

“I like that in 30 years’ time, people may ask why we have a peacock on our shirts,” Evans said. “The story can live on about a pandemic peacock that brightened our days.”