Maybe he thought he'd find a friend at Duck Pond Estates.
Residents of the Riverhead development who find themselves face to face with a colorful peacock needn't get their feathers ruffled -- for weeks, the feisty fowl has been a frequent visitor.
The peacock, who started hanging out on Maplewood Lane almost a month ago, is a male peafowl who has been been sharing his time with a string of neighbors.
"We all kind of found him at the same time," said Anna Cila.
Cila, whose family calls the peacock "Charlie," said another neighbor has dubbed the fine-feathered creature "Pete."
But a peacock by any other name still needs to eat -- so Cila and her family and others started leaving treats on their decks and lawns. "Right now, I feed him cat food," Cila said. "I also tried hot dog rolls -- he liked that."
The peacock, said Cila, makes hardly any noise and just "appears. I came down my stairs the other night and he was right there," she said. "He's not afraid. He just started pecking on the glass. He doesn't take off."
Her two boys, Sammy, 12, and Evan, 8, love the multi-colored visitor. "He's a really, really pretty bird," Cila said. "He's curious -- he's always checking everything out."
Even her cats don't chase him, Cila added.
Although the neighbors have tried to find out just where, exactly, the peacock has flown the coop from -- no one has claimed him yet.
And for Cila, that's no problem. "At this point, we're so used to him that I'd hate to see him go," she said. Although the winter was a concern, Cila said peacocks are supposed to be able to face the winter with no worries.
Not every neighbor, however, is as smitten with the peacock's proud feathers. "At first it was fascinating and very cool but he poops everywhere," one resident, who asked not to be identified, said. "We've stepped in it, and my husband is power washing every day. It's frustrating. My three-year-old is not a fan."
But the peacock does have some princely attributes, she added; he's "beautiful" and very tame, most likely someone's pet.
The experience, Cila said, has bonded the neighbors and friends in the community who already had a texting chain to update each other on daily events. "Everyone takes a photo of where Charlie is that day and texts it," Cila laughts. "It's really funny. It's like 'Where's Waldo?' Except it's 'Where's Charlie?'"
