Penelope's Flight

Penelope is the pea hen that adopted us.  She just showed up one day and has never left.  Of course we couldn't catch her if we wanted to.  She has a wide wingspan and can really fly.  She roosts in a tree about forty feet up in the air so she is safe from predators.  She'll either fly up from the ground and hop limb to limb until she gets to her spot or she'll fly up to the top of the barn and then fly over to her roosting tree.  We have a weather vane with a rooster on it on top of the barn and sometimes I wonder if Penelope and the rooster on the weather vane chat it up when she's up there.

Penelope is really a regal looking bird!

Penelope, the pea hen

Our chickens' wings are clipped so they pretty much stay in the pasture, but Penelope...  Well Penelope is free to come and go as she pleases.  She is quite a flyer. She's about the same size as a goose and when she gets those wings flapping, she can go anywhere.

I don't know what happened today, but she was in a very energetic mood.  I was in the side yard filling the dog's water bucket when I heard a strange noise and looked up just in time to see Penelope flying like mad, darting in and out of live oak branches and making all sorts of sounds I've never heard her make before.  She flew right past me about 15 feet in the air and landed on the roof our house.

Up on the roof

She strutted up to the very top of the roof.  What was she up to?

A nice vantage point

Once she got to the top, she gracefully walked to the top and took her station there, erect and purposeful.

A living weather vane

The best I can figure is that Penelope is auditioning to be the weather vane on our house just like the rooster weather vane on our barn.  Although I like her up there on the roof because she is quite stunning to look at, I'm not convinced that she's a functioning weather vane.  The jury is still out on that.