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It's mating season - haven't you heard?

The screaming. The defecating. The rooftop thudding. Not everyone minds, but some do.

By ELISABETH DYER
Published March 24, 2006

Dusk falls, and the sun's last rays shine on feathered rainbows - a flock of peacocks that live along the Hillsborough River south of Hillsborough Avenue.

The males fan their tails like a hand of cards and preen and prance. They twirl and call loudly. It's mating season, and they want to score well with the peahens.

The flock started with two about 15 years ago. Neighborhood estimates now range from 20 to 60.

Not everyone is impressed.

"They scream like somebody's slaughtering them," said Andrew Stelzer, who moved here six months ago with girlfriend Jessica Noel.

Noel feeds them birdseed when they come by the yard. "Seems like the neighbors either love them or they hate them," she said.

She never minds hearing the bump of one landing on her roof. Her grandmother lived in the home when a peahen nested outside the back door. Peachicks hatched about a month later and within hours followed their mother across River Shore Drive.

"They make noise all night long, but I feel like I'm in India. It's exotic,'' said Noel, whose friend says she hears the calls from Seminole Heights.

About five landed on Ed McCoy's roof last week to pick through his gutters. He doesn't mind.

Pauline Holloway does. She wishes they would stay out of her yard, where they trample her flowers and poop everywhere.

"They should be kept penned," she said. "It's like a loose dog."

The first peacocks are believed to have come to the neighborhood as a gift from a Texas bird farmer to Robert Courtney, a retired surgeon. Courtney bought a home along the Hillsborough River in 1991. Some say the birds came with him; others say they arrived soon after.

Whatever the case, Courtney moved to Dade City last summer and the peafowl did not.

That's a problem, says George Guida, who has lived in the area for 25 years. Peacocks damaged his roof, and one died in his yard. He had to hire someone to remove it.

"The way they multiply, imagine a couple years from now," Guida said.

He filed a complaint with the city against Courtney several years ago.

Code enforcement officer Larry Canalejo said no one claimed ownership of the birds and therefore he could not issue a citation.

Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at edyer@sptimes.com or 226-3321.

[Last modified March 24, 2006, 11:45:44]