Mrs. Peabody's Excellent Adventure

Mr. and Mrs. Peabody, two peacocks owned by the Marder family of Fireplace Road in Springs, were stricken with wanderlust last week, leading their caretaker, and members of the Springs community, on a weeklong goose chase.

The birds were missing from the Marder brood, which, besides the pair, includes eight geese and "Mr. Muscovy," a duck, when Lauren Fecke, an employee of the family, arrived at work on Jan. 5. They turned up at the Bono residence on nearby Gardiner Avenue, communing with the birds kept there.

"Mr. Peabody really likes chickens and guinea hens," Ms. Fecke said.

On Tuesday, when the pair was gone again, Ms. Fecke knew where to call. On that rainy day, the peacock couple was hunkered down with the Bono chickens inside their coop. "Instead of raising a fuss with the chickens, I asked if they could stay the night," Ms. Fecke said.

When she went to retrieve the birds after their sleepover, Ms. Fecke found that Mrs. Peabody had flown the coop. A call from a Springs-Fireplace Road resident surprised to see a peacock strutting atop his car sent Ms. Fecke racing to that yard, alas too late.

"She was looking for home," said Ms. Fecke of the errant bird. "I think she just went in the wrong direction."

Ms. Fecke put out a lost peacock call to the Animal Rescue Fund, the radio stations, and East Hampton Town Police. Signs were tacked to trees and poles alerting Springs residents to the crisis.

"The Springs community was just unbelievably wonderful," Ms. Fecke said. "Within 10 minutes I got calls."

Mrs. Peabody had roosted Friday night in a tree on Hildreth Place, Ms. Fecke was told, and been grabbed by a dog when she came down. "She was just roughed up," Ms. Fecke said, "but I was frantic."

On Saturday at dusk, while making the rounds, Ms. Fecke was told by some helpful peacock hunters that her quarry was again settling in for the night in the Hildreth Place tree.

At 6 a.m. Sunday, there was Ms. Fecke spreading corn below the roost, and waiting for the bird to awake.

Mrs. Peabody was not quite ready for her excellent adventure to end, however, and flew back across the street to the same Springs-Fireplace yard she'd been sighted in before.

Ms. Fecke, however, was not deterred. She settled in to wait for the bird to come down to the ground, and nabbed her. Case closed, at least until the birds' next bout of restlessness.

Photo: Doug Kuntz