Neighborhood in a pique after preening peacock pinched by Eden Prairie powers that be
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Some neighbors in Eden Prairie are crying fowl after a pair of wild peacocks have taken up residency.
If the peacocks were people they're so popular, they'd easily become the HOA president. The problem -- they're loud and sometimes confrontational.
That doesn't bother Mike Berdahl.
"They're totally harmless. They're beautiful," Berdahl said.
Berdahl, along with many neighbors, consider two peacocks nicknamed Brownie and Peapod as part of the fabric of their neighborhood.
For at least one family though, who neighbors say moved in during the pandemic, it's been too much.
They weren't home to talk with WCCO, but neighbors say they've tried to get the birds to stay off their property by running sprinklers. They even removed their back deck.
This month, wildlife control picked up Peapod -- but Brownie got away.
"You always saw them in pairs. They were always together. And now there's only one and he seems to be making a lot more noise in the last couple of days," said Berdahl.
While no one knows why, there's been at least one peacock living in the neighborhood since the 90s.
Then in 2017, a neighbor felt he was lonely and bought a peacock from a game farm. Next, three peacock chicks were born.
Nancy Beaumont's family took them in.
"They just were a real blessing and just sweet birds and really fun to learn about," Beaumont said.
The Beaumants say they aren't angry that Peapod was taken, but they want the two birds to be reunited.