Ms. Bird and her growing chick find one another

Mother and child reunion.

Ms. Bird and Lord Byron found one another soon after her return from treatment at the Wildlife Center.

Both discovered they love kale, a new menu item Bonnie introduced to add calcium to their diet. Advice on the Internet is that females need calcium to produce eggs with shells hard enough to make them easy to push out. We're concerned Ms. Bird had trouble with that.

Of course the peacocks eat what they want when and if they want anything. Often they ignore food we offer. Our neighbors offer a variety of things as well, and we see the birds hunting (for bugs?) constantly.

Their relationship is interesting. Lord Byron still seems to follow his mother around; she seems to prefer a bit of privacy. Perhaps she instinctively will not want him around next time she lays. Sometimes there's a peck or the threat of it to warn him off.

And her concern may be well founded as, in her absence, Byron was often seen standing alongside a clutch of young Muscovy ducks in the neighborhood. It wasn't clear if he was there to intimidate them or merely to be a chick himself.

He's only a year old, still too young to become a father.

Ms. Bird nursed back to health by Wildlife Center

Wildlife Center worker takes ailing
Ms. Bird in for examination.

Ms. Bird got another visit to the South Florida Wildlife Center this month.

The South Florida Wildlife Center is a partner of the Humane Society of the United States. The people there really care. The operation is impressive. An "ambulance" responded when we called Aug. 15 to report that Ms. Bird seemed in distress.

She wasn't eating, neighbors reported, and she had spent the night before on a low perch instead of high in a tree as usual. In the morning she stayed on that perch, appearing to be asleep sometimes.

Neighbors agreed that it was time to call for help. I made the call and a worker came right over and collected her.

The diagnosis, apparently after X-rays at the Center, was that she had a collapsed egg inside her. (We knew she had built a nest but hadn't laid any eggs.)

We read on the Internet that having an egg stuck is a life-threatening condition.

After it was removed and a course of drugs was administered Ms. Bird was released to us to be returned to her home neighborhood. We brought her back in a borrowed cage.

We're glad to have Ms. Bird back and grateful to the South Florida Wildlife Center for helping her back to health.

Back in her old neighborhood Aug. 25, 2015.