I had a pair of guinea fowl move into my back garden and live for a couple of years in about 2015. They were a couple who were devoted to each other and I spent much time observing and even being involved in their routines. They first appeared in the field near a small lake out back and took about a week to gravitate toward our house and yard where they finally settled. They can get the silliest expressions ever on their face when excited, with a kind of goggle eyed, jiggle around on a bouncing neck which I think keeps them doomed to disregard when smartness of birds are considered - but I found them to be quite savvy and with defined personalities.
They would arise with the dawn and settle into feeding across the large, wild patch that sits out back, mown occasionally but never otherwise cared for. We first noticed them sneaking up onto the patio to look at the tv through the window and eventually, they became comfortable enough that the patio became part of their routine, even though they never let me get near them outside. I never fed them. After a munch around for a few hours, they would come up and have a groom and nap right outside the window next to where I had breakfast. They would murmur and chat with each other while fluffing and smoothing various feathers. I put a chair there, so they had a place to roost next to the window and I often had a meal with a headless bird sitting next to me as they tuck their heads in under their back feathers for the nap. At some point in the day, they would gravitate around to the front of the house where they’d spend some time pecking on the frosted window (and wooden ledge) next to the front door and chirping. They were definitely as fascinated with watching us as we were them and after some months, I considered us to be friends.
We grew concerned for them during the winter months, especially after we found out they were originally from hot climates (Africa) but they somehow kept right on going even when it was freezing or blowing up a raging windstorm. They tended to hover around the house even more as they drew comfort from all the heat that would escape our very drafty house. They lived through two winters with us.
In the late afternoon, after one last graze session, they would fly up into the lower branches of the birch trees at the back of the garden and settle in by sundown to sleep. This wasn’t always a simple process as sometimes they’d jostle and change places and even branches and one would try and snuggle up and the other would say “not tonight dear” but they usually ended up quite close in the end, and headless, go to sleep, safe from foxes.
They were good guardians who would start screeching if visitors came around but luckily, this wasn’t often. However, one day, the big black vicious guard dog from next door got loose and bounded into our yard, chasing the birds. He’d long been frustrated with having to merely watch while they grew accustomed to grazing closer and closer to his fence line and was determined to pounce one. They started squawking and flying all over the place and I ran out and started screeching with them and trying to drive the dog away. My foot landed squarely in a gift he deposited for us. After the commotion was over, one of the birds was missing and I sat sadly with the remaining one, watching and hoping, for a couple of hours until he re-appeared. They would actually nuzzle and greet each other with great affection at such times.
Wind storms and then winter when it would get really cold, really made me worry but they seemed to get through them. One time there was such a fierce wind storm with rain bulleting down that the bird (she was a widow by then), was unable to stand on the patio and I watched her being tipped almost upside down before she gave up and ran for the trees. I fretted all night and was so relieved when she appeared unscathed the next morning, I almost went out and nuzzled her myself.
The larger one, the dominant white, turned out to be female and the smaller grey was the chap and we learned this in a most interesting way. One night, after sunset, my husband told me the birds were out back acting really peculiar. This being after their usual bedtime, I came running. We have a large backyard - maybe a hundred yards wide and the two birds were utilizing the whole space. They were running and flying low, back and forth, taking turns in chasing each other. The white bird would settle and let the grey catch up and then it would try and pounce on her at which point, she would squawk and peck him and run off. Then he would circle around bewildered and she’d come up to him and peck him again and run off and he’d give chase and the whole thing kept going on and on - for at least 45 MINUTES. It finally grew too dark for us to see anything but was continuing. We were in hysterics with the show but didn’t know what was going on. I checked google and found a man who owned a lot of guinea fowl and was describing their habits. He then went on to try and explain their mating habits but confessed he’d never actually seen it so didn’t have exact details. We were watching them try and have sex!! I sent him a message to say that the reason he’d never seen them was because they’d chosen the darkness, after dusk, to do the deed, when normally, they’d be up in their roost asleep. We don’t know if they were ever successful - didn’t seem to be on our watch - and no little chicks ever appeared. It was a sad, sad day for me and the white one, when the grey one disappeared for good. She actually carried on for a few more months alone and I found her to be a great example for me, who was struggling myself, on how we need to just do this sometimes. And then she went too. Gone but never Forgotten.
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