Haxby peacock Jeremy - or Captain Peacock - dies

Jeremy - also known as Captain Peacock - made Haxby his home more than a decade ago.

The bird's territory largely covered the western part of Oaken Grove and the eastern part of Windsor Drive - though he was occasionally sighted further afield.

Residents in the Haxby Facebook group told how they would often hear his calls or find him perched on top of a tall fence.

"Real characters like him are rare," one said.

Left, Jeremy sits in a carrot patch. Pictured right, Jeremy is seen sat on a fence.

The unusual neighbour enjoyed the company of many residents - one of whom was David Hudson, who fondly called the creature 'Mr Peacock'.

David and his wife were the last people to spend time with Jeremy, leaving them with a sense of "guardianship".

Jeremy spent some time with David's next door neighbour before walking to David's house with another resident on the street.

David explained: "He came up my drive, then stopped and looked at my neighbour until she opened my garden gate. He knew where he wanted to go.

"I feel so honoured that he chose my garden as his final resting place, I feel I have been given guardianship of a much loved character."

Jeremy takes a stroll in the garden.

Recalling his final few days, David said: "He used to visit me regularly but this year he started to spend more and more time with me. It became obvious that age was catching up with him and I could see the gradual deterioration. Finally he was blind in one eye and had a pronounced limp.

"The next three days he spent mainly resting, occasionally moving to get the sun or to shelter from any breeze. Never far.  Despite his immobility he appeared alert and ate lustily.

"On Tuesday morning, when my wife took food to him, he looked at her but ignored the food for the first time. Two hours later he had passed away."

Explaining his personality, David said: "You did get used to those unfulfilled calls for a mate at three o’clock in the morning but the volume of his screech when he crept up behind to see why I was digging my garden could so easily have brought on a heart attack.

"He loved most greens - making it necessary to cover all my veg if I wanted to eat any myself. Despite this he managed to get to all of my broccoli this year by poking through the netting.

"He never learned that the reflection in my blue car was not another male trespassing on his territory. It was a sight to see when he got so annoyed he was jumping in the air attacking my car with his spurs."

David described how Jeremy had a "myriad of eyes in his tail".

His elegant tail feathers would start to grow in the early part of the year and, by Spring, he would have a tail reaching around 5ft long.

David said: "He was a beauty. 

"If you were lucky you would get to see his display, a spectacular sight. Those shimmering blues not seen anywhere else, the phenomenal detail on his body feathers and that myriad of eyes in his tail.

Photos of Jeremy - or Mr Peacock - by David Hudson.

"On very rare occasions I was treated to his full mating dance, as long as I remained hidden, it was obviously personal and if he spotted me he would immediately stop.

"From late summer he would start to shed his tail feathers and I am so lucky, especially this year, to have collected some of these beautiful natural objects."

Captain Peacock sits on a chair. Photos by David Hudson.