Bird in hand after he was hunted down by daring duo

Oldham Peacock

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HE may have led his hunters on a wild goose chase, but the peacock that has been sighted around Oldham has now been caught and is safe and well.

The peacock was caught by Andy Bialek and Robert Dobson, of Birds of Feather Animal Sanctuary, on Friday afternoon and has now taken up residency at an allotment in Shaw with the company of chickens and geese.

He was found on Rochdale Road, Royton, after Andy and Robert received a phone call reporting a sighting of him.

But when they rushed to the area they could see no sign of the slippery bird and they headed back to the car until Andy glimpsed an unusual object in someone's garden.

Realising it was the ever evasive peacock the pair set about trying to catch it, but it was not to be as simple as that. The bird jumped onto the roof of a bungalow, only to move into a different garden shortly after.

Robert came close once again but the peacock took off and headed into a field of waist-high grass. Thinking they had lost the peacock once more they began to give up the chase until they saw it hiding in a bush and managed to catch him.

Andy said: "We caught it on Rochdale Road, Royton on Friday afternoon and he is now living a luxury life. After the article we got two phone calls, we found that it had come from an allotment in Shaw.

"He had just arrived there around a month ago and the owner let him stay there, he's back there now with geese and chickens, he's very happy now and he's safe and sound."

Although peacocks can be known for being feisty, this particular one seemed to enjoy the thrill of the chase rather than the confrontation.

Andy said: "To be honest he wasn't that bad. It took us about an hour to catch him. We got a call but there was no sign of him. So we were walking down the back of this lane and I saw something was in someone's garden and it was him. I walked up behind him but then he took off on to the roof of a bungalow, I chucked some bird seed at him and he jumped off the roof and ended up in a different garden.

"Robert was about to catch him and then he took off again. He got into a field which had waist high grass in it and ran towards the end of the field and into a bush.

"I thought 'I have lost him again'. But he was hiding in the bush against a fence and we managed to catch him. He played dead when we caught him but they do that, he's perfectly fine, it is a nice end to the story."