Please do not feed the peacocks

This post is from July 15, 2010. When Coconut Grove was Peacock Nation for a few years. With over 11,000 stories posted in the Grapevine in the past 10 years, we thought it would be fun to take a look back.

And please don't give them champagne or wine or use them as a hitching post or sit or step on them. Well, actually wine is ok, last night Sandy Wallace served some Pinot Grigio to Monty (yes, named after that Monty) at his coming out party on Main Highway. More peacocks were put out on their perches around town this week as part of the Coconut Grove Peacock Tour.

Artist Erika King designed Monty, as you can see he consists of hundreds of pictures of Grovites. You can spend an hour or so just looking at him and still not see everyone, the front and back are covered with familiar faces. He's right in front of Allure Salon, next to the Tye Dye store, adjacent to Siam Oishi, where the coming out soiree was held last night.

Erika's friends stopped by to toast the peacock at his new home in the center of town. Guests enjoyed wine and sushi.

The food and company was great, it was a nice way to spend a Wednesday night.

Some of the peacocks are not being treated very well. This one here, Penelopeacock, by George Rodez, in front of The Bookstore, was used as a hitching post for this dog. While the dog seems nice and docile, is this any way to show respect to art in public places? Many people are also sitting on them to take pictures, which I am guilty of myself.

But it may hurt the bird in the end. This one on Mary and Grand by Gina Hubler, has shells on the base, which are starting to come off because people are stepping on them when they try to take photos with the bird.

Guess that's the price of success, everyone wants a photo of the art but they don't know how to pose delicately with it.

Luckily at the Antique Market at the Mayfair Promenade, the mascot dummy keeps an eye on Fred Hunt's bird. The guys at the Antique Market claim that the dummy is in more photos than the peacock, but it may be a draw. Oddly enough, they have the same profile.

Back at the coming out party, for Monty, local musician Bobby Ingraham, stopped by to admire him, as others have, too. It seems to be unanimous, the Grove peacocks are a hit.