Welcome to this issue of Stumped by Nature, where we notice nature lurking just beyond our screens, curate a list of outside-y events in Austin, and build community with other folks in the thick of the startup ecosystem.
In this week’s issue:
🦚 Peafowl
🌤️ Upcoming outdoors events
🚙 Adventures just beyond Austin
Let’s dig in!
-Nicole
PS. Some of us meet outside IRL together. I host monthly events. My goal here is to create a community, which means, you know, talking to each other. Come join the fun:
EVENT ALERT
On TUESDAY, MAY 12, I’m collaborating with ATX Art Club for a low key art + nature experience. We’re visiting Mayfield Park for an evening of beginner-level charcoal nature drawing. Grab your spot.
NATURE SPOTLIGHT
In a study of being vibrant AF, I present to you: peacocks.
And peahens.
📸: Gopi Sundaramurthy
To judge a bird solely by its cover:
The collective noun: peafowl
Babies are called peachicks
A group of peafowl is called either a bevy or a party, which tracks
a group of specifically peacocks are called an ostentation, muster, or a pride
The three main species of peafowl are all not from here:
The blue are native to India and Sri Lanka
The green from Myanmar to Java
The slightly less iridescent and modest-train version from Congo
Peacocks are 60% tail—males are up to 7.5 feet long, and 4-5 feet of that are pure party. They clock in at 9-13 pounds
Lowland forests provide space to flock by day and roost in trees at night
Ideal habitat is warm weather and easy access to low trees
Peafowl can fly, with a sharp hop to get them airborne
91% of peafowl diets are plant matter, with a small dose of insects and small vertebrates, unless it’s plague season—peacocks can decrease locust and grasshopper populations in an ecologically significant way
📸: Gopi SundaramurthyThe iridescent effect of feathers comes from photonic crystal structures (read:not pigment, more like prism) that refract light differently depending on the viewer's angle—this is something biomimics have gobbled up for uses like cosmetics and security features on currency
Tails spots are called ocelli, and can signal good health and genetic fitness
With a lifespan of 20 years in the wild, they can double that in captivity
Darwin’s Dilemma
Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest principle hit a bump in the road with the peacock—the peacock’s heavy train, hindered flight, conspicuousness to predators seemed in direct competition to surviving.
The elaborate tail feathers made him sick to look at—a paradox.
📸: Gopi Sundaramurthy
But then Darwin concludes that survival was not the only factor—reproduction is equally critical.
What if, he proposes in The Descent of Man, females prefer more ornamented males.
What if hens have choice.
What if they swipe right based on size, symmetry, and vibrancy of the ocelli.
Current thinking sticks to Darwin’s sexual selection framework, but we’ve come to believe male vigor and size is the primary appeal, not just a pretty tail.
What better way to show vigor than fanning out a train of over 200 shimmering, eyespot feathers, and making it shiver.
Pulsing it to attract the females, and when one’s on the hook, slowly backing toward the receptive pal.
This was flattering.
The lure here is the small tail feathers strumming the longer train feathers like a guitar, producing vibrations at resonance frequency—26 beat per second. Sustained for 25 minutes at a time. The eyespots remain nearly stationary, and the feather filaments around each eyespot shimmers. (Fun fact: a study in 2013 confirmed that covering the eyespots with stickers dropped mating success to nearly zero.)
When the ritual works:
Indian (Blue) peafowl form harems for the duration of breeding season with one peacock and two to five peahens. The peacocks focus on security, and peahens incubate the eggs + tend the peachicks
Green Peafowl tend to form monogamous pairs, especially in captivity
Eggs hatch in roughly a month
By one week old, peachicks can fly and perch
But why are there peacocks in Austin?
To oversimplify: garden ornaments. What better mid-1800s signal of having arrived than importing ornamental birds, subjecting the neighborhood to their squawks, and putting those Live Oak limbs to big-bodied-bird work.
We’re enjoying the descendants of those original flocks.
Two notable spots see these birds IRL in Austin:
Mattie’s and/or The Inn at Green Pastures (811 W. Live Oak Street)
With peafowl on property since the 1960s, there are roughly 17 birds still flocking the grounds and stretching their two-mile roam radius into Bouldin Creek.
Fun fact: I’m with Ensemble VC, and the peacock is our firm’s unofficial mascot—it appears in brass and wood and artwork from our team’s travels—to India, to Mexico City, to Target. The presence of peacocks made choosing The Inn an easy decision for an event we hosted this past week.
The peacock nested into our firm culture back during pandemic days, when Collin’s suburban home garden became a nesting ground, and that same day a positive piece of firm structure slotted into place. It’s a known thing—when Collin sees a peacock in an unexpected place, good things happen. In Gopi’s framing, why be gray in the world when there’s such vibrant possibility?
An outlier in the data, still stunning
📸: Hannah Vu
Mayfield Park (3505 W 35th Street)
This park is synonymous with peacocks. In 1922 Mary Frances and her husband (a UT professor) Milton Gutsch began to build gardens, constructing stone walls and lily ponds, and, in 1935, received a pair of peafowl as a gift from friends. And what a gift that keeps giving—the birds have been continuous occupants for 90 years. There are roughly two dozen peafowl on the property.
In case it needs explicitly stated: peafowl aren’t recommended as a backyard pet. They are loud, will eat your garden, and become aggressive during mating season. Mayfield Park does not accept donations of secondhand peafowl—that’s a 311 call.
2020 Mayfield Park Pals
If you need another excuse to visit Mayfield Park, join our ATX Outsiders x ATX Art Club collab on May 12, 2026. Sketchbook and charcoal available if needed. Sign up here!
WIN-WIN
Take two minutes of your morning to rage against Big Pork.
Thanks, Liv Boeree, for sharing this with me. Today’s voting day for a Farm Bill that has some nasty implications for animal welfare, food chain safety, states rights to regulate ag.
You can call 202-225-3121, tell them your zip, and reach your representative’s phone. Let ‘em know who you are, your zip code, and that it’s a big deal to you that they vote No on the Farm Bill while it includes that “Save our Bacon” clause.
Liv’s, like, super smart, and she says this Thursday morning is THE time to call to move the needle on this one.
EVENT SNAPSHOT
Last Sunday, a batch of us explored the Wildflower Center. You should join us next time.
The adult strolling contingent, April 26.
PSA
UPCOMING EVENTS
🗓️ May 1: Ikebana Demo- Japanese Flower Arranging
🗓️ May 1 : Pitch & Run: It’s “an easy pace” for 4.2 miles
🗓️ May 1 Muther Rucker Walk & Talk: Monthly movement for women. Moms, execs, founders, creatives are all welcome.
🗓️ May 1: Co-working at Carpenter Hall Crush the end of the work week at a lovely place
🗓️ May 1-2: The KUT Festival: books talks, live music, a street fair. Say hi to Shakey Graves for me.
🗓️ May 2 : Austin Ruck Club: rucks ready for you to borrow
🗓️ May 2 : The Board Walks Step your way into good conversation
🗓️ May 2: Beginner Birding with Travis Audubon
🗓️ May 2: Manor May Day: Manor Road is rallying for a party with line dancing, a marching band, and aerial performances
🗓️ May 2: Dusk to Dawn Star Party at Shield Ranch (only a few spots left!)
🗓️ May 2: Cycle the City: for cycles ages 8 and up
🗓️ May 2: Dog-Friendly Gardening for a zoomies-friendly habitat
🗓️ May 2-3: The Front Market Shop local
🗓️ May 3: Walk & Talk: Conversations in Motion: Sunday steps
🗓️ May 3: Art & Wellness Retreat at Laguna Gloria
🗓️ May 5: Austin Herb Society Meeting, including symbolic use of color and “tussie-mussies”
🗓️ May 5: Tuesday Twilights: Dog-friendly edition
🗓️ May 12: Charcoal in the Garden- I’m co-hosting this with my pal Lara from ATX Art Club + the resident peacocks. Zero artistic talent required.
JUST OUTSIDE OF AUSTIN
🚙 May 2: Barks for Beers Kickoff Party: The Barkerton Social @ Vista
🚙 May 2: Goat Yoga. It’s in a barn.
🚙 May 2: Plein Air Watercolor Painting: Capture the landscape
🚙 May 3: Snout Fest at the Central Texas Pig Rescue. The words “Enchanted Pig Forest” are included on their website. This seems notable.
🚙 May 3: National Ride a Bike Day Celebration
🚙 May 3: Frog Pond Frolic Curiosity required
🚙 May 4: Big Sit: Stationary birdwatching
That’s all for this week!
In the meantime, I hope you flaunt your beauty and take up space.
-Nicole
OPTIONAL SIDE QUESTS
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