While driving home from work on Anderson Mill I have seen an unusual looking bird a number of times. Usually it is just hanging out by the side of the road and I'm not sure that I've really seen it. However, on Tuesday it was actually walking ON the road. Traffic stopped, so I know I wasn't imagining it. I also got a better look at it this time—bigger than a chicken, smaller than a turkey, baldish head, and black feathers with little white speckles. (Kind of like this one...) The bird looked similar to a guineahen that I had seen in the zoo at some point, but I didn't expect to see one just hanging out on the streets of Austin. I looked online—God bless Wikipedia—and it looks like that's exactly what it is. According to my research, "guineafowl (sometimes called guineahen) are a family of birds in the same order as the pheasants, turkeys and other game birds and is native to Africa...the Helmeted Guineafowl has been domesticated and introduced outside its natural range, for example in southern France, the West Indies, and especially the United States." While it's totally plausible that one of these things is living on Central Texas, I would expect to see it in a more rural setting, NOT hanging out next to a convenience store pecking on asphalt. Has anyone else seen this mysterious creature? Is it some hippie's free-range dinner? Is it a family pet? Did it voluntarily decide to leave life on the farm to go to the big city? It remains a mystery, and, yes, apparently I do have a lot of free time.