I was coming back from the barn on Thursday afternoon and saw a large dark spot in the driveway in front of the house. As I got closer I could see it was a pheasant. I was able to pull over by the rosebed and get photos resting the camera on the rear view mirror.
On the road on the back side of our property, a mile east of us as the crow flies, there’s a place that raises pheasants for release in the autumn.
They are relatively tame and this one ignored the car and continued hunting in the driveway for gravel.
When my son was little we had one take up residence in the South Herb garden. He named it Herbie. Eventually he found a lady friend and my son named her Mary. They were there for a few weeks that year.
The neighbor to our south usually raised corn in the field next to us and we often see the pheasants in there each autumn. He didn’t this year though.
I feel bad for the poor pheasants because they have no “street smarts” from being raised in a cage. They seldom last long into the winter. But they are pretty birds and it is cool to see them.