Pheasants in the yard

While recovering from neck fusion surgery, I've been doing a lot of bird watching and not much else. My DH took this shot of one of our many pheasants. He is a hoot, and even fights over property rights with another smaller male. The two have very clear boundries, at least to them. Every morning this big guy sits on top one of our big boulders and does his rooster thing. Soon we will have a female or two strutting around with her babies behind her. We have quail families here, too, in the summer.

How fun! What great colors these birds have!

We used to raise pheasants, the ringnecks are beautiful. I remember when we would travel out west, we sometimes saw them in flight when startled.

We have those here also, especially here in our area.... I love them, really great colors. I wish I'd have 3 nice ones in our garden, which would be my pets, hehe :)

My neighbor keeps eyeing the large one with a hungry look in her eye. I think she is dreaming of "pheasant under glass" or fried pheasant!! Can't have mine, though, as they are strictly for "looks" and for bug eating. Sort of a wild pet, if that makes any sense.

Too bad your pheasant doesn't eat snakes, Penny!

They're all over the place here too. There are a lot of prestigious 'shoots' in my area, raising hundreds of birds. At some times of year you have to drive really slowly round the lanes as every corner you turn will bring you onto crowds of the birds all over the road.
They are very beautiful birds though, thanks for the photo penny. Do hope you're making good progress :)

Thanks, philomel, I am healing, but it sure seems to take a long time. Hubby leaves today and boy am I nervous at the prospect of taking care of all this while he's gone. He's out mowing the 2 1/2 acres as we speak. Anyway, weez, I think the little darlin's DO eat snakes!! I have seen (shudder, quiver, toes-a-curling) a couple of dead one half eaten where Mr. Pheasant has hung out in the raised beds. So if that is true, I hope to get many thousands of pheasants; so many I will have to walk atop them, rather than on the ground!LOL!

The only thing more disturbing than the thought of snakes in the yard is the thought of a peacock choking one down in the yard!

Yuk Wheezy!!! Not a nice thought at all!! Penny the last time I came across a pheasant was at the dinner table some 30 year's ago!! I was still 'green' behind the ears at that time (still am now and again). I was given a brace of these birds and did all the necessary prep work on them. It was only when we were actually eating them that my late hubbie enquired where his corn came from since he didn't know it was on the menu!!! I did not remove the crop!! lol!! I've told this story once before on the farm forum, so excuse the repetition!! :-) I hope it won't be too long before you are out of the brace!!

This message was edited Wednesday, May 1st 2:41 PM

OMG! Now that's one way to diet! HA! Good tale and absolutely worth repeating! Didn't see it on Farm, as I haven't posted there yet. So many forums, so little time!! HA! The hard brace (for the neck, not of pheasants, HA!) was gone last week after over a month of misery and feeling sorry for my self,LOL, and I have just one more week to go with the soft one. Things are looking up as far as the neck is concerned, and I thank you for your kind words.

Gag! What a story Louisa!

And a true one at that!! Good to hear that you are on the soft brace Penny - won't be long now then!! Freedom!! :-)

Louisa, that is a hoot! how funny.....

My husband didn't think so!! The kids just about fell off their chairs laughing so much!! Bless their hearts - the only one not laughing was the old man...lol!!

Louisa: Back in the early 70's, my first husband, my two sons, and I lived in northern Wisconsin. We'd moved there in the fall, not understanding that there was no way to make a living in a small farm town. We mainly subsisted on venison from a deer we shot during the fall season. When we finally reached the last package in the freezer, it was labeled "neck roast".

I thawed it and placed it in the oven, thinking it a strange roast. I baked it with potatoes and carrots, and it was pretty good. However, looking back, the thing that made the roast look strange was that it was just a cross cut of the neck, and down the center the trachia still remained, looking for all the world like a segment of hair dryer hose! Ah, the good old days of youth and stupidity!

lol Wheeezy been there, done that!!! One good thing comes from idiocy (mine) - you learn the hard way and then have fun recalling the stories... :-)