A few years ago, I bought Linda one of those "Bigfoot" little red wagons to transport stuff around the place. Well, time and weather have taken their toll, and the body has rusted out, so I started making a new wooden body for it. This afternoon, I was at the workbench assembling the parts, when a movement caught my eye. I blinked and looked away, then blinked again and looked out toward the movement I had seen. Yep, sure enough there was this pheasant out there, just strolling around among the junk. When he saw I had noticed him, he just came right into the shop, like if he was a customer come to pick up some spalted sycamore or something. He walked right up to where I was working, but when I approached him he scurried away. I followed him back outside, hoping I could catch him before the dogs did, but he was having nothing of it. I finally decided it best to just keep an eye out in hopes he would just wander back home, but when I went back to the shop, he followed me. I worked a bit more, while he plundered through the pile of shavings in front of the planer, and when I sat down for a little break, he hunkered down right behind my green plastic chair. A couple of buddies dropped by for a visit, and we watched him explore the area for a bit, until he just wandered off into the bushes. I hope he found his way home ok. He obviously has an injured wing, so he would be easy prey for a dog. Pheasant are not native to this area, so I'm sure he was someone's pet.
Funny how something like that will grab you.I had a bird hang around the mill with me a few years ago and I missed him when he stopped coming by.
Maybe you'll see him again.
I had a wild turkey show up this year and stuck around for a week. After that I never saw him again. I really miss "ol' Tom". I got a real kick out of watching him. Joe
Dan , that could be part of a food group if it was to come around here sling_shot
Lots of ring-necked pheasants around the Woodstock area. They are sometimes a nuisance in the gardens. I see one up river here once in a great while. A lot of pheasant farms were started in the past, don't know if there are any still operating in my area. Can't hunt them unless on special reserves and I think Wildlife Management Zone 25 had a fall hunt off reserves in 2004. The province doesn't really manage them because they are exotic species.
They are fun to watch with their little chicks all following along behind the hen. And when the males go courting there is a lot of running, intimidation, vocals, and strutting about. :)
We don't have a population in N. Mich. anymore. Turkeys have made a huge comeback in the last 25 years or so but the only pheasants we see are escapees from local bird farms. Saw a male about 3 days ago. What a gorgeous bird!
I love pheasants-eating them that is. I like to hunt all sorts of critters but ditch chickens are among my favorites.
I had one fly over my head this summer while I was saw milling. We dont see them too often so it was a nice surprise, kind of like the one DanG had.
BTW pheasants are not native to any part of the US or Canada. They were imported from China (some of the first imported goods?) back in the early 1900's.
Oakiemac
That explains why you have to check a pheasant for lead before you eat it. :D
Bill
Quote from: jackpine on December 30, 2007, 07:13:37 AM
Oakiemac
That explains why you have to check a pheasant for lead before you eat it. :D
Bill
That was a good 'un :D :D :D
I may be wrong, but I believe pheasants are in the same family as peacocks. Peacocks are a very curious and social bird, so mayhaps pheasants have some of the same traits.
The ring necks were very common in the north Okanagan valley where I grew up here in B.C. Lots of small fields with fence rows seemed to suit them but the subdivisions have destroyed their habitat. Our acreage property line formed part of the city boundary and I think the birds knew it, at the sound of the first shotgun on opening day, our pasture was full of them.
DanG - your pheasant story reminds me of my peafowl - the are very curious birds. Whenever I'm working in the woodshop they will wander in and look at this and that, jump up on the benches, etc.
I still get a chuckle whever I remember the day one of the peacocks tried to perch on a roller conveyor in the shop! The darn thing stayed up there almost a minute - I was busting a gut before he finally gave up!
Scott
They are smart lazy deceptive birds. They have caused the devistation of the Greater Prairie Chichen population . The phesant hen would lay her eggs in a GPC nest and walk away , The GPC would then sit on the nest till the phesant eggs would hatch then she would raise the phesant chicks as her eggs would not hatch for another week if she would have set on them . I think that there is only one county in Illinois that has Greater Prairie Chichens now.
There are about 5 cock pheasants and some hens that stay in the little patch of woods behind my house. I have an automatic feeder that throws out corn twice a day for them, some deer that sleep in my woods and the DanG rabbits. It's fun watching them use their heads and breasts to waller the snow away down to the corn. I won't shoot these but I do enjoy a good pheasant dinner. My son still hunts them.
What color peafowl you got Scott? (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10046/s%20bird.jpg)
Look at all the salmon fly material. ;)
They molt in the fall and you can pick up all the feathers you could ever use for flies. The little ones make nice jewelry too.
I wonder how they would fair out in a cold climat . ???
That one don't care for it too much. He was raised in central Texas and when we moved to Arkansas where it gets a little colder and snows once in a while he was pretty miserable. He seems to be handling it a little better this year. They originally came from the Indian Hymilayas, so they should be able to tolerate it pretty well.
All is needed is for him to move a little bit more north every year and soon would be at my door step .
I am gonna look into getting a few of them ... there prety ... Had some pheasants , there good to eat , these are nice to look at . Dey good eating ??? ;D
I've heard they are. I think I would rather eat a hand gernade than eat Lindy's bird though.
I think you'd be eating a hand gernade if you tried to to eat her bird! :D
Well bleeve me, I thought about whacking that bird in the head and putting his carcass under glass. Upon further observation though, he appeared to be a really old bird, plus he didn't look all that healthy. I got to thinkin' about the Bird Flu and all sorts of stuff like that. After thinkin' about that, I couldn'a et him if he was on my plate. :-X
I think they pen those peacocks in the winter months up here. There used to be a small zoo at McGraw brook and that is a remote area of the province away from towns. They had a few walking around the yard during the summer months. There was a camp ground across the highway and salmon fishing nearby. There was also a Ranger station there. Now that is all gone.
Here in South Dakota you can't walk a mile in most parts without running into them. Commercial huntil has become a major industry lately, however. Still tons of birds around for the rest of us to hunt. Actually, today is the last day of the hunting season! Love those birds!!!
When we first started raising chickens many years ago, one of our neighbors brought over several pheasant eggs. We placed them under one of our hens and she proceeded to sit on them until they hatched. Everything was fine with her raising the pheasant chicks until one day old mamma hen saw one of our cats getting too close to them. She cackled her "DANGER" warning to the chicks, expecting them to all huddle under her wings until the danger had passed. However, unlike chickens, pheasant chicks will scatter and run at the first sign of danger. Poor old mamma hen was so flustered and upset when she couldn't herd in her babies. I felt so sorry for her. Eventually the cat was successful and we saw the chicks disappear over the next several days. We decided right then and there to never put a mamma hen through that kind of trauma ever again.
patty, sounds like you should get one of those bb guns from the other thread and give the cat a small amount of counseling.
The momma cat Patty's talking about was an amazing hunter. We had a water heater cut in half that we used as a watering hole for the cats dogs and various birds. Some domestic and plenty of wild birds. On several occassions the cat would sit very still a few feet away waiting for sparrows that came in to drink. She'd make a fast rush and then leap over the waterer to snatch them out of middair. First time Patty saw it she told me you'll never believe it, I soon saw the cat do the same. One day the cat came up missing. I'm sure an owl or coyote got her. And so it goes.
The pheasants in our area are thick on the road shoulders right now. We've had tons of snow so they come out to eat from where the snow plows have winged back the ditch. They are not very smart about traffic so you really have to slow down or you'll lose a headlight or grill hitting them.
LeeB - we've got one Blue India and one Emerald cock, a white hen, and three India Blue hens.
Of all the fowl, I think that I like the Peafowl the best. Sure is hard to raise the young 'uns thogh - about a 60% mortality getting them to 3 years of age.
Scott
Scott .. they that good eating , ??? I 'm a gonna get me some for sure now ... :P :)
Marcel - let me guess... they taste like chicken! :D
Nope they don't taste like chicken. They taste like shoe leather. Don't ask me how I know either. :D :D
Coon . What I want to know is how you came about to know how boot leather tastes like ... Then again maybe not .... :-\ Oh never mind . There are things that are better left alone . ;D
A few years ago we were just hitting the highway and we saw a cock pheasant was flying across the highway but was losing altitude as he came to the west bound lane and he intersected with the front window of a pickup. He bounced up in the air like a sand wedge shot, and landed on the margin deader than a doornail.
We'd been invited for the following day to have smoked Cornish Game Hens at a friend who hunts my farm so I pulled a U ee and picked up that road-killed pheasant and dropped it off at my buddy's and he cleaned him up and put him in the smoker with the hens.
Sure tasted good. The wife doesn't particularly like me telling the "We eat roadkill" story. :D :D
That's my pheasant story........
In Missouri we were right on the southern edge of pheasant range. The conservation department met landowners in the area and decided to try pheasant restoration. It looked successful for the first few years but eventually the population declined until we were lucky to see one a winter. I felt bad as the pheasant is such a beautiful bird to see and observe.
Now that we are in Arkansas there is no chance of seeing a pheasant but we have the southern cousin to the pheasant...its called the roadrunner. I've yet to have much hunting success but can't wait until I cook my first bird.
So there...that's my pheasant story and I'm sticking to it. ;D
Isawlogs,
Peafowl are alot like wild turkey, heavy on the dark meat. But also like a turkey the younger the better. Don't forget to send SwampDonkey some feathers. ;)
Now just try an old Guinea hen, talk about shoe leather. Just like old layers, they make good soup only.
Farmerdoug