We have lived in this house for over thirty years. In all that time I have been a good friend to the wild birds that visit our garden. Unless we are on holiday, there is always bird food out there - waiting for them. It's the least we can do.
We have a homemade bird table, fat ball containers and a small hanging table with a little roof on. I also put food on the lawn as some birds prefer to feed from the ground. With that food I make a point of putting it in the middle of the lawn in case of surprise attacks by domestic cats.
Over the years we have seen many different avian species including wrens, robins, hedge sparrows, wood pigeons, collared doves, blue tits, long-tailed tits, coal tits, thrushes, jays, magpies, blackbirds, rooks, starlings, a sparrowhawk and earlier this week a hen pheasant!
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| Hen pheasant in Ceredigion, Wales by Roger Kidd (Geograph 2017) |
I have often seen pheasants in the verdant countryside and farmland that surrounds this city but I have never before seen one in our garden. Our house is about a mile from the edge of the city and between us and the countryside there are busy roads, suburban streets and gardens, vehicles thundering by and thousands of people going about their daily activities.
It is hard to imagine the journey that bird must have taken before arriving at our house. She spent ten minutes pecking at the birdseed I had left out the day before. Now I missed most of this because I was sound asleep but Shirley saw it and ran upstairs to tell me the news. Bleary-eyed, I looked out of our bedroom window and there she was - a magical creature in unfamiliar territory.
Shirley used her i-phone to capture the top and bottom images. I wonder where that hen pheasant is now. It is hard not to fear the worst.
Oh! Bless her little heart! I hope she is okay.
ReplyDeleteThis happened on Monday morning. We haven't seen her since then.
DeleteShe must have been hungry to venture into unknown territory
ReplyDeleteEspecially just before Christmas! You don't have to roast a turkey!
DeleteMy family of a variety of free, native birds visit every afternoon...and during the day are never too far away from their adopted home ground...the grounds surrounding my cabin. They've adopted me as being one of their own. I'm always been serenaded (shouted at, if I'm running late with their dinner) by the kookaburras, magpies, currawongs, and butcher birds.
ReplyDeleteEvery afternoon the birds get meat scraps when I'm cutting up the meat for Remy and Shama's dinner.
My two furry mates have adopted the birds as their own, too. And they show no interest in devouring them. They're well-fed. Why would they bother getting their paws dirty when they have a housemaid to do all the work for them?
Often I see a pheasant or two, as well as bower birds, scurry across the lane into the vacant land across the way. I've seen quails scampering about, too. It's an avian world hereabouts.
I don't like the sound of a "butcher bird". Do they have big choppers?
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butcherbird
DeleteThe butcherbirds are wonderful little birds...and they have the most wonderful, joyful call. They are brave, cocky little fellows, too. A few years ago I watched two of them, showing no fear, chase a flock of large black cockatoos away... :)
"They get their name from their habit of impaling captured prey on a thorn, tree fork, or crevice. This "larder" is used to support the victim while it is being eaten, to store prey for later consumption, or to attract mates."...I may have nightmares now.
DeleteWe occasionally have pheasants, a male and his ladies and children; they come and go with long stretches between. We are in an urban area also. I would hazard a guess that your hen pheasant has gone back to wherever she used to be. Sometimes birds can get blown off course; did you have any wind lately? Besides PM Johnson's speechifying, that is :D
ReplyDeleteOur pheasants can only fly very short distances when they are in a panic. I guess that Canada has super flying pheasants that zoom around like feathered drones.
DeleteWell, I did see the male fly to the next street over, perch in a tree and then take off further in that direction. Are there no trees in the mile of city between you and the countryside?
DeleteMany trees Jenny. In fact, Sheffield is the most wooded city in western Europe but that cannot explain the presence of the hen pheasant. Besides, British pheasants are too plump and lazy to nestle in branches.
DeleteJust interested, YP - why can't the woods explain the hen pheasant's presence? I am missing something, but I don't know what! And no smart comebacks to that, please, lol
DeleteThere are just too many houses, too many tarred roads. In our suburb the trees are too dispersed to create the kind of corridor you suggested. I hope that was not too smart for you Jenny!
DeleteAh, I see now.
DeleteThe prolonged dry weather here has meant that there is very little grass in the fields not far from us so it is not unheard of to find kangaroos hopping along our suburban streets early in the morning looking for a bit of green grass.I rather like having them around.
ReplyDeleteSurely lack of feed cannot be the case with your pheasant can it?
No that cannot be the case Helen. If we were right on the edge of the city it would not be too surprising.
DeleteI wondered if they could fly, but that question is addressed. Let's wish her safe home. She reminds me of a flock of migrating hummingbirds that stopped at our feeders. One feeder was round and supported four or five birds. While the rest took turns sharing all round at all the feeders, one old and dilapidated bird appropriated one slot at the round feeder, and never lifted its beak out save for a breath every now and then, and back in for another feed. I stood at the window for half an hour, watching, and wishing that one, especially, safe journey home.
ReplyDeleteBirds link us to a different world - the world of the wild and true independence.
DeleteToday at noon when I went to the casino for lunch I looked in the fresh snow and there were deer tracks. Some place for deer to wonder around downtown.
ReplyDeleteCasino at lunchtime? Dear oh dear, you should consider counselling to combat your gambling addiction!
DeleteThe hen pheasant is a beautiful bird. We feed the birds and see quite a variety but nothing that large in our neighborhood. That was a special treat for you and Shirley!
ReplyDeleteHell, we didn't eat it Bonnie!
DeleteI never see as many pheasants as when I am in Yorkshire in the spring. The cocks get all nasty with each other and start fights, or are so love-struck they run across roads and are killed by cars. The hens try to remain invisible while keenly observing what their menfolk are up to, and then make their choice.
ReplyDeleteHere in my area, I have never seen a pheasant in the wild. Around O.K.'s village, we often hear their rusty trumpet call when we're out walking or running, but they rarely come out from hiding.
Yorkshire pheasants must be a particularly fearless breed.
Particularly fearless or particularly stupid!
DeleteWhen I lived in New Zealand the pheasants grazed in the pasture in front of it but roosted in the trees up the hill behind me. Often in the morning when they flew down the few hundred metres they flew past the other side of my bedroom wall the male used to let out an almighty blood curdling cry. I wish you freedom from that in your leafy suburb.
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! It is hard to imagine a cock pheasant letting out a "blood curdling cry" as they seem such dumb, jittery creatures. Anyway it just proves that alarm clocks are not always necessary.
DeleteIt's always magic to have a wild visitor
ReplyDeleteAnd I've just realised that comment is ripe for some kind of wicked joke. Oh well....
As I am a gentleman with impeccable manners, I will not stoop so low as to devise a wicked joke that could cause offence. I am aware of how coy and sensitive Australian ladies are.
DeleteYonder pheasant who is she?
ReplyDeleteHa-ha, clever bugger! The seasonal reference to "Good King Wenceslas" would be lost on many visitors.
DeleteWell that's my next year's Christmas card sorted! Thanks.
DeleteThat's lovely. My dear grandfather introduced me to birds. There was nothing he didn't know about them. To this day I have a red robin (cast) on my kitchen's window sill, all year round, not just at Christmas - not that I do need reminding of one of the loveliest men in my life. Still feel vaguely guilty when walking around city or country side and I do not know what sort of "tit" is twittering away. Blue I suppose the easiest to identify.
ReplyDeleteHere at the South Coast, only a stone throw (make that a two minute walk) away from the shore, we are "blessed" with seagulls. At the moment it's all quiet but most the year they descend onto where I live (an area I call "restaurant street") and raid the bins. By which I mean bins that the non-thinking overfill (lid open), rich pickings, once they got through the plastic bin liners, for those huge birds.
As an aside, I have always pitied birds becayse they don't have arms/hands - just feet though maybe claws make up for the lack of a thumb. However, should I be reincarnated, I'd just love to come back as, say, an eagle, any of those majestic birds with a wide wing span, sitting on the top of the mountain, all by themselves, surveying the valley. Completely in tune with themselves and nature. Downside being that they eat their prey raw. Oh to get over the yuk factor. Think Steak Tartare.
U
What a lovely comment Ursula. Thank you. Birds are indeed remarkable. How very, very sad that their numbers are reducing all over the world because of mankind.
DeleteInteresting! Well, if she got into town safely, I bet she can get out again. I was watching birds in our garden today, too!
ReplyDelete