Today marks one week since pheasant season opened in our area. You cannot drive anywhere without seeing blaze orange everywhere you look! (For those of you who do not know, when you hunt pheasant you are required to wear the very fashionable, blaze orange – vest, hat, shirt, etc…) People come from all over the place to hunt these wily critter. My husband and I were among them until we moved into the area. 🙂 Unfortunately, I am sad to say, there are not as many birds to be found these days – there are many reasons why this is so. Yet, seeing all this blaze orange and hearing the occasional “pop” of a shotgun has made me reminisce about the days we did much of the same. It has also reminded me of a unique pheasant story I would like to share.
My husband surprised our family by bringing home two hens and one rooster pheasant a while back. At that time the rooster did not look like he does in these photos. He was very small and mainly brown and black. We cared for our pheasants and gradually integrated them into the coop, where they joined the chickens. I had my first, real look at what “hen pecked” means as poor Peasant the Pheasant lost feathers, cowered in the corner of the coop and seemed to cheer when all the “ladies” headed out of the coop for the day. (We did not let the pheasants run loose.) Well, as the days went by Peasant the Pheasant slowly grew colorful feathers, matured and would hold his own among the ladies. When company came to visit, we enjoyed showing them the pheasants. Such a lovely bird! So colorful! What an amazing creature God made! Well, Peasant the Pheasant surprised us one day when we went into the coop to gather eggs – he attacked our legs! What! Where did that come from? Did we startle him? We knew something had to change when this happened time and time again. He was becoming more and more aggressive.
After weighing the options, we settled on letting this amazing creature enjoy his freedom and return to “the wild”. I took as many pictures as I could that day because I did not know when I would ever be this close to a pheasant again. As my husband sat Peasant the Pheasant out in a field and we waited for him to discover that he was free, I took several of the photos you are seeing.
There was one thing we did not count on…he did not want to leave. He slowly made his way back to the homestead area and headed for the coop.
He stuck around all day! He seemed to think that the entire yard area belonged to him. Whenever we went outside he would come running to attack us – the people who have cared for and fed him! Go figure! Our poor children were afraid to go outside since he was on the loose! Peasant the Pheasant even went as far as to taunt the dogs (bird dogs we use to hunt this very fowl) while they were tied to leads. Crazy bird! That night my husband and I were weighing our options again, for this could not go on!
The next morning we were anticipating his attack when we stepped out to do chores. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Peasant the Pheasant was nowhere to be found! (The kids were cheering from the doorway!) Where did he go? What was his fate? I do not know. Yet, I like to believe he is out running and flying free in the fields that surround our house. When I hear the distinct cackle of a rooster pheasant I like to think it just might be Peasant the Pheasant, enjoying the freedom it took him a while to realize he had.
And I remain thankful that he is no longer around causing misery to us when we gather eggs and work around the house. 🙂
That, my friends, is the story of our Peasant the Pheasant.
Oh yes, his name: Pheasant the Pheasant was decided upon because of an ongoing alliteration our family has when it comes to animals, i.e. Daisy the Dog, Petra the Pointer, etc..
