Pheasants

Leicester_Hunk · 09/03/15 - 22:33

I killed a pheasant on the way to work last week. I felt so guilty even though it just ran out in front of the car and I couldn't avoid it. It was only a small pheasant. RIP.

Next day another one did exactly the same but I avoided this one. This was older and they said at work it was the other one's dad looking for me.

Next day, three of them on the road.

Are they breeding or something?? Anyone else encountered them lately?

Ethel_Fred · 09/03/15 - 22:46

Stupidest bird on the planet - they'll run in front of you, they'll run in the same direction as you - all so they can end up dead.

As for them appearing - it's spring when a young pheasant's mind turns to thoughts of head butting cars

miss_astrid · 09/03/15 - 22:49

I call them kamikaze birds. They always seem to cross the road at the wrong moment! My OH has hit and killed one (by accident obviously) and had a fair few near misses. It's a wonder there's any left to breed!

Pumping Iron · 09/03/15 - 22:52

My cat goes mad for the taste of pheasant. I'm not a huge fan.

Bandita · 09/03/15 - 22:53

We have loads living in our garden and surounding forest, they are not that stupid when they see my OH who feeds them!! The do however have no road sense, They are rather careless about looking after their chicks, they are feirce for a couple of days in protecting them, then that switch turns off.

benjamini · 09/03/15 - 22:58

Not very agile, and hang around verges. They are poor at flying . Most have escaped from hatcheries used for breeding game birds so heavy of body for meat. And poor flight for easy target by the guns on shoots.
I cannot get emotional about their demise, tho I hope it's quick.

QT 3.14 · 09/03/15 - 23:06

Hit a rather sizeable one last year, actually it darted from undergrowth and hit me but that besides the point. Even though it only clipped it the damn thing took my wing mirror straight off.

I got my own back though, it tasted great.

benjamini · 09/03/15 - 23:10

QT 3.14 wrote: »

Hit a rather sizeable one last year, actually it darted from undergrowth and hit me but that besides the point. Even though it only clipped it the damn thing took my wing mirror straight off.

I got my own back though, it tasted great.

They are like very dry chicken. Best in a casserole.

Bandita · 09/03/15 - 23:12

benjamini wrote: »

Not very agile, and hang around verges. They are poor at flying . Most have escaped from hatcheries used for breeding game birds so heavy of body for meat. And poor flight for easy target by the guns on shoots.
I cannot get emotional about their demise, tho I hope it's quick.

That's where ours come from, there's an estate near by where they are bred for shooting. I don't mind them so don't want to see them harmed they don't get run over on our road, little very slow moving traffic on a track road on a steep hill with bends near the house.

Mudbox · 09/03/15 - 23:13

Pheasant releasing began in response to a decline in the traditional shooting of grey partridges as agricultural intensification in the 1950s and 1960s led to reduced wild stocks. Since then, demand and economics have led to continued increases in the numbers of pheasants released for shooting, which was estimated at 35 million in 2004

http://www.gwct.org.uk/research/long-term-monitoring/national-gamebag-census/bird-bags-summary-trends/common-pheasant/

they must cause a few road traffic accidents.

Leicester_Hunk · 09/03/15 - 23:14

They just run out from nowhere and you have no chance of stopping or avoiding them usually.

SkipTracer · 09/03/15 - 23:21

benjamini wrote: »

They are like very dry chicken. Best in a casserole.

Aren’t you supposed to hang them up until the Maggots crawl out of them then they are really tasty, so I’m told.:)

cobaye22 · 09/03/15 - 23:23

Recent vicious off road attack by one of these large bodied gamebirds.
Any advice appreciated.

greenyone · 09/03/15 - 23:27

Funnily enough I had one running around in my garden last week

benjamini · 09/03/15 - 23:28

SkipTracer wrote: »

Aren’t you supposed to hang them up until the Maggots crawl out of them then they are really tasty, so I’m told.:)

I would eat the maggots and throw away the pheasant.

MargMck · 09/03/15 - 23:32

I've driven down the M4 between Newbury and Hungerford when it's been like a pheasant holocaust, lumps of birds and feathers blowing across both carriageways. They have got to be in the top 10 most brainless land animals.

Ethel_Fred · 09/03/15 - 23:41

Mudbox wrote: »

they must cause a few road traffic accidents.

Only if you try to avoid them and hit a hard object instead. Once hit one and found it the following day stuck in my bumper - no damage to the car at all.

belly button · 09/03/15 - 23:46

The problem is that pheasants are runners not flyers. They evolved in areas where grass and copses dominate.
Unfortunately many road sides match their natural habitat

exlordlucan · 10/03/15 - 00:06

Road kill pheasant, yummy!

coughthecat · 10/03/15 - 00:33

MargMck wrote: »

I've driven down the M4 between Newbury and Hungerford when it's been like a pheasant holocaust, lumps of birds and feathers blowing across both carriageways. They have got to be in the top 10 most brainless land animals.

Yup. I've seen one repeatedly headbutting a mirrored glass door until it damn near killed itself.

I really don't see the "sport" in shooting them. I reckon if you just left a gun lying in a field, chances are that a pheasant would come along and find some way of shooting itself!

farmer bob · 10/03/15 - 00:34

Excellent plummage for fly-tying. Cock Pheasant hackle fibres are often used for imitative tails on a wet fly. The "Orange Bustard" and "Golden Drake" are 2 good examples. Although the softer Hen hackle is usually preferable for wet flies, due to the ease of which they get water-logged. In dry flies, the stiff-fibred, more water repellant cock hackles provide good natural flotation.
The most colourful Pheasant feathers are usually used for Salmon patterns like the "General Practitioner", a salmon fly developed in the 1950's.

TrollHunter · 10/03/15 - 00:38

Ethel_Fred wrote: »

Only if you try to avoid them and hit a hard object instead. Once hit one and found it the following day stuck in my bumper - no damage to the car at all.

I clobbered one while I was travelling at around 40-50mph and it completely caved in my fog light, bastard!! Mind you, it did a lot less damage than the time I clobbered a deer. They're stupid animals too.

coughthecat · 10/03/15 - 00:40

farmer bob wrote: »

Excellent plummage for fly-tying. Cock Pheasant hackle fibres are often used for imitative tails on a wet fly. The "Orange Bustard" and "Golden Drake" are 2 good examples. Although the softer Hen hackle is usually preferable for wet flies, due to the ease of which they get water-logged. In dry flies, the stiff-fibred, more water repellant cock hackles provide good natural flotation.
The most colourful Pheasant feathers are usually used for Salmon patterns like the "General Practitioner", a salmon fly developed in the 1950's.

So, throwing themselves in front of cars is actually a cunning pheasanty plan to rid the world of salmon and trout!

I wonder who's winning this war of attrition?

Namira · 10/03/15 - 00:42

Rescued one from my neighbours Siamese cat the other day. I went looking for where the bloody awful screaming was coming from and the little tyrant had hold of a big male one. I spent all day wondering wtf it was doing there. I live pretty far away from fields and woodland.

benjamini · 10/03/15 - 00:43

coughthecat wrote: »

Yup. I've seen one repeatedly headbutting a mirrored glass door until it damn near killed itself.

I really don't see the "sport" in shooting them. I reckon if you just left a gun lying in a field, chances are that a pheasant would come along and find some way of shooting itself!

So true .

bookcover · 10/03/15 - 00:43

Delicious roasted with pears.

Hey there!

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