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The flying pheasant

Submitted by Blog - Henriette on 10 July, 2006 - 10:00
Blog categories: 
Fun

Oh yes, pheasants do fly.

A few years ago, when I still lived right next to a show garden, they had planted a row of sunflowers as a border between one of the veggie beds and a walkway.

And I saw a pheasant male go behind those sunflowers.

These were young sunflowers, and still so dense that you couldn't see through that row. You could se over it, sure, but I didn't want to alarm that pheasant ... yet. He had been walking downhill at a leasurely pace.

So I crept along that row on the other side, quite a bit faster than I had seen that pheasant go, and popped up at the end of the row in front of him, waving my arms and making a face.

He flew at least 40 meters! I haven't seen pheasants fly that far before, or after.

Me, I fell down laughing.

--
Cruel? No. Pheasants shouldn't get too used to humans, and they shouldn't get all that comfortable in a garden. They do eat herbs and young veggies.

Comments

Submitted by JIM (not verified) on 10 July, 2006 - 20:55.

I've seen pheasants fly before - there's a whole parcel near where my parents live. It's not the flying so much, but the fact that when they take off they make enough noise for an F-14. Imagine going for a nice peaceful walk in the lane and then having an unseen startled pheasant explode out of the bushes at you. *infarction*

Anyway. Canajen pheasants may not be the same as Finnish ones.

Submitted by Henriette on 11 July, 2006 - 18:28.

Aye, ours do fly when flushed out, but usually less than 10 meters.
Granted, most of our pheasants are overbred (and rather stupid) birdshooters' prey - they might be leaner and better equipped for flying, where they're not introduced as birds of prey (ah hah, I'm so funny.)