Pheasant

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 I suppose I have been avoiding talking about pheasants because they are an introduced species - and introduced so that they could be shot. Last nights trail cams showed nothing but rabbits and a couple of pheasant so I thought maybe they deserved a slot.

The term "pheasant" covers a number of species. What we see here are the ring necked pheasants. These birds are native to Eurasia and are thought to have been introduced to Europe by the Romans, arriving in Britain with the Normans in the 11th Century. The birds then became locally extinct before being introduced widely by "sporting estates" in the Victorian era so that "gentlemen" could shoot them. There are quite a number of pheasant on farmland and woodland that are living wild. However there are a number of shooting syndicates here that breed them. Commonly young birds are brought in in the Spring and are reared in areas of woodland. It is common to come across feeding stations - often upturned blue barrels with a sprung lever that the birds learn to knock to release food. Syndicates often mark their own birds with a leg tag. Near us is a syndicate (mostly local farmers) who raise pheasants in the local copses. In season dogs flush the pheasant out so that the guns can shoot them. The raising of pheasants has an effect on the indigenous flora and fauna. The presence of young birds attracts predators - and the farmers in an attempt to preserve pheasant stocks then trap or shoot the foxes or stoats that are predating. Other animals and birds (rats for example) also benefit from the extra food available.
The birds in my clip are both male - females are mostly brown and a bit smaller. These are very beautiful birds but I have reservations about the practice of raising birds just to shoot them.

Diary
On my walk yesterday I was struck by the profusion of Hawthorne berries.


These berries feed the winter migrants when they arrive - mostly fieldfare and redwing here . I have seen reports on Facebook that some local birders have seen fieldfare and redwing already but I haven't made a confident ID of them myself. A showery day yesterday with some sunny intervals as seen in this photo of my walk along the old railway line towards Smardale.

I saw large flock of goldfinch , a male kestrel hunting - and some ravens.






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