Greedy Boy

Guernsey Donkey2

So he has chosen his harem, we could be in for an interesting if not noisy summer!

pansyface

We are plagued with the things. 

Earlier in the winter we had three males and too many females to count. 

The males have now sorted themselves out and one has decided that our garden is his territory. He has twenty six females.  Every morning the damned things arrive demanding breakfast and my fool of a husband obliges.

I wouldn’t care, but while they are waiting for meals on wheels to arrive they snack on my hellebore flowers, pulsatilla and rose shoots.

Guernsey Donkey2

My goodness @pansyface! As you may have gathered pheasants are something of a rarity here. We see plenty of migratory birds, shore birds too, although in our garden we don't have many varieties of wild life, hence the interest and picture.

Busy-Lizzie

We often see pheasants in our Norfolk garden. Next door neighbour feeds them, they look plump, haven't upset my plants - yet.

Lyn

@pansyface same here, we can have our very own shoot, they escape from the estate and breed everywhere.   My cat is terrified of them.

Fire

Sunday lunch?

Guernsey Donkey2

The nieghbour's cat isn't too keen on them either.  He gives them a wide berth.  I think it is their squawking that frightens the cat, the pheasants are highly strung and a little too big for the cat.  Now pigeons are a different matter - they seem to be more accessible for the cat.

Chrissy the gardener

A typical morning on our lawn ——-

Guernsey Donkey2

My goodness @Chrissy the gardener Do you have a pheasant farm nearby?

Obelixx

Many moons ago before we turned former pasture into out veggie garden in Belgium I came home from French class to find that Sunshine - a particularly grumpy rescue with de-clawed paws - had succeeded in herding 9 female pheasants into a tight circle in the long grass.   

They were all hopping up and down on the spot while she circled.   I had to go out and clap my hands to remind them they had wings and could fly.   Stupid birds really.  

wild edges

Not sure if this is common knowledge but Chris Packham's Wild Justice group have launched legal action against DEFRA for their inaction in regulating the numbers of farmed gamebirds released into the countryside each year. https://wildjustice.org.uk/general/wild-justice-seeks-judicial-review-of-gamebird-releases/

There appears to be no records kept of the number of birds released and no control on how many can be released or where. Estimates of 60 million birds seem fairly accurate and you can imagine the impact that has on wildlife, especially near protected areas. This includes creating artificially high predator and scavenger numbers as well as reducing numbers of insects and plants. Wildlife lovers feed them too thinking they're doing a good thing (which they are in a way) but the increased demand for bird seed abviously has effects on farmland and wildlife elsewhere.

If nothing else it's another case of the rich treating the countryside like they own the place (which of course they largely do...).