Miles Collins

A tribute to Lincolnshire’s most sought after bird…

I say ’sought after’ but what I really mean is ’shot at’. My home county is alive with the sounds of shotguns blasting away at pheasants, partridges and pigeons at this time of year and with the exception of pigeons and crows nothing occupies the fields and woods like the pheasant.
I recall early childhood memories of my father shooting pheasants and my brother holding a brace as a young boy, as I grew older and my interest in the countryside grew I read books on Victorian poachers and their tried and trusted methods of catching one for the pot.

Pheasants are quite beautiful, despite their awkward, gangly gait and their lack of intelligence in the presence of humans they have remarkably beautiful feathers and for me, symbolise what is so special about the English countryside. What is special is their unique colour and the manner in which they strut across the land seemingly oblivious to the impending perils of a loaded twelve bore. But as much as I regard them as symbolic of England’s green and fertile lands it is the Asians who we must thank for introducing them to us in the eleventh century. We kept them very much to ourselves with the rest of Northern Europe only getting an introduction some two hundred years ago.

The more you watch them the more sense the Asian connection makes, I have often watched exotic birds (with feathers thank you) in South East Asia and noticed how they ’strut’ around their breeding ground with a certain peacock like arrogance and the pheasant will do much the same. It is an apparent fact that the total weight of pheasants at this time of year (autumn) is the same, if not more than all other species of birds in Britain put together. Quite remarkable but given the amount I see on my travels and the dearth of birdlife in my garden at present easy to believe.

Here’s one I saw at College Wood in Lincolnshire earlier this week…

Pheasant at College Wood