Some Pheasant, Some Neck!

sparrowhawk

11.15 a.m., drizzly and overcast: A male sparrowhawk swoops close to the bird feeders and lands on the hedge. Pheasant wouldn’t normally be on the menu for him but that doesn’t stop him looking down on two hen pheasants that have been foraging beneath the feeders.

Just in case he’s considering them as his brunch, they extend their necks and puff out their feathers to appear two to three times their regular neck size.

pheasnat display

They strut and hop, half spreading their wings and fanning tail feathers, a hip-hop swagger that reminds me of prairie-chickens lekking.

pheasant strutting

The sparrowhawk keeps glancing down at them then flies off across the garden to continue his rounds. The pheasants resume their foraging.

field notes
My field notes, scribbled as I wrote a shopping list (in my defence the ‘crisps’ were lentil crisps, so that’s one of your five-a-day).

Earlier I’d watched them pecking the seedheads of our marigolds, which are still in flower despite the overnight frost last week.

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