Ringo is back!
Late last friday afternoon, I looked outside my living room window to see where all the snow was, that had been in the forcast, but I didn't get any. That made me happy! At the same time, I noticed something in the spruce tree, directly in front of the window. It was my pheasant friend who was perched in my tree, about 15 feet high. With temps hovering around 0 F, -17 C, he sure looked cold, intermittently moving his wings and feet, to stay warm. I went outside to take a few photos and left him some oatmeal, near the base of the tree.
My feathered friend stayed a couple days in the tree, 
before leaving. I noticed he had eaten half the oatmeal because his foot prints were in the snow, all around it, with the tracks originating from under the tree. Later in the day, I went into town to mail some packages and spotted him scrounging for apples under a neighbors tree, so he wasn't too far away.
Monday night came and so did the big storm. I didn't think he would be nesting in that particular tree during the storm, however, I kept an eye open for him, just in case. When all was said and done, there was only about 6 inches on the ground so I took the old snowblower and cleaned up the driveway, and walkways, nice and good. It ran well after I jimmy-rigged it to work when I didn't have the right part to replace the defective one.
While sitting in my living room, I peaked out the window and saw my pheasant friend walking toward the spruce tree. He walked around the area where the half eaten oatmeal had been which is now covered by 6 inches of snow. After a while, he trotted off to another tree followed by another tree and at this point, I'm beginning to think that maybe his memory is bad and he can't remember under which tree he found the oatmeal, but the tracts eventually headed into the bog....hopefully he'll find food there. He is a very fat bird so I probably shouldn't worry about him!
He'll be back!.......
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tastes like chicken....LOL I used to hunt them....never got a bird that I had not paid for.....I bought birds off the hunting club to work my hunting dogs a few different times......it was fun but would have been better had my knees not needed total knee replacements.....that was a lot of years ago back in early 2000's......those dogs are across the rainbow bridge now.....I would like to have another hunting dog but that was an acquired sport for most men in my financial position at that time....I am not able to afford to train the dog like I did back then and I had many thousands of acres of MO leased farmlands to hunt that I had to pay the hunting club to get rights to hunt.....and then of course all the gas to travel to those areas not close to home...plus the shorter trips out to hunt the birds I bought....we hunted Quail, Chukkar and Pheasants....you had to buy a bunch of birds to hunt them too....I think 10 per person hunting....it wasn't a cheap sport....
Take good care of him. (And don't let Bill near him lol.)
love the pic and the story
Our pheasant has turned up missing. We are hoping that he is just nesting someplace to get out of the cold and nothing got him. We miss seeing him everyday. Enjoyed hearing about Ringo.
What a pic!
I am not a hunter myself but I don't judge those who do. Ringo is very safe where I live because the land all around me is posted.
@sunsetyellow2 If you have evergreen trees nearby, that's usually where you can find them. They generally stay in the thickets during the coldest months to stay warm and for safety.
Thankyou for the nice comments.
Great to hear about Ringo. I have a magpie that has trained me to feed him. He sings beautiful songs to lure me outside with food and if I don’t go he looks through the glass sliding doors to see where I am.
We have flocks of turkey that disappear in winter and show up when the fields come alive in spring. Had about 10 inches here from Mondays storm and it finally inspired me to put feeders out. I'm a bit ashamed to say that this is the first year I've done this. Although the huge compost pile gets turned often and they love that. I've been planning to get to Maine this year and am considering a section of the AT from the White mountains into your state. Old growth spruce forest that I expect will have abundant wildlife. I'll have to upgrade my iPhone so I can take pictures like Shiney.
That's so cool Bob..... I have a big roasting pan outside filled with bird food and we get birds and squirrels... I love to watch them... Nice!!
Pretty!
He came back today and I had a package of oatmeal waiting for him. All you have to do is shake the bag and he will walk toward you!
He is tame until someone drives down my driveway, then he runs under the tree. I will try to upload a new photo.