Every winter we have a pheasant visit the garden. I don’t know if it is the same one of course, but it is odd how a single, beautiful, male pheasant chooses to visit our garden regularly at this time of year.
Last year I took some photos of it on the path just outside the chicken run. This year I have tried to get photos but it is so nervous and it’s really difficult to get anywhere near close enough to get a decent photo.
We have speculated why it visits our garden as opposed to the neighbouring gardens. We have wondered if it actually comes to visit our girls. It spends a lot of time in the ferns at the side of the chicken run. Oddly enough the girls are not bothered by it’s presence. They shout at cats and they freeze and listen to the sounds of kites but they take no notice of the many squirrels or the pheasant.
A few days ago this was the closest I managed to get.
My photo of the pheasant
It’s on the step in the centre of the photo. A rubbish photo but I had already tried for many days and each time it got away from me. A day or two later my husband had a go.
My husband’s better photo of the pheasant
Then today the pheasant was once more in the ferns beside the chicken run and my husband said it appeared to show interest in the girls and they also appeared to be interested in it. Peaches and Barley went to the wire for a closer look. The little girls just watched from their position on the perch beside the ladder as did Speckles from her position above the ladder.
The pheasant visits the girls
Frustratingly, my husband took several more photos after this one but the camera malfunctioned and said the photos could not be accessed, grrrr!
The pheasant and Peaches and Barley were studying each other through the wire but showing no signs of aggression, just interest. It is very odd but interesting.
The reason I titled this post “winter visitors” (plural) is because I thought it would be a good time to mention another subject. I don’t want to jinx this by saying this but …. this is the first winter since we have kept chickens that we have not had a rat problem. Every year we used to spend time fortifying the run and still they got in. We always felt that it was next doors decking on the other side of the run that was where they were coming from. They would chew through the fence panels or dig under.
Last year we so fed up with it that we had our fencing guys come and put marine ply in front of the fence on the chickens patio with a layer of chicken wire in between. Then we got them to put the marine ply against the fence beyond the patio and sink it to our layer of horizontal roof tiles buried below the soil. It doesn’t look greatly attractive but I think this is what has done the job. Rats can’t seem to get through from next door any more.
We have recently had a couple of cold and frosty weeks which always caused us to have a rat problem in the past but this year we have had no sign of any rats. I am so elated that we seem to have finally managed to keep them out.
I am always afraid to say something like this and have put off mentioning it until now but I really think that the marine ply has stopped rats being able to chew their way through. So the rats have stayed away this year (so far and hopefully for good) and the pheasant has continued to visit our girls but doesn’t seem to cause any upset so all is good with garden visitors or lack of them!
Click here to see the history of my flock.
My mum has pheasants and a partridge who come to her chicken run. They’re wild but every morning were there with the chickens waiting for their breakfast! In he end they didn’t run away at all when she went into the run with them! The chickens don’t seem particularly interested in them but they do seem to be almost part of the flock at times – the chickens peck them away from the food sometimes!
My run is contained so nothing can get in. The pheasant can’t get to any food so it just seems to be an interest or curiosity. I have heard of free range chickens and pheasants mixing though, when reading forums. It seems that chickens don’t see pheasants as a threat and they do seem just a bit curious.
The pheasant is AMAZING!!! How very cool.
And congrats on getting the rats under control. I had a guy put 1/2″ welded wire all over my run a few years back. Best money I spent. Haven’t had a rat in there since. One less thing to deal with in a crazy world of having to deal with stuff.
It’s a pity we couldn’t get a close up of the pheasant because it is stunning. You are so right about how great it is not to have a rat problem. The marine ply seems to have done the job for us because that was where they were always managing to chew through, whatever we did before, to stop them. It so good not to have this problem this winter.
Nice to see, the girls interested in the pheasent. And it, in the girls.
Glad to hear you have got rid of the rat problem.
We never manage to catch the one in our garden. We have not seen
it for weeks,but guess it is still around.
Richard says they must know that it isn’t another chicken as they show no aggression towards it but they also know it’s not a threat, therefore they are just curious about it. It seems a two way curiosity between it and the girls.
It is so good not to have a rat problem this year. Maybe if you haven’t seen yours it has moved on.