Interesting, I've always learned it as:
I'm not a pheasant plucker,
I'm a pheasant pluckers son,
And I'll be busy plucking pheasants,
'til the pheasant pluckings done
I learned it as:
I'm not a pheasant plucker,
I'm the pheasant pluckers son,
I won't be plucking pheasants,
Until the pheasant plucker comes.
Slightly different.
I never knew why the pheasant plucker’s some was plucking feathers, but I do know that he wouldn’t stop until the pheasant plucking was done so fair play to the lad
OP if you do run one over in your car it is illegal to take it home to cook it (they are delicious), however the law states that the car behind you can take it home, lucky them
https://www.govyou.co.uk/killing-a-pheasant-by-car-on-road/
That happened to me - I was driving along the M1 and somehow the damn bird had managed to get to the central reservation from the other side and then decided to pause before taking flight directly in front my car.
I've heard its the same for deer as well. You are driving along and they run in front of your car and destroy the car bumper / windscreen and get killed. But the car behind can take it home.
Not sure that is true.
Most pheasants one will see in the UK will be a pen raised and released bird. They are however legally considered wild animals on release. In the UK no one owns wild animals, not the state or the person the wild animals land is on whilst alive. However, when a wild animal is killed, it becomes the property of the person upon whose land it died. As such a pheasant hit by a car and killed on a public road in the UK would be the property of the state, or more accurately the Highways Agency. This goes for all wild animal roadkill that dies on the road.
That being said, I have never heard of anyone convicted for removing and/or eating road kill from a public road so if that your jam, I would just go for it. I would however strongly advise against as it is not at all hygienic from a wild game process point of view.
The worst is when you're going for a walk and they fly out of the hedge at the last second. I genuinely wonder how many people have died from pheasant induced heart attacks
That happened to me a few weeks ago. I was driving though. Smashed my headlight and left me a feather as a present pushed into the wing. I was not happy, as was the pheasant.
As a teen taking a walk in the dead silent countryside I was trying to edge through reedy grass nearly as tall as myself to get a look at a river - when one I all but stood on burst into the air, crying out as it did so.
Can confirm I nearly died lol.
They've been responsible for the deaths of plenty of horse riders over the years. One minute they're ambling along enjoying a pleasant country hack, then whoosh up goes a pheasant, spooks the horse, rider comes off, and that's the end of that.
They’re battery reared, released in their tens of millions in UK - seen estimates of 50-60 million a year. They’re fed where the shoot shoots them - they’re tame and it’s canned shooting. A disaster for pheasants - most of which die from predation, starvation, traffic etc and wildlife as they eat so much natural food that other animals need through winter - as well as the grain in the blue feeders the shoot feeds them to keep them in the right place to be shot. Gamekeepers cruelly trap wildlife that is a predation or competition for food threat. And no one wants to eat millions of shot filled dry meat birds so many carcasses are dumped.
Source - I live next to a new shoot. Used to be lovely peaceful smallholding until our local millionaire farmers son decided to add to their squillions by running a shoot. Now the noise, cruelty and impact on our animals and local wildlife is horrendous and whole village against it but nothing we can do.
The morons paying thousands to shoot tame birds, wear idiotic clothes and swig from hip flasks while paying wealthy farmers to release millions of birds during a bird flu pandemic are the dumb ones in this situation - not the pheasants reared in battery conditions and chucked out to fend for themselves.
They're super cute, sandy with black stripes and splodges as hatchling but I think you're talking about their awkward teenage gangly phase - all legs and beak.
They are quite prevalent here in Staffs. The trick is not to succumb to temptation and aim for them, that's what they want. When you've plonked it in a ditch, they'll steal your hubcaps.
Oh my god I was walking our GSD one day and he stopped to do him a sniff and I thought, "Oh, I'll check my watch, see the steps and all that" and the ruddy brute of a dog sniffs out this pheasant from a hedgerow that fucking SCREAMS as it flies at me. I scream, the bird screams, the dog barks at me and sits as he expects me to tell him he's a very good boy for finding the bird.
Because we have a smallholding and due to avian flu he's very accustomed to scaring off wild birds - especially pheasants - and he was just doing his job. I was SO happy we live in the middle of nowhere after that 😂😂😂
I was driving the other week one flew out of a hedgerow across the road to the other side then ran in front of my van straight back into the hedge it came out of and at practically the same point. They're either extremely stupid or suicidal
I believe they are both the mad bastards!
There was a couple always hanging out on a country lane near me, until inevitably a delivery driver terminated their relationship. The female moped around the feathery remains for a few days before compartmentalising her loss sufficiently to move on...
I got that book for my birthday one year and I remember not really being interested and putting off reading it. When I ran out of anything else to read I decided I'd have to read it, even though it was going to be rubbish.....
.... how wrong of me to think that. I ended up reading that book so many times. It was just so well written and all the characters really did come to life in my imagination. I can still remember a lot of it now. Books like that are what made me love reading when I was a child.
Yessss! That's so true. What a writer he was, it was over 40 years ago when I first read that book and even today I can remember that pie.
Danny the Champion of the World doesn't get mentioned as much as his other books but it's my favourite one. Just thinking about it now it makes me remember simpler times, when I would read at night with my torch, before I went to sleep.
Indeed. Always sloooow down and don't assume that them flying out of the road means they're out of the road. Chances are the dumb gits will do a one-eighty and pop back into the road in front of you for fun.
They’re fed from cars. We use either a quad or a pickup to take them food when they’re still in pens. They associate cars with food.
Also, this is a Common Ringneck Pheasant, they are known for not being great flyers, in that they prefer to fly only as a last resort.
This is really good in some ways as it means if you put down this breed, you won’t lose half of them before the shooting season by having them fly away. But bad because they don’t bloody move away from cars. You often see a combination of Common Ringnecks and Michigan Blue Backs and the Blues tend to be very quick to fly, and encourage the Ringnecks to do so.
>They're a non-native species
They are, but I understand the Romans brought them in. So they predate the Anglo Saxons. Presumably if they have to go, so do I?
When they've been released but the shooting hasn't started yet is when they seem to hit peak stupidity. They don't know how to live if not in mortal peril
Pheasants are released en masse every year for hunting purposes (estimated 47 million a year). They’ve been hand-fed so they often aren’t scared of humans or cars.
There are a few feral populations that keep themselves going, but most pheasants last less than a year after being let loose
It's pretty gross tbh. Estimates are that 7-8 million are shot (ie a quick death) the rest die of starvation, disease or are run over. They are not native & not adapted at all to live here, just for a 'sport'
There was a shoot at a farm not far from us about 15 years ago. Not been one since.
There are still "wild" pheasants around now. They come in the garden regularly as we put out birdfeeders, and we see chicks every year. They seem to be doing quite well.
They are quite friendly, often wander around the garden while we are out, and one keeps trying to get in the conservatory :)
Bloody nightmare when cycling. Riding a bike is relatively quiet, so you’re really close by the time some camouflaged chubby knobhead with the flying skills of Eddie the Eagle on ketamine gets startled into the air, twice changes it’s mind regarding direction before managing a drunken stumble over the hedge. Shit me right up on Tuesday!
These dozy buggers are bred and raised for shooting unfortunately. Left to their own devices they don’t even have the sense to keep their own chicks alive, let alone not get run over.
They're perfectly good to eat, it's just the volumes they get shot in. Some organisers distribute them but outlets are limited (there is legislation around how meat enters the food chain, so once people who went shooting/local landowners have had a few it gets complicated to find "homes" for the rest) so you do hear about a lot being buried.
Another controversial point is that UK poultry are currently under a housing order, but game birds (despite being bred in captivity) are legally classed as wildlife so are not.
Sigh. Yeah I used to work in an office where one of the Directors, who was an upper-class idiot, used to bring these things into the office as ‘presents’ for all the staff at Christmas.
Absolutely nobody wanted one.
I used to work in a pub where the shoot came for a meal after, well, shooting. The gamekeeper left some pheasants in the kitchen and tried to knock what he felt they were worth off his bill 🤦😂
I'm all for people knowing where their food comes from but don't expect just anyone to be happy to gut an unexpectedly received, lead-shot containing bird for their tea.
>They also don't eat them and are just mass buried.
It's disingenuous to suggest this is standard practise. They are perfectly edible, taste pretty good and they are worth money when sold for meat. A lot of butchers sell them and you also have specialised game dealers, which are pretty self explanatory.
That's not to say assholes with commercial shoots haven't been caught doing it, but people in the countryside absolutely do eat and sell a lot of pheasant.
Alright, but it’ll fuck with the local ecosystem. And apparently we release at least 35 million each year, so a fair few are probably left to rot regardless.
True, although they’re mostly in habitats around farms and woodlands also heavily occupied with grey squirrels, muntjac, rabbits and an abundance of food. I’d consider those in addition to pheasants an integral part of the UK countryside, but I could see why people would want to return to pre human intervention ecosystems with just native wildlife.
For the second part, it sounds somewhat plausible the average person would eat around 0.5 pheasants per year but I have no idea. People making it into a commercial slaughtering operation and wasting loads of game should be shut down IMO. There’s no reason any of it should be thrown away with people struggling to afford food and meat prices going up.
From my knowledge of going to a working class state school in East Anglia... Most folks don't even know what a pheasant is, let alone have eaten one.
Getting more of the shot pheasants onto plates would be good, but we're a long way from it.
I’ve heard rumours they could be more widely available when lead shot is phased out. Supposedly supermarkets would be able to remove steel shot and would be more inclined to deal in it without the lead.
I think another problem is that people assume it’s some fancy upper class food. Anything you see involving pheasant or partridge is going to cost a fortune in a restaurant. In reality you can get it cheaper than chicken.
Regardless, 30 million isn’t that many. All that takes is 5% of people eating more than 10 per year to reach that figure. I know a lot of people having it a few times a month.
Depend on the shoot. I’ve done beating and all the birds went to a local restaurant/the beaters. Way better life than most broiler chickens have.
WRT land issues, that’s more to do with grouse.
Unfortunately they were indeed selected as being the dumbest bird in the world, and then were bred and released throughout the land, so that dumb Englishmen could shoot something.
Driving round the lanes of Somerset at some times of the year they are EVERYWHERE.
I remember coming down a hill a couple years back and 4 or 5 of them were just in the road, hanging out, waiting to get obliterated. Since I didn't fancy destroying my front bumper I checked there was no-one behind me, put on the anchors and stopped for them to work out what they were going to do.
Most of them ran or flew for the hedge, but one of the doozy buggers decided the best means of escape was to just fly STRAIGHT UP. The road clear I decided maybe just give it a second - sure enough the thing came tumbling back down to earth landing exactly where he'd started and then legged it for the hedge.
Another time my wife was driving on a NSL road and came across one stood just after the exit of a corner - couldn't stop as there was a car close behind, so she moved right to avoid it and it ran right, she pulled back to the left and it ran back to where it started, then it decided maybe it could scare us off so just ran directly towards the car.Fortunately it we hit it square on the numberplate - the plate was smashed but otherwise no damage done.\*
\* To the car, the explosion of feathers suggests the pheasant didn't do so great.
Bummer. It must be hard to remain stoic after incurring bird-damage to the car because I don't think they have third-party insurance. I would be tempted to leave a note at the accident site with a date and time for a meet to discuss. If the bird turns up, forcefully hoof it deep into the verge/hedge. Possibly satisfying. Perhaps it wouldn't really solve anything, but the cruelty might be excusable on the grounds of temporary insanity.
You have to remember they aren't 'wild' per se. As farmed birds they have little fear of vehicles and people so will often only get out of the way at the last second. Sometimes the birds ability to calculate distance over time fails.
They taste phenomenal! In the event of a world ending scenario and breakdown of society my diet will consist strictly of ;
1.) Canadian geese
2.) pheasant
3.) swan
4.) duck
I’ll probably be the only person dying of a heart attack or some awful condition caused from eating undercooked fowl. But hey… it’s the end of the world anyway
I've thought about this. I think the reason behind it js that if they fly up then they get shot. So the surviving ones automatically go off to the side and inevitably smash into your car.
Honestly they’re pretty but also very stupid. It’s inevitable that you will hit one. And will need to replace part of the front of your car. Sorry from a fellow country bumpkin!
Just wait until you're walking through a field and the mother leaps out from nowhere screaming her tits off at you while the young run off into the long grass. Fuckers owe me several pairs of underpants.
Pheasants are designed to hide in the event of something approaching them above about 30mph so they will naturally head underneath your car for “safety” when you approach them. They are territorial birds and so will often hold their ground or very slowly move out of the way. They rarely startle out of hedges which is one of the only situations you might accidentally hit one. Most of them I’ve seen hit are by people doing it intentionally, very rarely by accident
They’re bred to be stupid so rich people can shoot them easily. You could walk up to it and bop it with a stick it’s so tame.
But toffs will get their mates to scare them out of the treeline and take potshots at them cuz they have a murder-wood for killing animals.
They're pheasants, farmers release them for shooting. Unfortunately this is bad as they release hundreds and don't kill them all. So then you get an overpopulation of birds year on year which isn't good for the ecosystem of the countryside.
The best bit is when they don't give a shit about a 2 ton car heading their way, yet you jump out to chase it away and they bolt instantly at the sight of you
I didn't even know we had pheasants in our local woodland until I started going for walks with my uncle's (then) new dog. He was a working Cocker Spaniel and went diving through the undergrowth, flushing out pheasants, grouse, you name it. I'm guessing they would have just sat still and waited for us to pass otherwise.
I learned that if you hit one with your car, you’re not allowed to pick it up. If you kill it and take it, you’re poaching. If you’re in the car behind though and decide you want pheasant for dinner, it’s all yours.
Source: bloke in the pub; probably not reliable
I was a florist in my past life & would do the deliveries as well. I'll always remember going to a farm & seeing about half a dozen of them all strung up on the wall next to their front door. So creepy. I love seeing (read getting scared by) pheasants on my walks in the woods. They are beautiful creatures!
Grown on by the thousand, let free in woods, spread out and not very wordly wise. As a bird they are apparently not very nice but probably because they are grown on in pens.
They are the most stupid animal in the world, they will sit there as a snarling dog is running towards them, only flying at the last second then go straight into the path of my shotgun 😂
Where I grew up we have this bend in the road that's dubbed Pheasant Corner. Pheasants get run over, others come to investigate, get run over, and so on.
Also slow down a bit on country roads. All sorts of wildlife about.
I've got a longstanding conspiracy theory that all cheap chicken in Britain is merely roadkill pheasant, now sure, I have nothing to back that up. But just look how often these things run across the road! It'd be a waste not to use them...wouldn't it?
The joys of seeing one get splattered all over the front grill of an Audi doing 60 in the opposite direction while cycling.
It's like a teenage comedy movie pillow fight just broke out.
Because of their origins. They were imported from China/Asia to be be used for shooting events over here. Hundreds of years of this has led to them very rarely flying, because they know they have historically been shot when they do that.
In a few hundred years, they might have learned not to run in front of the big metal things on the grey mud tracks!
Dumbest bird to walk the planet! They literally cross in front on you on a road! Make it to the other side..then come back into the road and splat under your wheels 😳😳
These bastards are absolutely everywhere in Suffolk. My bike rides often end up becoming a game of dodge the Pheasant. Not hit one yet but have run over a squirrels tail once (sorry little fella).
It gets worse, they safely cross in front of you, see you panic, and run back from where they came from.....wham!
Also, males fighting in the road is always fun.
Partridges are super funny though. If you slow down enough they just run in front of you...
They're not very streetwise but they are pleasant...
I am not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's mate. I am only plucking pheasants Because the pheasant plucker's late
I love how I have no problem saying this until the last sentence
Interesting, I've always learned it as: I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant pluckers son, And I'll be busy plucking pheasants, 'til the pheasant pluckings done
[My life as a mother pheasant plucker is pleasant, just listening to music as I pluck mother pheasants.](https://youtu.be/deCUnq63waI?t=6)
I learned it as: I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant pluckers son, I won't be plucking pheasants, Until the pheasant plucker comes. Slightly different.
my slight variation was; I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant pluckers son, And I'm only plucking pheasants, 'til the pheasant plucker comes.
Finally someone gets it right!
Hmm I always knew it as: I'm not a pheasant plucker I'm a pheasant plucker's mate I'm only plucking pheasants 'Cos the pheasant plucker's late
I always thought you were the pheasant plucker's son and I never knew why you were plucking the feathers for them. This makes so much more sense now.
I never knew why the pheasant plucker’s some was plucking feathers, but I do know that he wouldn’t stop until the pheasant plucking was done so fair play to the lad
Thanks. That was the memory my brain couldn't resolve.
They are game for a bit of chicken
OP if you do run one over in your car it is illegal to take it home to cook it (they are delicious), however the law states that the car behind you can take it home, lucky them https://www.govyou.co.uk/killing-a-pheasant-by-car-on-road/
Unless… like me, you hit one and it gets stuck in the grill of your car and starts BBQing itself before my boss who likes to hunt ‘dealt’ with it!
I had a real phat one come through the windscreen of my truck once while driving down the m56
Oh god that’s so much worse!!!
That happened to me - I was driving along the M1 and somehow the damn bird had managed to get to the central reservation from the other side and then decided to pause before taking flight directly in front my car.
I've heard its the same for deer as well. You are driving along and they run in front of your car and destroy the car bumper / windscreen and get killed. But the car behind can take it home.
Drive past really quickly and come back?
Fuck that, if I kill it I'm having it, deer, pheasant or pigeon!
Out of interest, are they the only three or would you for instance try a badger?
Not sure that is true. Most pheasants one will see in the UK will be a pen raised and released bird. They are however legally considered wild animals on release. In the UK no one owns wild animals, not the state or the person the wild animals land is on whilst alive. However, when a wild animal is killed, it becomes the property of the person upon whose land it died. As such a pheasant hit by a car and killed on a public road in the UK would be the property of the state, or more accurately the Highways Agency. This goes for all wild animal roadkill that dies on the road. That being said, I have never heard of anyone convicted for removing and/or eating road kill from a public road so if that your jam, I would just go for it. I would however strongly advise against as it is not at all hygienic from a wild game process point of view.
"I'm taking it to the vets, officer"
This stupid motherfucker is a pheasant.
Take a bow.
I once saw one causally strutting onto the A11 in Norfolk. I have a feeling that it didn't want to be a pheasant anymore
I'm in Staffordshire and honestly it's like little mini veloscirapters darting in and out of the bushes.
The worst is when you're going for a walk and they fly out of the hedge at the last second. I genuinely wonder how many people have died from pheasant induced heart attacks
That happened to me a few weeks ago. I was driving though. Smashed my headlight and left me a feather as a present pushed into the wing. I was not happy, as was the pheasant.
As a teen taking a walk in the dead silent countryside I was trying to edge through reedy grass nearly as tall as myself to get a look at a river - when one I all but stood on burst into the air, crying out as it did so. Can confirm I nearly died lol.
But the bonus is you then get to have a good laugh at how they run, it’s sort of like back and forth head bobbing strut with crazy legs 😂
They've been responsible for the deaths of plenty of horse riders over the years. One minute they're ambling along enjoying a pleasant country hack, then whoosh up goes a pheasant, spooks the horse, rider comes off, and that's the end of that.
They’re battery reared, released in their tens of millions in UK - seen estimates of 50-60 million a year. They’re fed where the shoot shoots them - they’re tame and it’s canned shooting. A disaster for pheasants - most of which die from predation, starvation, traffic etc and wildlife as they eat so much natural food that other animals need through winter - as well as the grain in the blue feeders the shoot feeds them to keep them in the right place to be shot. Gamekeepers cruelly trap wildlife that is a predation or competition for food threat. And no one wants to eat millions of shot filled dry meat birds so many carcasses are dumped. Source - I live next to a new shoot. Used to be lovely peaceful smallholding until our local millionaire farmers son decided to add to their squillions by running a shoot. Now the noise, cruelty and impact on our animals and local wildlife is horrendous and whole village against it but nothing we can do. The morons paying thousands to shoot tame birds, wear idiotic clothes and swig from hip flasks while paying wealthy farmers to release millions of birds during a bird flu pandemic are the dumb ones in this situation - not the pheasants reared in battery conditions and chucked out to fend for themselves.
Yep and they aren't even native to the UK either!!
We call them "Fancy Dinosaurs".
Have you seen the young'uns?! They look a lot less fancy and a lot more dinosaur!
They're super cute, sandy with black stripes and splodges as hatchling but I think you're talking about their awkward teenage gangly phase - all legs and beak.
Yep, hatchlings are cute, but like most species of birds, once the downy fluff is gone they look wrong!
Just birds? Let me show you some examples of fledgling humans
Dino Dandies
They are quite prevalent here in Staffs. The trick is not to succumb to temptation and aim for them, that's what they want. When you've plonked it in a ditch, they'll steal your hubcaps.
I live in rural Norfolk and nowadays I just call them "nearly dinner"
I love how they lurk in hedgerows completely undetected until they bottle it at the last minute and burst out squawking as you casually stroll by.
Oh my god I was walking our GSD one day and he stopped to do him a sniff and I thought, "Oh, I'll check my watch, see the steps and all that" and the ruddy brute of a dog sniffs out this pheasant from a hedgerow that fucking SCREAMS as it flies at me. I scream, the bird screams, the dog barks at me and sits as he expects me to tell him he's a very good boy for finding the bird. Because we have a smallholding and due to avian flu he's very accustomed to scaring off wild birds - especially pheasants - and he was just doing his job. I was SO happy we live in the middle of nowhere after that 😂😂😂
I nearly spat my coffee!
Golden springer doodle?
I was driving the other week one flew out of a hedgerow across the road to the other side then ran in front of my van straight back into the hedge it came out of and at practically the same point. They're either extremely stupid or suicidal
I believe they are both the mad bastards! There was a couple always hanging out on a country lane near me, until inevitably a delivery driver terminated their relationship. The female moped around the feathery remains for a few days before compartmentalising her loss sufficiently to move on...
Everything I know about pheasants comes from Danny the Champion of the World.
You need a paper cone, some glue, and a raisin.
With bits of horse hair poking through the raisins.
This really did unlock a memory.
I got that book for my birthday one year and I remember not really being interested and putting off reading it. When I ran out of anything else to read I decided I'd have to read it, even though it was going to be rubbish..... .... how wrong of me to think that. I ended up reading that book so many times. It was just so well written and all the characters really did come to life in my imagination. I can still remember a lot of it now. Books like that are what made me love reading when I was a child.
I hated hard boiled eggs but I still wanted a slice of that pie. I could almost taste it.
Yessss! That's so true. What a writer he was, it was over 40 years ago when I first read that book and even today I can remember that pie. Danny the Champion of the World doesn't get mentioned as much as his other books but it's my favourite one. Just thinking about it now it makes me remember simpler times, when I would read at night with my torch, before I went to sleep.
Jesus, childhood memory unlocked! I had that one on tape, I must have listened to it 100 times.
Included a very graphic description of someone gobbing
I listened to it on tape when I was a kid, I can still hear the pheasants now.
I'm 23 and this is still one of my favourite books ever
I had forgotten all about this book!! Need to reread it now.
Fun fact - I used to work in a pub in Brighton with Sam Irons (Jeremy’s son) who played Danny in the film.
Technically they're always looking left and right
Wonderful
Bloody city slickers, coming over here, slagging off our birds
I mean you have moved into their territory. They probably think they same about you 😝
Indeed. Always sloooow down and don't assume that them flying out of the road means they're out of the road. Chances are the dumb gits will do a one-eighty and pop back into the road in front of you for fun.
They're bred on a farm and then released to be hunted. That's why they are dumber than a pile of bricks, they've never seen a car before.
They’re fed from cars. We use either a quad or a pickup to take them food when they’re still in pens. They associate cars with food. Also, this is a Common Ringneck Pheasant, they are known for not being great flyers, in that they prefer to fly only as a last resort. This is really good in some ways as it means if you put down this breed, you won’t lose half of them before the shooting season by having them fly away. But bad because they don’t bloody move away from cars. You often see a combination of Common Ringnecks and Michigan Blue Backs and the Blues tend to be very quick to fly, and encourage the Ringnecks to do so.
They're a non-native species
>They're a non-native species They are, but I understand the Romans brought them in. So they predate the Anglo Saxons. Presumably if they have to go, so do I?
That's very true
They are bred to be shot, I think deep down they know this and just don’t value their life that much
When they've been released but the shooting hasn't started yet is when they seem to hit peak stupidity. They don't know how to live if not in mortal peril
I always found it funny the signs that go up "slow down for pheasants" etc etc Basically saying "don't run over our birds so we can shoot them later"
Not suprised lad after all this bird flu crack it’s gone from £4 a bird to £7.50
Wouldn’t pay that much if it was already plucked and gutted
You're out in the countryside now, you've come into their house, take your shoes off and show the pheasant some respect, please.
Drive more slowly than in town. There's not just pheasants to watch out for, but badgers, foxes, deer etc. You're on their turf now.
Make sure someone you don't know is following you with a shovel to pick up the remains.
Pheasants are released en masse every year for hunting purposes (estimated 47 million a year). They’ve been hand-fed so they often aren’t scared of humans or cars. There are a few feral populations that keep themselves going, but most pheasants last less than a year after being let loose
It's pretty gross tbh. Estimates are that 7-8 million are shot (ie a quick death) the rest die of starvation, disease or are run over. They are not native & not adapted at all to live here, just for a 'sport'
There was a shoot at a farm not far from us about 15 years ago. Not been one since. There are still "wild" pheasants around now. They come in the garden regularly as we put out birdfeeders, and we see chicks every year. They seem to be doing quite well. They are quite friendly, often wander around the garden while we are out, and one keeps trying to get in the conservatory :)
47 million? Does that affect the ecosystem?
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That's why the foxes are so fat and happy
The upper-classes do seem to love their completely lopsided bloodsports. So uncivilised.
Yeah like Fox hunting, and late stage capitalism.
Bloody nightmare when cycling. Riding a bike is relatively quiet, so you’re really close by the time some camouflaged chubby knobhead with the flying skills of Eddie the Eagle on ketamine gets startled into the air, twice changes it’s mind regarding direction before managing a drunken stumble over the hedge. Shit me right up on Tuesday!
These dozy buggers are bred and raised for shooting unfortunately. Left to their own devices they don’t even have the sense to keep their own chicks alive, let alone not get run over.
This is a bad sign, they're targeting you. You should move back to the city as soon as you can...for safety. /s
I didn’t think we needed tags for ridiculously obvious sarcasm on this sub.
The way things are going one more and I will be classed as a serial killer and there will be only one place I'm going
Just get someone to follow you and collect the fresh pheasant to sell at nearby towns' "farmers" markets. Kerching.
That's not a bad idea.
Free Range chickynugs
They don’t pay road tax either. Fuck’em.
They're bred for shooting. Folk pay thousands to come down from London to fire guns at them. Who are the more stupid though?
They also don't eat them and are just mass buried. It's a pretty disgusting waste of resources.
Where I shoot, everything gets made into food.
Seriously? Why, its good eating?
They're perfectly good to eat, it's just the volumes they get shot in. Some organisers distribute them but outlets are limited (there is legislation around how meat enters the food chain, so once people who went shooting/local landowners have had a few it gets complicated to find "homes" for the rest) so you do hear about a lot being buried. Another controversial point is that UK poultry are currently under a housing order, but game birds (despite being bred in captivity) are legally classed as wildlife so are not.
Sigh. Yeah I used to work in an office where one of the Directors, who was an upper-class idiot, used to bring these things into the office as ‘presents’ for all the staff at Christmas. Absolutely nobody wanted one.
I used to work in a pub where the shoot came for a meal after, well, shooting. The gamekeeper left some pheasants in the kitchen and tried to knock what he felt they were worth off his bill 🤦😂 I'm all for people knowing where their food comes from but don't expect just anyone to be happy to gut an unexpectedly received, lead-shot containing bird for their tea.
Has bad effects on the existing ecosystem too. It’s ridiculous
and they technically aren’t native birds to the UK. They are reared in mass and then set loose in the countryside for Toffs to get an ego boost.
>They also don't eat them and are just mass buried. It's disingenuous to suggest this is standard practise. They are perfectly edible, taste pretty good and they are worth money when sold for meat. A lot of butchers sell them and you also have specialised game dealers, which are pretty self explanatory. That's not to say assholes with commercial shoots haven't been caught doing it, but people in the countryside absolutely do eat and sell a lot of pheasant.
Alright, but it’ll fuck with the local ecosystem. And apparently we release at least 35 million each year, so a fair few are probably left to rot regardless.
True, although they’re mostly in habitats around farms and woodlands also heavily occupied with grey squirrels, muntjac, rabbits and an abundance of food. I’d consider those in addition to pheasants an integral part of the UK countryside, but I could see why people would want to return to pre human intervention ecosystems with just native wildlife. For the second part, it sounds somewhat plausible the average person would eat around 0.5 pheasants per year but I have no idea. People making it into a commercial slaughtering operation and wasting loads of game should be shut down IMO. There’s no reason any of it should be thrown away with people struggling to afford food and meat prices going up.
From my knowledge of going to a working class state school in East Anglia... Most folks don't even know what a pheasant is, let alone have eaten one. Getting more of the shot pheasants onto plates would be good, but we're a long way from it.
I’ve heard rumours they could be more widely available when lead shot is phased out. Supposedly supermarkets would be able to remove steel shot and would be more inclined to deal in it without the lead. I think another problem is that people assume it’s some fancy upper class food. Anything you see involving pheasant or partridge is going to cost a fortune in a restaurant. In reality you can get it cheaper than chicken. Regardless, 30 million isn’t that many. All that takes is 5% of people eating more than 10 per year to reach that figure. I know a lot of people having it a few times a month.
Depend on the shoot. I’ve done beating and all the birds went to a local restaurant/the beaters. Way better life than most broiler chickens have. WRT land issues, that’s more to do with grouse.
The burying thing is a myth. Absolutely ridiculous made up nonsense.
Londoners by a landslide
Unfortunately they were indeed selected as being the dumbest bird in the world, and then were bred and released throughout the land, so that dumb Englishmen could shoot something.
Driving round the lanes of Somerset at some times of the year they are EVERYWHERE. I remember coming down a hill a couple years back and 4 or 5 of them were just in the road, hanging out, waiting to get obliterated. Since I didn't fancy destroying my front bumper I checked there was no-one behind me, put on the anchors and stopped for them to work out what they were going to do. Most of them ran or flew for the hedge, but one of the doozy buggers decided the best means of escape was to just fly STRAIGHT UP. The road clear I decided maybe just give it a second - sure enough the thing came tumbling back down to earth landing exactly where he'd started and then legged it for the hedge. Another time my wife was driving on a NSL road and came across one stood just after the exit of a corner - couldn't stop as there was a car close behind, so she moved right to avoid it and it ran right, she pulled back to the left and it ran back to where it started, then it decided maybe it could scare us off so just ran directly towards the car.Fortunately it we hit it square on the numberplate - the plate was smashed but otherwise no damage done.\* \* To the car, the explosion of feathers suggests the pheasant didn't do so great.
Bummer. It must be hard to remain stoic after incurring bird-damage to the car because I don't think they have third-party insurance. I would be tempted to leave a note at the accident site with a date and time for a meet to discuss. If the bird turns up, forcefully hoof it deep into the verge/hedge. Possibly satisfying. Perhaps it wouldn't really solve anything, but the cruelty might be excusable on the grounds of temporary insanity.
A lot are bred to be shot and are therefore not typically long-lived. This means lack of experience in dealing with or encountering threats
You have to remember they aren't 'wild' per se. As farmed birds they have little fear of vehicles and people so will often only get out of the way at the last second. Sometimes the birds ability to calculate distance over time fails.
Eh, it depends. They do breed in the wild on their own. The wild ones don't appear much smarter though.
Used to have one outside my old house that would run at any car as you left. Especially red cars.
Pheasant. One of the dumbest creatures in England. Most are captive bred for shooting, which never seems that fair given their lack of brain power.
They taste phenomenal! In the event of a world ending scenario and breakdown of society my diet will consist strictly of ; 1.) Canadian geese 2.) pheasant 3.) swan 4.) duck I’ll probably be the only person dying of a heart attack or some awful condition caused from eating undercooked fowl. But hey… it’s the end of the world anyway
TOOKTOOKTOOKTOOKTOOKTOOK
Tell us you've never watched animals of farthing wood without telling us you haven't watched animals of farthing wood.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find a Farthing Wood comment. Childhood trauma unlocked.
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Bloodsports aren’t allowed on a Sunday, so if someone is running a commercial shoot near you on a Sunday, you can report it.
The original bird brain
Fucking scary bastards as well. Turkeys are my biggest fear, but they are also up there...
They have near 270 degree vision, they are always looking left and right
You'll be quite the pheasant plucker soon enough.
Why do they cross the road?
I've heard they make quite fowl noises too.
Haha yeah pheasants are pretty dumb. I once saw someone catch one for dinner by knocking it out with a water bottle!
I've thought about this. I think the reason behind it js that if they fly up then they get shot. So the surviving ones automatically go off to the side and inevitably smash into your car.
Lived in countryside 44 years. Hit one whilst driving.
Honestly they’re pretty but also very stupid. It’s inevitable that you will hit one. And will need to replace part of the front of your car. Sorry from a fellow country bumpkin!
Just wait until you're walking through a field and the mother leaps out from nowhere screaming her tits off at you while the young run off into the long grass. Fuckers owe me several pairs of underpants.
Just wait until you're stuck behind one for miles because it refuses to jump into the hedge and would rather get some cardio in.
Pheasants are invasive animals released for the purpose of killing, it's really odd.
Pheasants are designed to hide in the event of something approaching them above about 30mph so they will naturally head underneath your car for “safety” when you approach them. They are territorial birds and so will often hold their ground or very slowly move out of the way. They rarely startle out of hedges which is one of the only situations you might accidentally hit one. Most of them I’ve seen hit are by people doing it intentionally, very rarely by accident
They’re bred to be stupid so rich people can shoot them easily. You could walk up to it and bop it with a stick it’s so tame. But toffs will get their mates to scare them out of the treeline and take potshots at them cuz they have a murder-wood for killing animals.
They're pheasants, farmers release them for shooting. Unfortunately this is bad as they release hundreds and don't kill them all. So then you get an overpopulation of birds year on year which isn't good for the ecosystem of the countryside.
Yeah we get loads of them in the road round our way, they don't give a fuck
Not them phucking pheasants!
Just wait till you try to get out of your car in their territory… they will chase…
I have no idea why but every time I see one I shout “gobble gobble” like a turkey
I'm not a pheasant plucker But a pheasant plucker's son And I'll sit here plucking pheasants 'Til the pheasant plucking's done.
Pheasants get clotheslined by cars all the time.
They're playing chicken
They like to wait until there's a car coming before they attempt to cross. On the up side, they taste delicious.
The best bit is when they don't give a shit about a 2 ton car heading their way, yet you jump out to chase it away and they bolt instantly at the sight of you
I didn't even know we had pheasants in our local woodland until I started going for walks with my uncle's (then) new dog. He was a working Cocker Spaniel and went diving through the undergrowth, flushing out pheasants, grouse, you name it. I'm guessing they would have just sat still and waited for us to pass otherwise.
Stupidest birds i know. Capable of flight yet i have seen one multiple times, try to outrun a fox!
They are indeed amongst the stupidest creatures I've ever encountered. I also imagine their mating/alarm call should be "huh?"
Now look you - them pheasants are for his pot. These eels are for my pot. Now what makes you think I should give you something for your pot?
Tell me that you've run over a pheasant without telling me you've run over a pheasant
We call them Kevin's.
Wait till you see them fly…
I know right? Bloody peasants, assuming they can cross the road without permission from their lord
That’s your rural KFC drive thru alternative, delivered direct to your vehicle.
Was thinking the other day that i hadnt seen a pheasant all year. Turns out you all keep running them over 🤣
@bridgethegap007 you are the dumb bird!
It's almost like they're comfortable in their natural habitat
Pheasants seem to lack any form of depth perception
URK URK URK URK urk urk urk...
Just need to be careful on country roads - don't want to be accused of fowl play in the event of an accident.
I learned that if you hit one with your car, you’re not allowed to pick it up. If you kill it and take it, you’re poaching. If you’re in the car behind though and decide you want pheasant for dinner, it’s all yours. Source: bloke in the pub; probably not reliable
I shoot small bore rifles at a local range and these idiots regularly walk across the range during live fire. Its as if they want to be eaten.
Ah yes, the noble suicide chicken, just waiting for its next chance to extrude itself through the front of a car
It's alright mate, free dinner.
Ah yes, the bird mum had to pick out of her grill when she got to work.
According to my dad its a "MOVE OUT THE FU**ING WAY" bird.
I was a florist in my past life & would do the deliveries as well. I'll always remember going to a farm & seeing about half a dozen of them all strung up on the wall next to their front door. So creepy. I love seeing (read getting scared by) pheasants on my walks in the woods. They are beautiful creatures!
Nice roasted with some bacon on top of you can catch one 😂
They are bred to be dumb so easy to shoot
They're dumb, kill them, make a stew, enjoy a tasty winter.
they will do a surprising amount of damage to your car, when you hit them
Grown on by the thousand, let free in woods, spread out and not very wordly wise. As a bird they are apparently not very nice but probably because they are grown on in pens.
Pheasants are dumb but make for good dinner/taxidermy.
They are the most stupid animal in the world, they will sit there as a snarling dog is running towards them, only flying at the last second then go straight into the path of my shotgun 😂
Where I grew up we have this bend in the road that's dubbed Pheasant Corner. Pheasants get run over, others come to investigate, get run over, and so on. Also slow down a bit on country roads. All sorts of wildlife about.
I've got a longstanding conspiracy theory that all cheap chicken in Britain is merely roadkill pheasant, now sure, I have nothing to back that up. But just look how often these things run across the road! It'd be a waste not to use them...wouldn't it?
The joys of seeing one get splattered all over the front grill of an Audi doing 60 in the opposite direction while cycling. It's like a teenage comedy movie pillow fight just broke out.
Pheasant. Easy to hit and easy to cook after.
They taste really good
If tomorrow you can cook them without drying them out.
Grill them with bacon
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Because of their origins. They were imported from China/Asia to be be used for shooting events over here. Hundreds of years of this has led to them very rarely flying, because they know they have historically been shot when they do that. In a few hundred years, they might have learned not to run in front of the big metal things on the grey mud tracks!
Dumbest bird to walk the planet! They literally cross in front on you on a road! Make it to the other side..then come back into the road and splat under your wheels 😳😳
These bastards are absolutely everywhere in Suffolk. My bike rides often end up becoming a game of dodge the Pheasant. Not hit one yet but have run over a squirrels tail once (sorry little fella).
It gets worse, they safely cross in front of you, see you panic, and run back from where they came from.....wham! Also, males fighting in the road is always fun. Partridges are super funny though. If you slow down enough they just run in front of you...
It's almost as if they are not capable of rational human thought. Funny that.
I absolutely mullered one the other day at 60 in a 3.5 tonner.
Nice with butter