My First Pheasant Bird

After I found those two pheasant hens in the buckwheat field, Mommy and Daddy said no more hunting till Opening Day. They did not want us dogs scaring all the pheasants away. But a couple of days before the Opener, Mommy changed her mind and decided to take me out one last time, just to reinforce what I had learned about pheasants.

We started in the buckwheat field, where we almost always find birds. Not that day- the field was empty. We crossed the fence, heading towards the swamp, and all of a sudden I got really excited! It was like I could smell where the birds had been, but I didn't find any! I kept looking though, and I finally went right into a great big raspberry bramble and found a pheasant hiding in the middle of it. For some reason, that pheasant just ran along the ground but did not try to fly away like they usually do. I couldn't figure out why, so I just kept following it. 'Round and 'round we went till finally the bird ran out of the bramble into the grass. I chased it some more, until I finally caught that old bird! I never expected that to happen!

Meanwhile, Mommy could tell that I was on the trail of a bird, but she could not see what was going on from the other side of the bramble. Right around the time that I caught my bird, Mommy came around the side of the bramble and saw the bird in my mouth. She was so surprised! She told me to bring the bird to her, but I was so excited that I wanted to keep that bird. I ran a little ways away, then put the bird down on the ground. As soon as I let it go, it tried to run away and I had to catch it again. While I was chasing the bird, Mommy was chasing me! She really wanted that bird! After I had let it go and caught it a few more times, I finally let Mommy come and take it away from me, but you can see in this picture that I wasn't very happy about giving it up.


Mommy wanted to let the bird go but when she looked at it she could see that it was hurt- not by ME! Something else had already hurt it and that is why it did not fly away when I tried to flush it. Mommy thinks a hawk or an eagle tried to catch it because it had scars on it's back where some wounds had started to heal but were not back to normal. But then, while Mommy was carrying the bird, it died! Mommy decided that we should get rid of the "evidence", so she and Daddy ate that bird for dinner. Mommy said it was an illicit meal, but that they enjoyed it anyway, especially since it was my FIRST pheasant!