Pheasant at the feeder!

John took these pictures yesterday afternoon when this hungry pheasant braved the patio fence to have a taste of the bird seed in the feeders. He's also not the fattest pheasant we've seen this past week.

This isn't the first pheasant we've had at the feeders in the last couple of weeks, but they are fairly skittish, and take off when I reach for a camera.

Pheasant (hunting) season is over (thank goodness), but the pheasants have always strayed into the edges of our yard under the cover of the pine trees (even before there was a prairie around us and they were hunted there).

Puff, my orange cat, who went to the 'bridge' in 2003, LOVED to chase the pheasants around the yard, just to hear them cluck (loudly) and watch them take off flying to get away from him! I'm not sure what he'd have done if he caught one (he didn't as far as I could tell), and I think the shear joy for him was the chase!