California Pheasants

If someone asked me what’s the most important part of shooting birds/wildlife, I would probably say “persistence,” followed much too closely by “very expensive photo equipment.” Leslie likes pheasants and really wanted to get a good shot of one on our recent trip to Sacramento Wildlife Refuge. We saw very few on our first visit; the only one that was close enough to get a shot of was this one that ambled down the road in front of the car, swishing its tail

pheasant

from side to side,

 pheasant

refusing to ever look back.

On our next trip back Leslie was excited to spot a pheasant on her side of the car,

pheasant

but once again the pheasant never looked back at her.

We saw our final pheasant just as we were about to leave the refuge and return to Vancouver. Although it took several minutes to get a shot of the pheasant on top of the ridge rather than behind it, we both got some excellent shots, like this one by Leslie,

pheasant

and this one by me.

pheasant

Of course, I’ve actually been trying to get shots of pheasants for several years now, but I think these two might be the best we’ve managed to get so far.

7 thoughts on “California Pheasants”

  1. They seem to be exactly like our pheasants here Loren. We have a shoot (of the fatal kind) on our land – I hate it and never eat these lovely birds. They come to our bird table and roost in our trees at night. This morning there were twelve hens and one cock at the bird table – usually one or two nest in our front garden and rear their young. Sadly many get killed on the road.

    1. Now that I look back I don’t particularly like the title of this blog entry. These are simply pheasants I saw in California. These pheasants aren’t native to America at all. As wikipedia notes, “The best-known is the Common Pheasant, which is widespread throughout the world in introduced feral populations and in farm operations.” The original came from the Far East; so I assume yours and our is exactly the same.

  2. Ahhhh!
    Twist it
    Shake it
    Shake it
    Shake it baby
    Here we go loop de loop
    Shake it up baby
    Here we go loop de la

    Read more: Tina Turner – Shake A Tail Feather Lyrics | MetroLyrics

  3. Love these photos! We often have pheasants coming to our yard for the seeds that spill out of the bird feeders, but they’re very skittish and run or fly away if they even see or hear us in the house, so getting a photo of them would be difficult. I actually love your first two photos of the pheasant walking away, because they are such different perspectives and because they highlight one of the pheasant’s most striking features, its long tail.

  4. we have had a pheasant around our yard here in San Diego,Ca. it is alone, not to afraid of people, dont know how it got here and why it is alone, all of the neighbors are excited about it, how can yu tell if it’s male or female

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