a strange incident in the woods
i'd like to know if this has happened to others. according to my limited grasp of OT etiquette, i'm posting the story in reply.

nothing mucky (sorry)
(threadkiller, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:38, 11 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

has this happened to you?
so we're walking through the woods in the chilterns. it's late and we have to find the car so we're marching. we're alone but i begin to get the sense we're being followed. there's rustling in the undergrowth behind me. at first, i think i've kicked something and it's rolling down the hill. but it gets louder, and closer, until i can hear that it's right behind me. i whip round. it's a male golden pheasant. it's standing about 3 feet away. it looks at me. i look at it. it's like larry's staring contests in curb your enthusiasm.
'look, it's a pheasant,' i tell the other half. 'it might be attacking me,' i say, unsure. but it isn't. we just stare at each other.
'come on, we have to find the car,' says other half.
'bye, then,' i say to the pheasant and head off.
a few feet later, i hear rustling behind me again. i turn around. it's the pheasant, 2 feet away this time. it looks at me. other half has marched on ahead. i head off again. followed by the pheasant, for, like, nearly a mile, even brushing against my legs as i walk. until we get to a stile, which he can't or wont climb, so that's when i say goodbye.

weird, huh? has anyone else been followed by a pheasant?
(threadkiller, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:40, Reply)

Are you sure
it wasn't remote-controlled, and voice-overed by David Attenborough a la Log-cam?

Seriously, though, I think this has happened to my folks, who do a lot of walking.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:51, Reply)

Biology time :)
Right... Male pheasants can be quite territorial.
They're also, on the whole, not that terrified of humans.
I think it was just keeping an eye on you.
( Cawl, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:52, Reply)

Probably sizing you up for a cock-fight, then :)
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:55, Reply)

I'd win.
I've never lost a cock-fight.
( Cawl, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:57, Reply)

Most
pheasants are kept as game birds and are fed by gamekeepers.
It might have just thought that you were going to bring him his dinner.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Tue 23 Sep 2008, 9:58, Reply)

so the general consensus is
that i'm NOT the living reincarnation of francis of assisi?

dammit, i really thought i was :(
(threadkiller, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 10:03, Reply)

If you had managed
to grab it and break its neck, you could have taken it home to make a tasty meal!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 10:58, Reply)

I'd have taken it home
Pheasant is delish
( Peej, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 12:10, Reply)

don't get me wrong
i'm like dr dolittle in a 'talks to the animals then has them killed and eats them' kind of way. and pheasants do themselves no favours by seeming so pulse racingly stupid (we disturbed a bouquet of female pheasants the other day and they scattered in all directions. the ones that ran towards the fence just kept running into the fence, like a computer game character you've stopped operating because you've gone to the loo). but with this particular pheasant, it would have seemed churlish somehow. he seemed so... spunky. (and i don't mean covered in cum)
(threadkiller, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 12:47, Reply)

Sounds like a funky pheasant
I might get myself one.
(Ethelred is watching cheese grow, Tue 23 Sep 2008, 17:14, Reply)