Imagine a Golden Pheasant on the verge...
On our way up on Sunday we had stopped at Wolferton Triangle, hoping to spot the Golden Pheasant.
I had seen one on my very first trip there but knew that was a fluke.
The Triangle is literally a section of woodland with many rhododrendon bushes with roads on three sides, I would think to drive all three sides can't be much more than a mile. It's a tiny area, yet in there the Golden Pheasants live and breed.
So - the first day was unproductive, even though we went around the Triangle about five times, slowly, looking left and right.
No luck, so on our second day, as we drove from our Kite sighting, we again drove through Wolferton and decided to stop and have some soup, after getting very chilled Kite-watching.
I took this photo, just to see how it would look through the windscreen, if the Pheasant suddenly wandered onto the verge, which is where they are usually seen.
We got out the cups and the flask, and I pulled down my windscreen visor with integral mirror so I could look behind me. I joked that it would be funny to see it behind us...Polly told me that was exactly how she had got one of her sightings in the past...
...so there we were, cups, flask and spoons already mixing scalding hot water into powdered soup and Polly yelped - and there it was! Behind us, shining with a helmet of gold and all we could do was watch it in our mirrors!
Suddenly a car approached and it disappeared. Unbelievable! And so funny - I'm surprised we didn't end up covered in soup!
So, we sat, sipping and marvelling at our luck, and I happened to glance into the undergrowth just by the car to see the Pheasant nonchalantly disappearing under a rhododendron!
So frustrating - and this photo could so easily have been complete with Golden Pheasant.
Instead, it is a candidate for Most Boring Photo on flickr. LOL
You just gotta love birding! :))
Imagine a Golden Pheasant on the verge...
On our way up on Sunday we had stopped at Wolferton Triangle, hoping to spot the Golden Pheasant.
I had seen one on my very first trip there but knew that was a fluke.
The Triangle is literally a section of woodland with many rhododrendon bushes with roads on three sides, I would think to drive all three sides can't be much more than a mile. It's a tiny area, yet in there the Golden Pheasants live and breed.
So - the first day was unproductive, even though we went around the Triangle about five times, slowly, looking left and right.
No luck, so on our second day, as we drove from our Kite sighting, we again drove through Wolferton and decided to stop and have some soup, after getting very chilled Kite-watching.
I took this photo, just to see how it would look through the windscreen, if the Pheasant suddenly wandered onto the verge, which is where they are usually seen.
We got out the cups and the flask, and I pulled down my windscreen visor with integral mirror so I could look behind me. I joked that it would be funny to see it behind us...Polly told me that was exactly how she had got one of her sightings in the past...
...so there we were, cups, flask and spoons already mixing scalding hot water into powdered soup and Polly yelped - and there it was! Behind us, shining with a helmet of gold and all we could do was watch it in our mirrors!
Suddenly a car approached and it disappeared. Unbelievable! And so funny - I'm surprised we didn't end up covered in soup!
So, we sat, sipping and marvelling at our luck, and I happened to glance into the undergrowth just by the car to see the Pheasant nonchalantly disappearing under a rhododendron!
So frustrating - and this photo could so easily have been complete with Golden Pheasant.
Instead, it is a candidate for Most Boring Photo on flickr. LOL
You just gotta love birding! :))