I spent all night and all morning off and on looking for him with no luck, which meant I had sat down and was on the verge of posting up a bunch of frustrated whining about a lot of hard work thrown away. Then my neighbor called and asked if I was missing a pheasant (to answer someone - that's how rare pheasants are in this area; they're considered ornamental). So I pulled down a cane of bamboo reed grass that was roughly 20' long and walked a half mile down the road (uphill both ways!) to bring him home.
I learned many things while catching this pesky bird.
1. I have fantastic neighbors who likely got a huge kick out of seeing me trapsing about in the snow for two hours getting my clothes ripped to shreds.
2. Their property is lovely. It is full of brambles and fallen trees that pheasants really dig. This includes thorny wild raspberries/blackberries. If his property wasn't also full of poison ivy I'd go back this summer and pick so much fruit I'd never want to see another berry again.
3. 20' long hollow false bamboo canes may be pretty, and may be sturdy, but are a hassle to maneuver around brush (also, wild thorny plants dig long hair tied up in a ponytail: plants have no respect for a clumsy lady).
4. So difficult, in fact, that the pheasant (who was no more than 10' away from me the whole time just relaxing), wasn't afraid of it at all and decided to peck at the brushy head from time to time to see if it had become edible yet.
5. Jumbo Ringnecks are fearless and herd about as well as cats. You have no hope of getting them into the barn at the top of the hill. Especially when they have no fear and they're busy checking out everything in sight to see what is tasty.
6. Jumbo Ringnecks also handle defeat pretty well. I found an old fence and bent it into a makeshift V, covered the top with brush, and casually herded him into that (it wasn't really herding, he was following the fenceline and then it Ved on him). Once he was caught he calmed down and accepted his fate for the long walk down the slippery hill to the road, and back up another hill to get home (I wasn't kidding - uphill both ways). He was even gracious enough to not say anything about my near-falls when trying to navigate my way down muddy, melting snow.
He is now safe and sound back in his pen. Tonight or tomorow I am going to put a divider in my largest pen and make him a home in there. That way if he escapes he will be flying into another pen - not trying out this whole au naturale thing.
