Motoring along the A303 today on my way to babysit for Gorgeous Grandson (he of the photo a few posts back) for a couple of days, I noticed about twelve dead pheasants, all on the central reservation. Now, setting aside the pheasant-tragedy aspect of all these deaths, how come not one was actually on the road? Did they crawl to the edge to die? Did their killers risk life and limb to stop their cars and move them? Were they blown to the edge? Is this nature, physics, or what? Can anyone explain?
I'll have to ask GG's dad, who's a scientist even if he is my son.
You're right. I haven't enough to do. GG'S having a nap...
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Equal numbers on the roadway were so pulverized as to be unrecognizable?
ReplyDeleteThey always seem to be the male ones with the coloured plumage. My husband goes to great lengths to avoid them, risking my life on occasions, but why do they leave the shelter of the hedgerows for the open spaces of the road?
ReplyDeleteThey wander out from behind the hedge. They see an oncoming car. They start to take flight but are not the quickest birds off the ground. By the time they are at bonnet or windscreen height they are hit by an oncoming vehicle. Momentum carries them onto the central reservation. They die. I obviously don't have enough to do either.
ReplyDeleteI always considered Pheasants are the stupidest of birds being a postie in the countryside, however I learned that the problem is that on some estates (where they raise them for the shooting) they feed the birds from the back of a vehicle, so that explains why they come running towards the road when they see you approach rather than get out of the way like any other kind of creature.
ReplyDeleteThey are incredibly stupid - there hasn't been any pheasant rearing for several years on the local big estate, but they still wander on the roads. I hit a hen pheasant once, she flew out right at me. I still see her somersaulting back to the verge, many years later. If she's been standing in the road I'd have swerved or stopped, but flying out she was sent off the road surface.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has tamed the pheasants that come into the garden so that they will eat out of his hand. We hope they don't get run over, they're not fed anywhere near the road.
I've never hot one myself but I've had a few near misses. Can't explain the central reservation phenomenon though.
ReplyDeleteGlad you've had a couple of explanations, Frances! The only pheasants I see here are ocasionally in my back garden (borders on hills) or when driving through the countryside.
ReplyDeletePheasants? How exotic! Here the "roadkill" consists mostly of opossums.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds rather like the U.K. is beginning to regard pheasants the way our Aussie friends regard kangaroos.
Pity they weren't pigeons it all I can say I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteJust back from my nannying stint - thanks very much for all the comments/ideas. Scientist son says he understands this phenomenon; it's all to do with velocity, force blah blah blah (he takes after his dad). So there we are. And really, I'm none the wiser. And the deceased pheasants are still lying on the central reservation of the A303.
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