Ah, Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air.

Today’s post features Phil, the ring-necked pheasant. Ring-necked pheasants aren’t actually native to Wisconsin or to North America in general. According to the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, they were brought to the state in 1916 as a huntable species. There are some self-sustaining populations in parts of the state now. Some folks also release birds on their private property, but you can’t really tell them where to go after that.

I think it was our second winter here, we spotted our first pheasant on our hill and had no idea we’d be adopted. “Phil” found our bird-feeding area off our sunroom soon enough and learned when the food came out in the morning. (Why do we bring our feeders inside at night? See previous Driftless Thursday post about Bears.) Phil would eat up his breakfast and then wander to the edge of the garden, look out over the front hill, drum his wings and crow like a rooster. Every morning he made us laugh.

Over time he got very comfortable, to the point we considered ourselves as having an accidental pet pheasant:

In the summer, before I cleared the overgrown front garden, watching Phil take a dirt bath was a lot of fun. He’d half-bury himself and roll about, basically using dirt like dry shampoo:

But my best memory of Phil (alas, it’s been long enough that we suspect his time has passed), was the day before Valentine’s Day in 2024. Phil brought his girlfriend over! It was a sunny afternoon and courtship was in the air. He made a show of himself, strutting around the would-be Mrs. Phil and tilting his body towards her to highlight his feathers. He’d drop whichever wing faced her and shake, making sure she was impressed:

While we had high hopes, we never saw young pheasants off our sunroom. There are still pheasants in the area though. This winter we spotted at least three different males and a female but they didn’t stick around. Sooner or later, another pheasant is going to figure out we are an infinite supply of bird seed and fresh water. I’ve no doubt we’ll be adopted again someday.