Ready And Raring To Go

As the first day of the pheasant shooting season approaches, there is time to take stock and enjoy the beauty of the autumn countryside

- Laurence Catlow

I love having frequent contact with my pheasants, an intimacy that comes from hand-feeding and the need to give the birds their daily ration of corn. A feed ride with 30 or 40 birds busy filling their crops is one of my favourite sights. I love to watch them scratching and pecking, chasing one another and shaping up to each other with purrs and gurgles of aggression. By the way, it is not just the cocks that scrap; every morning there will be a feisty hen warning another hen not to come too close or chasing her from the corn.

This daily round is a deep pleasure to me but it is, of course, much more. It is essential if we are to keep our pheasants at home, and it tells us how they are doing, alerting us to any problems that might arise, such as prowling cats or roving foxes that are unsettling the birds or helping themselves to forbidden flesh. And, believe me, cats cannot prowl and no fox roves without the alert and expert eye of Tony Smith, High Park’s headkeeper, spotting the signs of their unwelcome presence on our ground.

The autumn is a good time for those of us who care for pheasants. The main anxiety of release is over, and prowling cats and roving foxes are unlikely to make drastic inroads into our stock. It is good to watch the cocks taking on the colours of the season and growing long tails, and to see the trees turning yellow and gold. I also like to hear the crackle of scattered corn on leaves that have already fallen to the ground.

And there is no rush on the morning round; there is time to sit and watch a robin as it hops along the edge of a ride and helps itself to a few grains of wheat. You can watch a robin or a chaffinch or, hearing those distinctive squeaks in the trees, you can follow the cheerful and acrobatic progress of a band of long-tailed tits through the branches.