I loved the whole series covering the seasons and the illustrations inside were so evocative. I was in the Beccles area today so decided on a stroll around Beccles Marsh to the north of the town. With the sun shining there was a real feeling of spring in the air which reminded me of reading these books as a youngster. It was real back to basic stuff but that does no harm every once in a while. OK, the 3 Cetti's Warblers along the Waveney might not be in the book but displaying Lapwings, calling Green Woodpeckers, newly arrived Chiffchaffs, willow catkins and primroses certainly are.
On the way back along the A143 at Earsham near Bungay a van coming the other way wiped out a pheasant (he made no attempt to even slow down), the bird looked very dark so I did a u-turn and it turned out to be a Green Pheasant. With my interest (fetish?!) with escaped and non-native pheasants I'd been thinking of trying to track down some Green Pheasants in the Worstead area where I saw several many years ago. After this bizarre coincidence I'm even more keen to track down some live ones - sad but true!
Green Pheasant, Earsham
You've prompted me to write a blog post I've been meaning to write for a couple of weeks. These dark irridescent green Pheasants aren't true Green Pheasants (as in the Japanese species/subspecies, versicolor) but the mutant variant 'tenebrosus' which seems to be increasingly popular with some gamekeepers.
ReplyDeleteMy blog post is here: http://gobirdingeu.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/green-pheasants.html
Cheers,
Dave
Cheers Dave, your pheasant fetish is obviously more advanced than mine!
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned I saw loads of 'Green' Pheasants in the Worstead area many years ago and did have several photos of birds looking the real deal with pale grey coverts and rumps. Sadly it was pre-digital days and the photos are long gone. The Norfolk Bird Report had reference in to these birds.
Sorry for the late reply - just back from Florida (no Pheasants there!). Interesting that you had what sound like the real deal at Worstead - that's the first time I've heard any evidence that any of the Green Pheasants published in the Norfolk Bird Report might actually have been Green Pheasants. I know some of the other reports were from people who just assumed they were Green without knowing (or caring) about Tenebrosus, and all the photos I've seen (not just from Norfolk) have been Tenebrosus. Neat birds anyway! If you want to feed your Pheasant fetish a bit look out for Reeves's x Common hybrids that are starting to appear in the Brecks!
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