Today, Val's lap was the surprised recipient of a magnificent cock!
A Ring-Necked Pheasant cock, to be exact.
Take a look at this beauty:
I was on the way to town, turning the curve where that working dog watches over the sheep in the field opposite this one. This bird was strolling across the blacktop, not in any hurry. I stopped in the road, which we do often here in the country, though usually not with the purpose of getting a better look at a cock. I had no idea what this was! I needed a picture for Hick.
At first the cock was uncooperative. He was playing hard-to-get, I suppose. But I persisted, and was eventually able to...wait for it...
...get some head. It's a magnificent specimen. A classic textbook example from the Missouri Department of Conservation website. A Ring-Necked Pheasant, in the wild, far away from the areas he's supposed to inhabit.
I sent a picture to Hick, and he said it was a peacock. Um. No. So glad he never went bird hunting and brought me back a peacock to roast. We used to live up the street from a house that kept peacocks, and they are much larger, and have those freaky antenna-like things sprouting from their head, not to mention longer legs and fatter bodies and more colorful tails. And a scream like a woman that is quite annoying.
Anyhoo...my journey only got better when I harvested TWO PENNIES from the floor of Waterside Mart today. One in the area out front of the counter, and another on the way out the door. Let the record show that I was closing T-Hoe's door before going in, and remembered that my phone was on the console. I almost opened the door again to get it, in case of a penny discovery, but decided against it. Bad decision. Gotta follow my hunches.
Here they are after the fact. A 2010 from in front of the counter, and a 1967 from the door area. Nothing I know of happened those years. Except it looks like Lincoln's likeness was updated for penny purposes.
I was toying with a title idea of "Cock and Certain Cents." Kind of in honor of Genius's graduation ceremony music, coming up on Saturday.
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These were pennies #69 and 70 for my Future Pennyillionaire collection. Only 99 more, and I can afford a 44 oz Diet Coke with them!
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I've never seen a male pheasant before, nor a female for that matter. He's very pretty, hard to believe people would eat such a thing, I suppose he's tasty, or there wouldn't be a market for them.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen one, either. Plenty of turkeys and peacocks, but not a pheasant. Nor have I eaten one!
DeleteThat certainly is a magnificent bird.
ReplyDeleteI zoomed in on his wing, and it's quite colorful, kind of like a peacock! I'm sure Hick didn't know that when he mis-identified it.
DeleteWe used to see them all the time, on the golf course and along the highway in Pa, at college. Seems their habitat has been replaced with condo's and the only ones around now are farm raised for hunting. We always called them pheasants, that other moniker would give us a fit of the giggles.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have them around here, so this one might be farm-raised. But you'd think we would have seen them and know about the farm.
DeleteNo way could my 13-year-old self resist using that name from the MDC website! I'm sure they did it to differentiate it from the hen of the species, which is not nearly so striking.
You might have gotten him to come closer if you called him. Here's a bird call that works for any bird: "Hey, bird"!!
ReplyDeleteWell, now you've done it. Your house is going to look like the set of a Hitchcock movie, what with calling those birds all willy-nilly
DeletePeacock....lol.
ReplyDeleteLet the record show that Hick is NOT an ornithologist. But that he will give answers that he thinks you will believe...if you are ignorant on a subject, or don't have the wherewithal to prove him wrong.
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