Day 97 - Brave New Breed

handsome chap

I think I'm becoming a bit of a geek, and I blame Anna. 

Before Anna came along I wasn't a geek, I'm sure.  I was cool, wasn't I?  Anyone?

Kim would have to admit that I was a cool dad, definitely... ;-)

But then Anna came along and started telling me the Latin names for everything, and understanding evolution, and being a scientist and whatnot (at least in terms of thinking like one).

Now that's all fair enough, and puts her firmly in the geek camp.

But then she starts telling me (she'd say "pointing out") that I'm a geek too...just because I can build and fix computers, and understand evolution a bit too, and I play computer games, and think like a scientist (or at least, I demand solid logic and reason in my thought processes).

But I wasn't a geek - I was cool!   I'm sure of it...wasn't I?

Now I find myself taking photo's of birds all the time, and increasingly pondering the natural world and how it works, and I'm starting to feel a bit geeky. 

Today, I paid a visit to some friends up in Nottinghamshire.   They live in a lovely house with a large, rural garden, backing onto open fields, much like we do. 

Whilst sitting in the kitchen nattering over a cup of tea, I heard the distinctive cabble (somewhere between a cackle and a gobble) of a pheasant .  I asked if there was any remote chance of getting out to take a photo without scaring him off, to which I was told that he's quite tame!

So I followed him out into the garden, and found him up around the other side of a small outhouse. 

He was a handsome and proud fellow, puffing himself up and strutting about confidently, clearly in search of a good time. 

Earlier, I'd made friends with this absolutely beautiful cat name Bob (looks a bit like a bob cat, and was incorrectly identified as male, initially), and as I approached the pheasant, Bob saw me and came running over to say hello.  

Bob (the) cat

The pheasant, whilst apparently not too concerned about Bob either, nevertheless wouldn't let us approach too near, and used a strategy of moving away at whatever speed I moved towards him.

Sliding smoothly back into geek mode, this seems curiously at odds with the skittishness of the pigeon from the other day.   Pheasants generally seem fairly stupid - often their response to the sight of a predator is to flap noisily into the air, stridently squawking, and thereby drawing the full attention of said predator, who up to this point had been completely unaware of the presence of the bird. 

Yet this pheasant today seemed calm and confident.  Is he just an aberrant individual, who will someday be eaten by a fox or hit by a car that he didn't flee from?  Or is he a smart pheasant, who's learned a useful and efficient strategy for avoiding predation?

Could he be the first of a new breed of clever, proud pheasants?!

You see, geeky rambling - definitely Anna's fault. 

Anyway, there followed a somewhat comedic episode, as I slowly chased the pheasant around the outhouse, trying to get a good view, and a bit closer, whilst the cat chased me around the outhouse, miaowing demandingly for attention.

What with trying to catch the pheasant, whilst trying to shake the cat, and being completely unable to see anything on the screen of my phone, I was lucky to get anything at all.

But still, I got one or two nice pics, and a little story to tell for my blog...and it wouldn't have happened had it not been for trying to get a photo for the blog.  

So, ya know, that works out well.  

love me, minion!