Trespass

[al]

Monbiot is increasingly tiresome.

He certainly is. These days we need more more like him to question attitudes.

 

[ILT]

Whatever pheasant-shooting is (besides a disgusting exhibition of wealth), it isn't a battle of wits.  Pheasants must be the stupidest birds in creation, to judge by the number that hurl themselves into traffic.

Generally a fascinating thread and the suicidal pheasants intrigue me.
Male pheasants will trot along in front of the car until getting hit. Females tend to head off the road when approached.

 

[Fulk]

Well, I can?t say I associate such daft behaviour with pheasants (and there are a lot of them around our part of the world).
For another take on pheasant psychology consider this little anecdote: several months ago (pre-lockdown) Miranda and I were out somewhere in the Dales when we came across two pheasants at the side of the road, one of which was dead, having been killed by a vehicle, I suppose; I can?t remember whether it was the male or the female. Anyway, the still-alive one was walking round and round the body, frequently going in close to it to nuzzle it and try to get it to stand up, I guess. It was obvious to us that the live bird was grieving for its mate.

 

[mikem]

Although pheasants don't really go in for pairing up, so another possibility is that it was eating insects from around the corpse.

They don't have any road sense at this time of year as they have generally been kicked out of a large pen where they have been protected & fed since hatching.