{"id":3558,"date":"2009-11-23T21:32:33","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T02:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2010-01-16T09:43:10","modified_gmt":"2010-01-16T14:43:10","slug":"will-phil-the-ring-necked-pheasant-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3558","title":{"rendered":"Will Phil the Ring Necked Pheasant Survive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tday<\/a><\/p>\n

Phil the Ring Necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever\u00c2\u00a0one’s personal viewpoint on hunting and fishing, and most of us\u00c2\u00a0exhibit a complex set of contradictory and complementary opinions on these topics, pheasant hunting season on Cape Cod magnifies these feelings.\u00c2\u00a0 According to the Humane Society of the United States (see Cape Cod National Seashore “<\/strong>The Killing Fields<\/strong><\/a>“<\/strong>), ring necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus<\/em>)\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>are not natives of Cape Cod, but of Asia.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They are farm raised off Cape and “transported weekly in Massachusetts state-owned trucks and unceremoniously dumped into the cool night air in stumpy forests of scrub pine and scrub oak.”\u00c2\u00a0 According to the Humane Society, these animals “lack the basic skills to survive in this foreign habitat.”\u00c2\u00a0 Consequently, some say pheasants offer an easy shot for beginners who may go on to\u00c2\u00a0develop into lifelong hunters.<\/p>\n

\"tday<\/a><\/p>\n

Salt Marsh Trail at Sandy Neck Park, Barnstable<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Several days ago the Turtle Journal Team visited Sandy Neck Park in Barnstable.\u00c2\u00a0 The barrier beach and dunes protect the expansive salt marsh ecosystem of Barnstable Harbor which hosts the second largest population of threatened diamondback terrapins in Massachusetts (and perhaps all of New England).\u00c2\u00a0 The salt marsh trail falls between nesting dunes on the north (left) and salt marsh on the south (right).\u00c2\u00a0 Walking this road in September and October, you can be guaranteed to encounter a terrapin hatchling scrambling from its nest into the safety of the salt marsh nursery habitat … or at least sets of hatchling tracks that evidence babies that have recently crossed the dirt road.<\/p>\n

\"tday<\/a><\/p>\n

Ring Necked Pheasant Runs onto Trail<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of a hatchling we were surprised to encounter Phil, a very nervous ring necked pheasant, scurrying along the salt marsh trail.\u00c2\u00a0 When Phil saw us, he slipped into the dense vegetation to hide … as quietly as a bulldozer with backup\u00c2\u00a0alarm blaring.\u00c2\u00a0 Since that tactic obviously wasn’t working, Phil jumped back onto the\u00c2\u00a0dirt\u00c2\u00a0road\u00c2\u00a0and sped down the path like a bowlegged roadrunner stuck in first gear.<\/p>\n

\"tday<\/a><\/p>\n

Pheasant Hunting Season through November 28th<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We remembered the sign we had glanced on entering the back trail and wondered whether Phil would be able to acclimate to this foreign environment before hunters and dogs chased him down and flushed him out for a clear shot.\u00c2\u00a0 Heck, his amateurish evasive skills placed him face to face with the Turtle Journal Team for long enough for us to get a dozen close-up “shots” and to stare him eyeball to eyeball.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s almost no dense cover to provide safety and camouflage for a non-native ring-necked pheasant.<\/p>\n

\"tday<\/a><\/p>\n

Sue Wieber Nourse at Sandy Neck Park<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We left Phil\u00c2\u00a0to his own devices and privacy as we\u00c2\u00a0crossed over the dunes to the bayside beach to search for stranded sea turtles at high tide.\u00c2\u00a0 We forgot about our friend Phil\u00c2\u00a0as we enjoyed the stark beauty of Sandy Neck in mid November.<\/p>\n

\"tday<\/a><\/p>\n

Hunters and Dog Scouring the Scrub Brush for Phil<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tranquility soon faded as bright orange gear dotted the horizon and a barking dog zigzagged across the dunes scouring the terrain for scent of Phil.\u00c2\u00a0 As we proceeded to the bayside, more hunters appeared on dune tops and more dogs howled to the chase.\u00c2\u00a0 We wondered how poor disoriented Phil had survived this long into the day and wondered if he’d ever see another night.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, we even worried a bit about ourselves as the lone non-hunters crossing the dunes without bright orange gear.<\/p>\n

More Traditional Thanksgiving Prey<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"tday<\/a><\/p>\n

Native American Wild Turkey<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A more traditional Thanksgiving prey and a wiley critter that can hold its own in its native habitat is the American wild turkey, Ben Franklin’s nominee\u00c2\u00a0as the emblematic\u00c2\u00a0symbol for the fledgling United States of America.\u00c2\u00a0 Ben thought eagles paled in the face of a brave, valient American turkey.\u00c2\u00a0 At least a wild turkey understands the Cape Cod ecosystem and wouldn’t get caught dead (or more preferably alive) in a barren barrier dune.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, we don’t dump wild turkeys into foreign habitats in the … excuse the phrase … dead of night.<\/p>\n

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Rafter of Wild Turkeys<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We’d like to celebrate Thanksgiving with a look back at last fall when Turtle Journal posted several articles on our native wild turkeys.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve seen a lot of turkeys this season, too, but they’ve managed to avoid\u00c2\u00a0that perfect\u00c2\u00a0“traffic stopping moment” documented below.<\/p>\n

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Lethal Turkey Crossing<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Happy Thanksgiving from the entire Turtle Journal Family.\u00c2\u00a0 We wish you another year of discovery.\u00c2\u00a0 We hope you’ll join us in the joy of saving the world, just one species at a time … turtle, ocean sunfish, harbor seal, pilot whale, wild turkey, channel whelk, nine-spotted ladybug or even ring necked pheasant.\u00c2\u00a0 If it crawls, swims, flies, slithers, scampers, hops or\u00c2\u00a0just exists,\u00c2\u00a0it’s worth saving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil the Ring Necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) Whatever\u00c2\u00a0one’s personal viewpoint on hunting and fishing, and most of us\u00c2\u00a0exhibit a complex set of contradictory and complementary opinions on these topics, pheasant hunting season on Cape Cod magnifies these feelings.\u00c2\u00a0 According to the Humane Society of the United States (see Cape Cod National Seashore “The Killing Fields“), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[654,402,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3558"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3590,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions\/3590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}