ring neck phesant in saugeen shores?????????

I live in port elgin Ontario, its a small town in bruce county right on lake huron. when I was coming home from buying my big gobbler contest ticket from lake huron rod and gun. I took bruce road 33 instead of highway 21, just for a change of scene. and this is what I found at the corner of bruce road 33 and the CAW road.Attachment 25320 Attachment 25321 Attachment 25322 having grown up in port elgin I have never heard of, heard or seen a ring neck pheasant until today, there aren't any pheasant farms or game reserves anywhere near here and I have a hard time believing they may be on the rebound from the brutal winter we just got done with. is this not a weird spot for this big guy to be??? sorry about the side ways pics and the blurry ness. they were taken off my iphone, I pulled over and parked the truck beside him and he didn't overly spook too I find that weird also?

My guess is that somebody is privately raising a few birds and that's an escapee.

Happened to a friend of mine; he was raising about a dozen chukars until one day they all got out. Some of them showed up as far as 20 km away.

I was out at the Port Elgin Range the other day and saw a bird running around there. There must be some escapees. That bird has a great tail on it. Looks like it's going into it's second year.

Clearly they can move some distance. Last year I saw a photo posted (think it may have been on this board) of a pheasant in the Humber Ravine in Toronto - so unless someone is raising pheasants in the back yard, it clearly must have made it +30km from what could possibly be the closest rural area.

Hope that bird is able to survive longer and offer folks more opportunities of such view....... pen raised strays that may survive a winter or two more often than not fall to predation. As often discussed in this Forum, Southern ON has the potential - proper habitat being key. Unfortunately, such doesn't exist here with the exception of very few pockets that weren't really deliberate.

I am thinking that it could possibly be a Hullett Marsh survivor ... it's far but could be possible. As others have stated, it might also be an escapee from someone that keeps them. The only wild pheasants that I have seen in the last 15 years are all within the GTA on various patches of land with good cover, still a few scattered here and there.

Lorenzo

used to be lots of wild phez in the Humber , read pre yote .

im still in shock from seeing him he was huge I really hope that he makes it for awhile. such beautiful birds, how much would it cost to buy pheasant chicks anyway/ how would you get them? would it be similar to chickens?

Hey Dobe, that is definitely an escaped bird, or maybe someone has released a few nearby for their own purposes. Dog training, hunting, etc. Chicks can be purchased from hatcheries and they cost less than $2 each. You need to feed and care for them until they are ready to be released. Not expensive by any means but time consuming indeed. My friends and I are planning to do it for the first time this year, so I am by no means an "expert" myself.

ninepointer, I think one of your friend's chukars ended up in Richmond Hill, because I saw it. :D
The ladies who had seen it before me wanted to report it to the MNR as a Bobwhite quail. LOL.

I would say an escape bird, there very popular with hobby farmers.