Wild Thing!

'Mr. Aggressive' about to attack my wife.

Saturday 17th October 2015

Had to make a trip to Pickering today to hand over the entries for one of the Driffield Photographic Society competitions to the judge, who lives there. It was the 'Wartime Weekend' at Pickering and there was not a parking space to be had anywhere in the town. Having dropped off the pictures, we decided to go to Helmsley and have a walk. We were walking up Beck Dale, when from about 100 metres away, bold as brass, the above pheasant came trotting towards us. I said to my wife, "Better set my camera up, he wants his photo taking". He came right up to us and let my wife almost touch him. As we walked on, he walked at our side; when we stopped, he stopped - and so it went on. Then, as we presumably got near his territory, he suddenly became very aggressive, attacked my wife's walking stick repeatedly, then had a go at my leg. You can see the aggression in his eyes! Just then a Land Rover came down the track and the pheasant scarpered for the undergrowth. It was as if he could tackle us, but Land Rovers meant shooters and dead pheasants. After a pleasant walk, we returned the same route and sure enough, he was waiting for us and had another go. Will he survive the winter?