Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 12:36:01 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: Re: Prince George's County field trip -- Pheasant In-Reply-To: <01df01c2d049$06140300$932a2c42@rjdolesh> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 9 Feb 2003, Rich Dolesh wrote: > I am very interested to hear that you saw a pheasant at National > Colonial Farm. I would be mightily surprised if it was not a > pen-raised bird that was released, or otherwise escaped from the > Colonial farm operations, nearby Hard Bargain Farm of the Alice > Ferguson Foundation, or a local landowner. Does anyone know any more > about a pheasant came to be at the farm/Piscataway park? > > Rich Dolesh Rich, I too, would like to know the origin of this bird but cannot add much to what you already know. I saw the bird only in flight in poor light so I cannot attest to its subspecies. But the bird was not tame -- if it's an escapee, it's not a recent one. A distant escape may be just as likely as a nearby one making tracking down its origin difficult. We checked the enclosures at the Colonial Farm. There were Turkeys penned and more exotic species both penned and free-range. I saw no other Pheasants but cannot swear I saw all the pens. I have not checked Hard Bargain. Do they keep gamebirds? The last Pheasant I saw in PG county, and the last I know of, was on October 11, 1998. It was at BARC, about halfway between the old sewage pond and Edmonston Road. If memory serves, it hung around for the Bowie Christmas count when it was seen one to two miles East of that location, near what was then called Beck Lake. Were Pheasants ever truly established in Maryland or was their decline as much due to fewer releases as to a change in farming practices? If a change in farming practices is the main cause, this corner of the county may offer them a chance having both appropriate habitat and a more traditional land use policy. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk @ bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================