Picture Of The Week 01-29-07

Where: Smyrna, Delaware • Just North of Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (NWR)

Notes: I often say, "Some times the birds just want to have their picture taken." This was one of those times. After things had slowed down in the early afternoon at Bombay Hook NWR my friend Paul McCroskey and I headed north along Rt. 9 to do a little exploring. Just a few miles up the road there is a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) on the right with a small pond and a viewing platform. As we pulled into the parking lot by the roadside pond we noticed a Ring-necked Pheasant in the road just behind a truck that was backing out of the area entrance. As the truck got closer it flushed and landed deep into the tall grass thicket just across from the parking lot. We readied our cameras and quickly headed that direction in our vehicle as soon as the other truck had cleared the road. We sat a few minutes where the bird had disappeared and in a little while I spotted the Pheasant looking out along the edge of the tall grass. It slowly crept out into the open and walked parallel to the vehicle towards only fifteen to twenty feet away in the perfect light. We took pictures out of the window, but when tried to exit the truck to improve the shot angle it quickly found cover in the tall grass and bushes nearby. So we started down the road into the WMA and within moments the same bird came out of the brush again and was along side the vehicle. So we captured a few more images until it retreated into the tall grass once again. We began to drive once more. After a few moments I glanced into the rear-view mirror and there the bird was again literally chasing the truck at five to ten miles an hour! This went on for quite a distance. Paul suggested we try and get a shot of this oddity and we quickly agreed this was too funny to resist. So we accelerated down the road ahead of the bird and I got out to capture this bazar occurrence ( see below). The only explanation we can think of is maybe it had been following leaky grain trucks and trailers that haul the harvest from the surrounding soy and grain fields? Or maybe it just wanted it's picture taken? But who knows?