Unpleasant Pheasant

Cock Pheasant (David Darrell Lambert)

Today was a great day!

Primarily because the Tower 42 Bird Study Group is about to be born. I had a very successful meeting with the management at the Tower, who totally love the idea of a bird observatory on the top of their building. The RSPB London office are getting involved and are requesting information on Peregrine sightings and returning Swifts. There's even going to be a launch event towards the end of March to mark this historical occasion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this must be the only inner city skycraper visible migration observation platform in the world.

I am so excited about this opportunity. I've said it before, but I really feel that our visits during spring and the autumn are going to reveal some interesting statistics - so keep reading this blog!

Back at home, I sent out my latest Scrubs report to my mailing list and generally responded to the multitudes of emails I am getting these days. One of them was a invitation to a press trip to Warsaw in June. That will be brill.

I also did a brief phone-in on BBC Radio 5 Live later in the evening. I was asked to comment on a rogue Pheasant that had got itself in the news today for it persistent assaults on members of the public in the village that it resided in up in Yorkshire. The 'Unpleasant Pheasant' as it was dubbed by the presenter has caused some consternation amongst the locals and particularly with the postman. I put it's behaviour down to over zealously staking out it's territory and mistaking humans for ginormous male pheasants.

I also sited the fact load noises can trigger aggressive reactions, a fact that the lady on the other line who hailed from the afflicted village agreed with.

I must say I've never heard of aggressive wild Pheasants. Perhaps this bird was shell-shocked after nearly coming to grief after being shot at or maybe he was a Capercaillie in a previous life?