January 16th-19th, 2024 is Winter-Shokan (lesser cold)-69th KOU “Pheasants start to call.” This means that the pheasants are starting to chirp for the first time this year. They are probably calling in anticipation of spring.
Only the males chirp. In the SAI riverbeds, their chirping can be heard all year round, although less frequently. But I’ve only seen it once.
On the other hand, females are occasionally seen. Something like this also happened just last week. Suddenly I heard a loud rustling sound and turned around and saw a large brown bird running away at great speed. It was a female pheasant. I didn’t even have time to get my camera out. Also, the brown feather blending into the landscape made much difficult to find it.
This morning there was still snow from yesterday, and the ground was pure white. So I thought it would be easier to find them and take the photos, but it wasn’t that easy. They didn’t come out and didn’t make any chirp. I wonder if it’s better to stay warm in the nest when it’s this cold.
