Kim is the host of this week’s Haibun Monday at the dVerse poet’s pub. Kim says:
For this week’s Haibun Monday, write about solitude: it could be meditative solitude, solitude in nature, or just plain old sitting alone in your room solitude. That’s up to you. But you should write no more than three tight paragraphs about solitude, followed by a traditional haiku that includes reference to a season.
The two male ring-necked pheasants made their appearance in my yard a few weeks or so ago. They were pecking under the bird feeders for the bits left from the oiler sunflower seeds and the woodpecker suet cakes. The snow had covered most of the ground in the area except from around the bases of the fenceposts, trees, and shrubs, where one was first seen pecking.
The pheasants, imported from warmer climates — brought in for those humans who like to kill birds and other things – for sport hunting, they are maladapted to the often subzero temperatures of Michigan. Besides the cold, hazards for them are the hawks frequenting the area; also the one feral cat who is seldom seen other than its footprints in the snow.
Last week, just one pheasant was looking in the back slider at the many houseplants, probably seeking shelter. He was there for hours, in my line of sight, and finally huddled up against the glass. His partner nowhere in sight, he flew to the back, over the snow, when I opened the slider to feed him. He’s been gone since yesterday, where he pecks and wanders the yard, alone.
Lone winter pheasant
wanders stark white terrain with
nature’s mixed blessing.
Tao Talk 
OMG! This is so sad. How heartbreaking! I’m sitting here at work with tears on my cheeks. People who murder animals for sport make me physically ill.
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I know what you mean. Every time I see him it breaks my heart.
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How very sad. He must be so lonely. I wonder if he will find another friend.
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Good writing, btw. Really good.
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thank you
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An incredible haiku – so sad in its truth. We have pheasants around here naturally but they are at rtisk of weather, raptors, other animals and humans. It is sad to see any animal that mates for life alone.
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thank you for connecting with it
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This was a really enjoyable read Jade. I love birds! It was the second time I read about your visiting pheasants. What a wonderful sustained eye to eye you enjoyed. I sure hope they found each other, are are surviving the environs.
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Thank you, Rob, I also. If the 2nd shows up I’ll post it at dVerse :)
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It’s so sad and brutal. Hope they do survive.
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Poor pheasant! It’s not often you see a pheasant alone. I usually see them in pairs or with their harems of females. I think it’s sad that some people have to kill birds for sport and that they import them for that purpose. I know that the ones in our garden have no fear of our cats and stand their ground, but I don’t think they’d survive subzero temperatures, hawks or feral cats. I do hope his friend comes back and they continue to visit your garden, Jade.
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Thanks for kind thoughts, Kim. It is appreciated.
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“mixed blessings” really sums up the tone of this piece Jade. I was thinking of how we are all a bit like the pheasants – relocated from our essential selves in order to appease an outer agenda, and in the end, alone.
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ah! never thought of it that way, but so true
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i can’t see any blessings, just so much danger and loneliness. i never knew they were imported in, why are humans so cruel? rarely do i read a haiku that sums up the haibun as perfectly as you has, nice one Jade
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Gina thank you.
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Oh my heart goes out to that lonely bird. Touching and poignant.
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Thank you Linda, for caring. I wanted to tell you the poem you wrote about your dog and cherishing every remaining moment with him/her had me crying like a baby. I lost my dog 3 years ago and am still not over it. Your poem brought back those times with Chauncey
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I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s so hard. I understand. My heart goes out to you.
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This is so sad the second time i read about the pheasant in your garden… of course humans are most often the cause…
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I’ve been wondering what that horrendous cold spell was doing to the wildlife. I grew up in Michigan and did not realize pheasant were not indigenous, probably because I never thought about it. :) Loved how the haiku brought the prose all together as a piece.
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Thanks, M, glad you liked it :)
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