The Bird Flew (sic) (pic)

• Dusk was fully set in as we crossed the bridge at Petroleum Center on Oil Creek. There before us, standing his ground with the headlights illuminating him, was a male ringneck pheasant.
  

• We stopped and watched it as I fumbled for my backpack that was in the rear seat. I can't believe how hard it is to get a camera case out of a backpack and then the camera out of the camera case when you are surprised by a Kodak moment.


• The pheasant seemed to be giving me every opportunity to take the picture. He turned like a model in the presence of a paparazzo, first this side, then that, even his backside for a moment.


• When the camera finally turned on, I aimed it through the windshield and snapped the picture. Then another. A quick glance showed I was getting a picture of myself in the windshield. More fumbling and I turned the flash off. The preview looked black.
  


• He'd had enough and headed for the side of the road. I got out and crept up to try and get a picture. Of course, the flash had been turned off, black picture. By the time I fumbled the flash setting back on, I couldn't see him anymore in the brush.
  


• I crept closer and jumped out of my wits when he flew straight up making scary noises on the way. I think he got a kick out of that.
  


• I think that bird had a couple of laughs that day. We saw hunters up the road earlier probably looking for pheasants. He was down there at the bridge feeling smug.
  


• Below is what I could get from the blackened picture. Too bad, he was quite the specimen, a real Brad Pitt of the pheasant world.