The seasons of rural life

There's more ice on the ground than snow, and that makes it easier for pheasants to scour the fields of corn stubble for food. The cleared fields also makes it easier to spot these beauties, but not necessarily easier to hunt them. The crunch, crunch under a hunter's foot will spook the pheasant pretty quickly.

Saturday, I spotted a flock of nearly two dozen ring-necked pheasants in the field across from ours. After awhile, the whole bunch of them scooted into the tall grass near the grove at the south end of the property.

I wanted a closer look, but haven't yet found where the boys put my field glasses upon their return from deer hunting. I had thought the pheasant season had passed, but one of our duck hunters stopped by Sunday to tell me otherwise. He and his dog will be tracking the birds during the last dark days of December.