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Ring Neck Pheasants After sitting in my blind for about 3 hours with the temperature at -7 F I was just about to call it quits. But I caught a movement in the cattails and sure enough it was a rooster pheasant that had decided to brave the cold and grab some easy pickings of whole kernel corn that this photographer had been leaving in the marsh to attract this very colorful game bird. The pheasant slowly and cautiously made his way to the corn and began feeding. With my 500mm lens focused on the eye I was able to fire off many images of this rooster before he decided to go back to his winter hideaway for the evening. This Ring-necked haven was just located about 3-4 miles from my home. I was lucky enough to get a bow hunting permit from the land owner to hunt whitetails on his property. During the evenings on my deer stand I would always see numerous pheasants. After talking to the landowner and telling him about my nature photography ventures, he gave me permission to leave a blind on his property for the winter to photograph ring-necks. Around the middle of November after my hunting was over, I began leaving corn in a photogenic location. I also set up my winter camo photography blind. Every week I would replenish the corn and after we began to get some snow I could tell by the tracks that numerous pheasants were using the free hand-outs. I wanted the birds to get used to my blind so I did not even attempt photographing them until after January 1. These pheasants are truly wild even though they have never been hunted. I was in for a real education on photographing wild ring-necks. My first morning in the blind a rooster made his way to the corn and as I slowly moved my lens the pheasant caught my movement and immediately ran back into the cattails. A couple of minutes later a group of hens came out, but the scenario repeated itself. A little movement by this photographer resulted in lots of movement by the pheasants into the cattails. My afternoon photography venture equaled the same results and after about 6 hours in the blind I had yet to snap the shutter one time. Many years ago I used to hunt pheasant with moderate success, but photographing these birds was becoming very challenging. It was important for me to make as little movement as possible and even though I was in my blind they still would catch the slightest movement of my lens. So I would either just leave my lens pointed towards the corn or in the direction that I expected the pheasant to come out of the cattails. It would then be possible for me to slowly follow the bird as he worked towards the corn. The tracks in the snow would let me know where the pheasants were roosting during this winter season. I always preferred a bright sunny day because this would make the roosters colorful feathers really shine. Both the male and female pheasant are very close to neutral tone, but with a snow background a photographer has to be careful of their exposure. Snow can fool the metering system of your camera and underexpose the bird. My method was to use the matrix metering of my Nikon and open up about 1/3 stop. This worked excellent on most images, but may be altered a little depending on how large the bird is in the frame. Of course like most wildlife photography it is always important to focus on the eye so I used my manual focus most of the time. The tail feathers of a rooster are very long, so keep that in mind when trying to frame for your composition. Most cases my aperture was set for a good depth-of-field at around f8. My shutter speed was never a problem because I always had good light to work with. Most of these birds head back to their evening bedding areas long before sunset. I spent many hours in my winter photo blind photographing these very elusive game birds and I am looking forward to spending many more hours this winter.
Winter is always a good time to photograph this very elusive but colorful bird. At this time of the year the birds are more likely to come in to your “baited corn”. I do not like the corn showing in my photos, so I always dig a little trough in the snow so it does not show in the image. I always set the corn and my blind so it will be at the best light for that time of day. If you need a place to photograph pheasants, most farmers will give permission and allow you to set up your blind, just be sure to follow any instructions they may have. Good Shooting
Ring-neck Image Data
Camera: Nikon D100
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