Natural Alarm Clock

Well finally I could get a picture of my alarm clock!

Here he is about 8am this morning, though he woke me up before 6, as he always does.

Yes, it is the male pheasant I wrote about a few months ago. I see him almost every morning but it is quite difficult to get a picture of him. This morning he was foraging for food on the side of the rice field across from my house. I guess he was about 8m away. Sorry the picture isn't so nice - I had to take it through the fly screen. (I managed to open the glass window without him flying away, but the screen is much noisier.)

I've only seen the female once this season, when I startled her in my back garden and she flew away. She is a speckled brown color so is difficult to see at any time. Plus she is very quiet! Not like her mate who spent all morning from 6 - 10am walking about calling at intervals.

Just to explain the pictures:
1. This is him on the bank of the rice field (which is dry soil at the moment). He pecks the ground like a chicken looking for food, but looks around every few seconds. (Maybe he could 'feel' I was spying on him!)

2. I don't know why, but every now and then he puffs out his body, fluffs out his feathers and then calls 'keeen keeen'. Looking for his lady friend???

forage (食糧などを)捜す《 for... 》; 糧食徴発に出る, 捜し回る, あさる《 about, through... 》; 略奪する
fly screen 網戸
startle …をびっくりさせて
speckled 斑点（はんてん） *
mate （動物の）つがいの片方
at intervals 時々, 折々
bank (of river, etc)土手, 堤, 盛り土
peck 〈えさを〉ついばむ《 up 》 ;《略式》〈食べ物を〉たいぎそうに少しずつ食べる

* This translation is more like 'spotted', but 'speckled' is smaller spots and the colors blend together more.