Kamikaze pheasant!

On my walk through the woods this morning I was suddenly aware of a pheasant following me. When I stopped it came right up to me and started making slightly worrying throaty noises. I shoo'd it away as I was trying to photograph an interesting plant gall. That's when I realised it was a bit 'unhinged'! It became aggressive and started pecking at my wellington boots. I really did want to get some photographs, so I used a stick to gently push it away, but the more I tried to drive it off the more determined it seemed to get to attack me. I gave up on photography for a while and continued my walk at a very fast pace. After turning a corner in the woodland ride I thought I had shaken it off, and I started examining vegetation for leafmines and galls. Then it appeared round the corner and made a run at me, giving out a very striking combination of clucks and guteral screeches. The stick was now deployed more fiercely, but the bird was completely undeterred. A length of my walk was then completed at a cracking pace with the stick swishing away like a scythe on whichever side the pheasant had selected for its next attack. Then I came to an intersection of rides and realised the mad bird was dropping back. I looked back and saw it standing on an old fallen tree. I walked a little more, then checked again - it was not following me. There, I thought, I have got the better of the silly bird and I could now concentrate on my photography. Then I took a final look at the pheasant, standing proud on the log - it did look as though it thought IT had won the skirmish and driven off this intruder from its territory!