My husband hunts, and he was kind enough to bring me home a pheasant ruff and some feathers from the last time he was out. These birds are so beautiful to me. When I was younger, my Dad and I would drive the motorcycle through a local forest preserve area and count all the different animals we could see. Deer, of course, and hawks. And there were buffalo (farmed) as well. But the pheasants were something that we were particularly proud of being able to spot from the back of a bike. I remember being so amused at the way they ran, almost like our own Midwest version of the Road Runner. Their little brightly colored heads sticking up out of the prairie grass to watch as we passed.

I don't feel as though I've really captured the colors or the texture that is part of what makes these birds so stunning....so I think I'll keep working on that this week. Didn't really do much to set up this shot, so tomorrow I'll try a different lens (shot this with 50mm) like my macro and add some different lights....or any lights really :-)