Time of year brings issues for pleasant pheasant

This is not a good time of year to be a pheasant in Ireland, writes Dick Warner

The legal shooting season for them is from the beginning of November to the end of January. The logic behind this is that by the beginning of November young birds, even those hatched late in the year, are fully grown and that by February some cock birds may be starting to gather a harem with a view to mating.

The fact that one cock will mate with several hens is also the logic behind making it illegal, in most cases, to shoot hens. But the minister has considerable discretion when it comes to laws about shooting. Licences to shoot hens are regularly issued to large sporting estates that rear thousands of birds. And if these estates have a surplus of birds at the end of January they will often be granted an extension to their season.