What have our animals been doing lately? Dominating the local news media, that's what!

Both island newspapers were consumed with the story of a golden pheasant, unknowingly released upon the community by my two-year-old daughter. Front page news with a color photo, baby. Don't tell me exciting things never happen up here.

From today's Bar Harbor Times:

A call came in Saturday morning from a fellow working at the transfer station in Southwest Harbor. He had seen and caught a large, colorful bird on the premises and wanted to see if I would take a look at it. You never know where a call like this may lead, so I loaded my weekly garbage into the truck and headed for the "dump." The bird that he had caught and placed in his office was definitely a non-native species, and it was extraordinarily beautiful. The plumage on the head was bright yellow, the back of the neck was barred yellow and black, and the front of the neck and chest was crimson red. Patches of yellow also adorned the base of the tail, and the tail itself was about 2 feet long and multicolored. An iridescent quality added to the striking effect of the plumage.

The bird in question turned out to be a male golden pheasant. This species of pheasant is so flashy that early European naturalists discounted its existence. Accurate depictions of it taken to Europe from China were attributed to the work of overly imaginative artists. Many decades passed before Western science actually recognized that this showy bird exists. All 48 species of pheasants, with the one exception of the Congo peacock, are native to Asia. The golden pheasant's natural home is central China. The golden pheasant, like his relative, the wild turkey, is not a migratory bird and rarely flies more than a few hundred yards at a time. This particular bird obviously had escaped from someone who had been raising it in captivity. Hopefully, pheasant and owner can be reunited in short order.

A scan of the article will appear shortly. A scan of this earth-shakingly important article.