No pheasants now.  The 'season of mists' is upon us, but not 'mellow fruitfulness'.   The season was poor because of a strange weather pattern.   And the pheasants suffered gradual depletion during the summer.   First the ladies disappeared, two of them, and then, one morning, Philip and Philippa alone appeared, very bedraggled and missing a number of feathers.   I suspect that a fox has found their hideout.   Occasionally, one or the other appeared after that, but eventually, in October, neither of them came at all.  I had broken my leg whilst walking in the lakes, so could not feed them anyway for a while.   In the last week or so, Philip or a male relative has appeared, slowly picking his way across the denuded field, stripped of its precious oilseed rape.  So all now has slowed down, with apparently no expectation of recovery.  But...