Our initial plans for the day were thwarted when both the Nature Center and Stone Park turned out to be closed. So we threw caution to the wind and drove about seventy miles to one of my favorite spots, the De Soto National Wildlife Refuge on the Iowa/Nebraska border. This turns out to be a wonderful choice. There's hardly anyone around, and the birds are wonderfully cooperative, including this gorgeous pheasant. I only recently learned that pheasants aren't native to North America. They were introduced as game birds, first by Benjamin Franklin's son-in-law, and later (and more successfully) in Oregon in 1882. They're now a ubiquitous part of the Midwest where I live.