An observation: in the last 4 weeks I have been plagued by roadkill, and by animals trying to become roadkill beneath the wheels of my bike. Most of these have been pheasants.

I have not been keeping an accurate tally, but I would say that a fair count would be in the order of between 20 and 25 corpses, and another two have variously alighted in the road in front of me, in one case intent upon scaring me off as I charge in its general direction at 60mph.

I bounced this observation off my friend Rachel, and she said the birds all get released from pens for the shoots and probably lack any experience of the real world, and suggested further that probably more die from traffic than guns.

I can believe that last possibility – you could have had several quite nice game-pies from what I’ve seen of late.

The thing is: all bar two of these pheasants – dead and alive – have been male. Probably all out carving-out territory for breeding, and showing how macho they are.

Damn, sex can really make a guy terminally stupid.