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THE HERALD Wednesday February 8 Page This lucky bird escaped with his life after being struck by a car in Balllnafad last month The ring- necked pheasant is residing safely in a chicken coop until he regains his strength in the spring Herald photo Pheasant falls in with fowl friends By DONNA KELL Herald Staff Theres something strange about Dick Burkes chicken coop in Ballinafad Sure the eggs are coming out as they always did but theres a visitor living in the coop who looks a little different from the other birds Dick Burke owns a home on 10th Line and has a hobby farm in cluding 10 to 12 chickens Less than a month ago Mr Burke saved the life of a feathered friend who was struck by a car The ringnecked pheasant will be eternally grateful The discovery came one day as Mr Burke was driving along in his pickup truck and noticed a colorful bird firmly planted in the centre of the road Going out to help the bird off the road Mr Burke witnessed the lit tle creature being struck by a pass ing vehicle There was an icy storm the day he was hit said Mr Burke I didnt know what was wrong with him why he didnt move Mr Burke took the pheasant home to mend with the chickens The bird was limping and seemed all bruised up when he first ar rived But now hes almost twice as big as he was eating the chicken feed Mr Burke took his interest in the unnamed bird a step further He purchased a book to give him all the information he needs to know about the pheasant who looks remarkably like a peacock Although the pheasant has depleted in numbers in Canada it cannot be classified as an en dangered species because it is a native of China and not Canada says the local Ministry of the En vironment Weve been trying to increase their range but the weather and predators wouldnt allow us to do it said wildlife management of ficer Bruce Buckland Mr agreed that the best thing for pheasants kept tem porarily itr captivity is to release them as soon as possible in the spr ing Mr Burke plans to release his pheasant as soon as the spring thaw comes to allow the bird to prepare for its summer mating season Mr Burke has tossed around the idea of breeding pheasants but the Ministry suggests that any breeding of the birds be done with the pheasants in total isolation from other animals The pheasant should be raised and released said Mr Buckland He shouldnt associate with peo ple He should be fed in isolation Feeding wild birds domesticates them and causes them to trust human beings Not such a bad thing if humans didnt find the taste of pheasant so inviting Its delicious said Mr Buckland To protect the birds vulnerability to hunters Mr suggests the pheasant in captivity be released by August to allow the bird to regain some of the wild instincts lest while in human company The bird would then have several months to recuperate before pheasant hunting season hits for three weeks in the fall Pheasant season is short because the population is so small said Mr Buckland The Ministry has six or eight people presently raising the birds to propagate the species but they are careful not to let the birds lose their instincts The birds adapt very well to people But that friendliness could be their undoing said Mr leaving them open to predators Artisans back on track Herald Special from the Credit Valley Artisans Before a new dawn can rise the Night Must Fall This is true with the Credit Valley Artisans It was in the midst of the Christmas celebrations of that the Credit Valley Artisans were advised that we could no longer use the Cedarvale Cottage We were shocked by this news How could we promote the visual arts Halton Hills if we did not have a home to work from Surely this was our darkest hour of the night We were quite lucky to have been allowed the use of two classrooms at Park School for and the first six months of We were able to keep promoting art by offering a host of interesting Artisan courses such as weaving dry flower ar ranging and stained glass We could not offer pottery courses as the schedule of the school did not allow enough time The Credit Valley Artisans kept going but we always nagged about doubts of the future How long could we stay at Park School Would we be allowed back at Public board waits on Jr Kgarten plan By DONNA KELL Herald Staff The Halton Board of Education could be under political pressure to launch a junior kindergarten program following the recentlyapproved Catholic program scheduled to begin in September according to the public board director Director Bob Williams said last week that although a junior kindergarten program could take at least a year to plan sup porters of the public board might demand a program like the pro gram offered to Halton Roman Catholic School Board supporters Its just human nature said Mr Williams what one has the other one will want But the Catholic board denies that political pressure forced their hand in approving a motion to begin a JK program Roman Catholic Separate School Board has junior kindergarten the Hamilton board has junior kindergarten Were surrounded by boards with junior kindergarten But that was not our criteria for voting the motion in said Catholic board Superintendent of Curriculum Ser vices Lou Piovesan Mr said the Catholic board approved junior kindergarten in December because we felt that the program was an excellent program and that it was good to start it at this point The Catholic board is now in the process of hiring 20 to 25 teachers needed to staff the new program The junior kindergarten issue caused much debate and spark ed much discussion said Mr Piovesan North Halton Catholic trustee Irene agreed This has come up regularly at the board for the last six years The board really felt it was time to initiate the program she said The Separate board had several delegations speaking to the junior kindergarten issue and has had numerous inquiries from the public But in the public board theres been little expressed demand for junior kindergarten said Mr Williams Public interest was stirred dur ing the fall municipal elections when trustees were elected and several letters requesting junior kindergarten were sent to the public board But the issue has not come up nor been discussed recently at public board meetings said Mr Williams If public demand for junior kindergarten increases In the public board Mr Williams said he would need more than nine months to plan a junior kindergarten pro gram I dont want to be like my Roman Catholic counterpart who found out in December about the September junior kindergarten program he said The public school board will need at least a year Essentially this means there is no immediate possibility of junior kindergarten in public school board Cedarvale Cottage and if so how would we raise our share of the renovation costs The annual Credit Valley Artisans member ship nave always been low cost to remain affordable to any member of the community who wishes to join We have never before had to raise funds June 1988 was our last month at Park School as the classrooms were needed by the school So we bid goodbye to our young cohabitants Since then we operated from our homes still managing to participate at the Georgetown Fall Fair and Hills Open House and we managed to have two Art and Craft shows in the fall Finally the news came that we could move back to the cottage Cleaning and painting teams were quickly organized by the CVA membership to get the cottage into tiptop condition so that we could start back at the cottage as soon as possible We have also kept busy getting ready for the benefit per formance that Georgetown Little Theatre is performing on our behalf The benefit performance will be held on Thursday Feb 16 at John Elliott Theatre Church Street Georgetown The tickets are and curtain time is 8 pm Coffee and refreshments will be served after the play For further ticket information contact Linda Parker at 8534361 The play is a murder mystery by Emlyn Williams appropriately called 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