This one took the cake.
I have often been surprised by the amount of wildlife I see along our highways. I've written previously about the Route 7 Connector and the hawks I see there daily. The various wildlife one may encounter along the Merritt Parkway has also been well documented.
But I-95? Especially the six deadly, crowded, high-speed lanes that span Fairfield County? What type of wildlife would possibly want to get near I-95?
I see red-tailed hawks, turkeys and groundhogs quite often along I-95, but I've also seen some very unusual sightings along that highway, especially in Norwalk. Last summer for three consecutive days I saw a white-tailed deer near exit 14, behind Stop & Shop. The oddity of that sighting was that the deer was half white and half tan in large splotches.
A few months ago I was slowing down for exit 15 and noticed a peregrine falcon sitting on top of the former Linen 'N Things building. I had my camera with me, but by the time I got off the highway, sat through about a dozen red lights and arrived at the spot, the bird was long gone.
But Tuesday evening I saw something along I-95 in Norwalk that I thought I'd never see. Merging onto the highway southbound from the Connector can be quite precarious, but as I settled into the right lane, I immediately noticed a dark shape up ahead only a few feet behind the guardrail.
"Boy that looks like a ring-necked pheasant," I thought to myself.
Yes, I had my camera with me, but I didn't bother to slow down because I thought there was no way it was, indeed, a pheasant. Sure enough, as I accelerated past the shape it was clearly a male ring-necked pheasant.
"What in the world is that bird doing there?" I thought.
It was only my second ring-necked pheasant sighting, the first being several years ago at Sherwood Island State Park. Ring-necked pheasants are native to Asia and were introduced to North America as a game bird. The ornamental bird -- only the male is colorful -- rarely survives a New England winter, but are reintroduced into the region each year.
This one was clearly lost. It was standing in a small patch of grass bordered by a tiny wooded area on one side and six lanes of zipping I-95 traffic on the other side.
I turned off exit 13, backtracked and found an overpass with a bird's eye view of the pheasant. It was already past dusk and therefore too late for a photograph, but it certainly would have made for a unique image.
When I saw the pheasants at Sherwood Island years ago there was one male and two females. This I-95 bird appeared to be alone. It seemed to be sizing up its situation and pondering its next move -- and perhaps wondering how it ended up there in the first place.
I have no idea what became of the pheasant. I checked the following morning and it was no longer there.
As always, I'm hoping for the best. Perhaps it waited out the night in the small wooded area and took off for greener, less dangerous, pastures in the morning.
Pheasants on I-95. What's next, moose on the Merritt? Oh yeah, that's already happened, too.

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