In late winter, a pair of pheasants forages under the watchful presence of Ekenäs Slott (Castle). Even though these days pheasants can be found across Europe and North America, they were originally native to Russia and Caucusus; everywhere the else they have been introduced, mainly as game birds. Typically they are around a kilogram, with the male slightly more and the female slightly less. Their habitat is varied, spanning long-grass meadows to woodland and wetland. Pheasants can fly, but tend to only do so for shorter distances and prefer to run instead. Having been hunted for many generations by humans, they tend to be very wary of the presence of people. Ekenäs Slott is located in southern mid-Sweden, roughly between Linköping and Norrköping. In Swedish, the word "slott"is currently used to describe many buildings from larger manor houses through to royal palaces and defensive castles. In its original meaning, slott was meant more for the latter than the former and it can be said that Ekenäs, with its multiple towers a easily defended positioning, fits the more rigorous Castle definition. Ekenäs Slott, in its current renaisance form was built in the early 1600s, on a foundation from the mid 1500s. From the outside, relatively little has changed since the 1700s. As the stories go, there are two secret rooms in Ekenäs Slott, the first where the owner from the 1700s' owner, Mauritz Vellingk, is said to have hidden his secret papers, and the second where the young mason, Nisse, was incarcerated to keep the secret of the secret papers (he is now said to haunt the Castle). A further interesting anecdote about Ekenäs has a peasant woman "the chicken woman" saving the castle from maurading Russians, by having a large bonfire lit when the Russians were first sighted in the distance. The story goes that the Russians, seeing the flames, thought that they had already pillaged and set light to Ekenäs and continued along the coast, instead.