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Pheasant rebound…

Sligh1

Sligh1

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Never seen anything like it. The natives filled in & like magic- the birds have filled in. Like, 5-10 years ago…. U might see a dozen birds in a few hours. Today…. Hundreds. 1 guy without a dog, limit in 15-20 mins. & usually I miss piles. So- thankful I can still hit things or have some good luck & makes it easier when millions of them. Better than anything I even saw in 90’s. So much fun.
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I filmed the birds flying around for 30 seconds. It was like this where ever u walked. I love seeing things thrive!!!!
 
That's awesome! Any quail?

A lot of the CRP I planted back in 2014 and 2015 (I planted a lot those years) is similar. Maybe not as nuts as what I saw in that video. 10 years ago you couldn't have found a Rooster in the areas I planted. Now tons of birds, though numbers seem down significantly this year (Central IA).

Get your son after those birds, Skip.

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This one is towards NW part of state…. I don’t recall seeing quail up here.
Down by me… S of dsm… tons of quail!!! Actually a lot of pheasants too. Kill the nest predators + habitat & it’s pretty nuts to see what bird #’s can do.
 
I love seeing this. I think your approach is proving itself. I'm going to rid my farm of some nest predators and am working to provide nesting cover for turkeys. Love seeing pheasants/quail benefit from this too. Nice work Skip
 
HawkeyeStateHogs said:
This is great Skip! Roughly how many acres do you have in upland type habitat, NWSG, etc.?
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It’s about 35 acres in CRP. It’s where everyone dozes everything out. It was farm ground that didn’t yield a ton to begin with & probably more profitable in CRP. I struggled in years past to have enjoyable or even close to quality pheasant hunting. What has happened in a couple years is mind boggling. I almost feel like I can say I am seeing 10x the amount of birds?!?!! It might be more dramatic than that.
I’ll admit- I’m a conservation lunatic. I think about “givers & takers” when it comes to anything in life. Especially environmental & wildlife value…. I know my outlook doesn’t mesh with a lot of other farmers. But just having a little balance like this, I don’t see how ANYONE wouldn’t want that?!?! Even if the upland had no deer - because u hate deer…. Ok- who doesn’t like seeing birds of all types like this. Or improved soil & water. Or good income for junky tillable that - yes, every farm has SOME of. Even if it’s 1% of an operation- it’s hard for me to wrap my head around folks not doing a tiny fraction. It makes sense at all levels. The reality - I just hope “a few more” start doing this. Some will be dead set against it & farm right to the creek & push every last tree out- fine…. But I do hope more find a drop of balance!!! :) & yes, I do think more environmentally conscious folks are coming of age that make decisions. So that’s a gut feeling of encouragement.
 
Just goes to show the biggest issue with upland game birds is habitat.

You could have trapped your heart out back when there were a few dozen birds and not seen any improvement.

There's guys moving 7 coveys a day still in MO on farms managed for upland game bird habitat.
 
Sligh1 said:
It’s about 35 acres in CRP. It’s where everyone dozes everything out. It was farm ground that didn’t yield a ton to begin with & probably more profitable in CRP. I struggled in years past to have enjoyable or even close to quality pheasant hunting. What has happened in a couple years is mind boggling. I almost feel like I can say I am seeing 10x the amount of birds?!?!! It might be more dramatic than that.
I’ll admit- I’m a conservation lunatic. I think about “givers & takers” when it comes to anything in life. Especially environmental & wildlife value…. I know my outlook doesn’t mesh with a lot of other farmers. But just having a little balance like this, I don’t see how ANYONE wouldn’t want that?!?! Even if the upland had no deer - because u hate deer…. Ok- who doesn’t like seeing birds of all types like this. Or improved soil & water. Or good income for junky tillable that - yes, every farm has SOME of. Even if it’s 1% of an operation- it’s hard for me to wrap my head around folks not doing a tiny fraction. It makes sense at all levels. The reality - I just hope “a few more” start doing this. Some will be dead set against it & farm right to the creek & push every last tree out- fine…. But I do hope more find a drop of balance!!! :) & yes, I do think more environmentally conscious folks are coming of age that make decisions. So that’s a gut feeling of encouragement.
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Wow. That's incredible for 35 acres. I hunted a place similar about 20 years ago. Roughly 40 acres of NWSG with limited nest predators since it wasn't right next to a big timber. I think we jumped close to 100 birds (without a dog), best I've ever seen. Congrats on what you have there!
 
Sligh1 said:
Never seen anything like it. The natives filled in & like magic- the birds have filled in. Like, 5-10 years ago…. U might see a dozen birds in a few hours. Today…. Hundreds. 1 guy without a dog, limit in 15-20 mins. & usually I miss piles. So- thankful I can still hit things or have some good luck & makes it easier when millions of them. Better than anything I even saw in 90’s. So much fun.
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I filmed the birds flying around for 30 seconds. It was like this where ever u walked. I love seeing things thrive!!!!
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Grew up hunting pheasants every weekend with my dad and brother. I would also run off the school bus and get 30 minutes or so in of hunting the pheasants by myself for a few years. Pheasant hunting rivals bow hunting for me. I stopped for years because of the numbers but went 3 times this year. Hadn't went more than once the last several years. It's awesome seeing the increased numbers.

We recently sold our house on 30 acres. I lived there for 6 years and fed the pheasant through the winter because there was limited cover. I would have about 4 pheasant hit the corn the first week of winter. Every week the number would grow until January or so there would be 30-40 pheasant. I don't know how they spread the word but I am guessing those birds came from miles away. I never shot a single pheasant while living there but got a lot of joy watching them every day right out my porch window.
 
Expanding on that. My brother in law has 90 acres(He farms a lot more ground, but this post is regarding a specific 90 acre chunk). The 90 consists of 10 acres of timber and also one draw that held a few pheasant. The rest is organically farmed. He bulldozed the draw this year, and keeps talking about bulldozing the 10 acres of trees. Drives me crazy because he's always looking at renewable and natural types of fertilizers, and conservative farm practices. Does organic crops etc but doesn't see the issue of trying to bulldoze every bit of cover down while trying to practice a conservative responsible farming operation.
 
HWC said:
Expanding on that. My brother in law has 90 acres(He farms a lot more ground, but this post is regarding a specific 90 acre chunk). The 90 consists of 10 acres of timber and also one draw that held a few pheasant. The rest is organically farmed. He bulldozed the draw this year, and keeps talking about bulldozing the 10 acres of trees. Drives me crazy because he's always looking at renewable and natural types of fertilizers, and conservative farm practices. Does organic crops etc but doesn't see the issue of trying to bulldoze every bit of cover down while trying to practice a conservative responsible farming operation.
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Modern farming practices are the #1 factor attributed to the decline of small game and upland game species.

Brushy draws, fencerows gone.. No riparian barriers anymore, farming up to the treeline (no edge) all remove habitat that these species rely on.
 
I dont know how any pheasants are suppose to survive right now with these temps and so much snow. If they aren't living where there is a nice tall switchgrass stand it seems like there would be about no cover for them to take shelter in now.
 
sep0667 said:
I dont know how any pheasants are suppose to survive right now with these temps and so much snow. If they aren't living where there is a nice tall switchgrass stand it seems like there would be about no cover for them to take shelter in now.
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A big key to pheasants surviving is the length of the cold and snow. If it only last two weeks, they could make it .

In Minnesota we see pheasants die after long stretches of snow/cold .

Spring ice storms are the worst actually!
 
Hardwood11 said:
A big key to pheasants surviving is the length of the cold and snow. If it only last two weeks, they could make it .

In Minnesota we see pheasants die after long stretches of snow/cold .

Spring ice storms are the worst actually!
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Thats good, our forecast looks to turn around starting next sunday. Going to be like a heatwave.

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