JNRBRONC
Well-Known Member
Pheasants hard to find this year
Joe Wilkinson • Outdoors • August 7, 2008
The conditions were excellent. Heavy dew dripped off the roadside grasses and the corn and soybeans in the fields. Winds were calm, and the sun was just showing up over the fields. Conditions were perfect for a roadside pheasant survey Wednesday in Cedar County. Except someone forgot to invite the pheasants.
"Normally, what we see is around 10, 15 birds. This time around, we found zero birds," said Dennis Proctor, wildlife technician with the Department of Natural Resources.
I ride with him each August as he covers his 30-mile route, basically a square around Tipton. Across Iowa, wildlife workers and conservation officers do the same on more than 200 gravel road routes. Run just after dawn, they are the prime time to count pheasants, partridges, quail and rabbits that come out of the dew-soaked fields to dry their feathers -- or fur.
There really wasn't much of anything on our route this year. One lonely cottontail hopped onto the road at mile 18. We had a better count -- two -- earlier this week, when rain and wind sent us home after seven miles. Last year, 16 partridges added a little variety to the count in the last mile. This year, it was a fox.
"Must be a vegetarian," muttered Proctor, referring to the lack of potential meals we had seen by then.
The reason for the shutout is no surprise.
"We had a lot of ice, a lot of snow last winter," Proctor said. "Then we had the really wet spring with flooding around the peak of the hatch. That's not real conducive to good nesting habitat."
You can echo that outlook across much of southern, central and eastern Iowa as we head toward this fall's upland bird-hunting seasons.
Add to it the lack of critical nesting habitat, and the double whammy could mean far fewer pheasants as hunters step into the field in many places. On his route, Proctor has noticed less grass and more row crops for several years now. We did see three 20- to 40-acre hayfields in the last two or three miles. Other than that, it was corn, soybeans, an occasional grassy waterway and more corn. That doesn't leave many places for hen pheasants to nest or to teach newly hatched chicks how to forage for insects and, eventually, seeds.
Proctor's crew at Hawkeye Wildlife Area runs four routes each August. With one to be conducted yet, the pheasant totals from three of them is exactly ... one. Of course, that doesn't mean there are no pheasants in the area. A couple of miles away, with decent cover, we probably would have seen a few birds. And there should be decent hunting there. When all surveys are factored in, they provide a trend in wildlife numbers.
A couple hundred miles away, the news was more encouraging. DNR wildlife biologist Bryan Hellyer's staff covers northwest Iowa. Corn and soybeans dominate the landscape, to be sure. Hellyer notes, though, continuous Conservation Reserve Program acres -- grass waterways, filter strips and farm wetlands -- are evident. There is also a little more public grassland in his neck of the woods.
"Overall, this year should be about status quo," Hellyer said. "A couple routes were up. One was down slightly. One was down quite a bit."
While the roadside routes list roosters and hens, they pay special attention to young of the year pheasants.
"One route had 14 broods with 41 chicks. This year, it had 11 broods with 36 chicks; about the same," Hellyer said. "Another had five broods, 14 chicks. This year, it went to eight broods with 36 chicks."
While his region was spared the wildlife-killing floods seen across much of Iowa this year, it also boasts more suitable habitat.
"Even a little bit helps a lot. You put habitat here and wildlife does real well; probably better than if those same acres of grass were in southern Iowa," Hellyer said.
Joe Wilkinson, information specialist for the Department of Natural Resources, is the Press-Citizen's outdoors columnist. His column appears on Thursdays. For questions or comments, write to P.O. Box 2480, Iowa City, IA 52244.
Joe Wilkinson • Outdoors • August 7, 2008
The conditions were excellent. Heavy dew dripped off the roadside grasses and the corn and soybeans in the fields. Winds were calm, and the sun was just showing up over the fields. Conditions were perfect for a roadside pheasant survey Wednesday in Cedar County. Except someone forgot to invite the pheasants.
"Normally, what we see is around 10, 15 birds. This time around, we found zero birds," said Dennis Proctor, wildlife technician with the Department of Natural Resources.
I ride with him each August as he covers his 30-mile route, basically a square around Tipton. Across Iowa, wildlife workers and conservation officers do the same on more than 200 gravel road routes. Run just after dawn, they are the prime time to count pheasants, partridges, quail and rabbits that come out of the dew-soaked fields to dry their feathers -- or fur.
There really wasn't much of anything on our route this year. One lonely cottontail hopped onto the road at mile 18. We had a better count -- two -- earlier this week, when rain and wind sent us home after seven miles. Last year, 16 partridges added a little variety to the count in the last mile. This year, it was a fox.
"Must be a vegetarian," muttered Proctor, referring to the lack of potential meals we had seen by then.
The reason for the shutout is no surprise.
"We had a lot of ice, a lot of snow last winter," Proctor said. "Then we had the really wet spring with flooding around the peak of the hatch. That's not real conducive to good nesting habitat."
You can echo that outlook across much of southern, central and eastern Iowa as we head toward this fall's upland bird-hunting seasons.
Add to it the lack of critical nesting habitat, and the double whammy could mean far fewer pheasants as hunters step into the field in many places. On his route, Proctor has noticed less grass and more row crops for several years now. We did see three 20- to 40-acre hayfields in the last two or three miles. Other than that, it was corn, soybeans, an occasional grassy waterway and more corn. That doesn't leave many places for hen pheasants to nest or to teach newly hatched chicks how to forage for insects and, eventually, seeds.
Proctor's crew at Hawkeye Wildlife Area runs four routes each August. With one to be conducted yet, the pheasant totals from three of them is exactly ... one. Of course, that doesn't mean there are no pheasants in the area. A couple of miles away, with decent cover, we probably would have seen a few birds. And there should be decent hunting there. When all surveys are factored in, they provide a trend in wildlife numbers.
A couple hundred miles away, the news was more encouraging. DNR wildlife biologist Bryan Hellyer's staff covers northwest Iowa. Corn and soybeans dominate the landscape, to be sure. Hellyer notes, though, continuous Conservation Reserve Program acres -- grass waterways, filter strips and farm wetlands -- are evident. There is also a little more public grassland in his neck of the woods.
"Overall, this year should be about status quo," Hellyer said. "A couple routes were up. One was down slightly. One was down quite a bit."
While the roadside routes list roosters and hens, they pay special attention to young of the year pheasants.
"One route had 14 broods with 41 chicks. This year, it had 11 broods with 36 chicks; about the same," Hellyer said. "Another had five broods, 14 chicks. This year, it went to eight broods with 36 chicks."
While his region was spared the wildlife-killing floods seen across much of Iowa this year, it also boasts more suitable habitat.
"Even a little bit helps a lot. You put habitat here and wildlife does real well; probably better than if those same acres of grass were in southern Iowa," Hellyer said.
Joe Wilkinson, information specialist for the Department of Natural Resources, is the Press-Citizen's outdoors columnist. His column appears on Thursdays. For questions or comments, write to P.O. Box 2480, Iowa City, IA 52244.
