ORIGINAL: bluebird2
The statewide pheasant season just ended last Saturday but I have been seeing dozens of pheasants right here in Elk County, (yes we have some great pheasant hunting in this area with plenty of birds left after the stocking ends) as they came into residential bird feeders to find food during these periods of deep snow. Some of those birds survive to reproduce every year. But, they wouldn’t if those people shot them when they came in to eat at the bird feeders during the winter periods when they are still in season.
Can you explain why the stocked pheasants survive the severe winters in Elk and reproduce in the spring when the stocked pheasants in 5 C with mild winters and prime farmland and pheasant habitat fail to survive and produce broods?
Pheasants survive much worse winters in South Dakota.
It seem that perhaps the winters don’t limit pheasant reproduction as much as today’s farming methods and hay mowing schedules do. Up here we don’t have much hay mowing so the brooding hens aren’t getting their heads chopped off with a hay mower in early June like they do in most farming areas. Our pheasants spend their springs and summers on reclaimed strip jobs where there not only is no hay mowing but an abundance of grassy cover with plenty of insects.
The local Pheasants Forever Chapter is also one of the leading in the nation in money spent on both winter and summer habitat development. In fact I just got back from one of their meetings where they were planning winter work projects for the pubic to get involved in habitat work on both the game lands and private lands in the primary pheasant habitat areas.
Having people and groups working together with the Game Commission for the benefits of wildlife, instead of just complaining and undermining, tend to make a pretty positive difference, I guess.
R.S. Bodenhorn