Well the pheasant season ended yesterday here in Illinois (except for the southern part of the state). It was the best season I have had but I am also pretty young(21). There was 53 birds shot over my English Pointer Wrigley in his 2nd full year of hunting. And also saw my first covey of quail I have every seen, which I got 3 birds out of. The birds in my area were not too hard to find as we only got skunked last weekend and that was after a huge snow and we just did not want to walk anymore. I only missed one saturday of hunting and that was due to losing the transmitter for my ecollar and awaiting the shipment of a new one. The recent heavy snow and the present floods are a big concern on the population in my area as most of the cover was under water and I just hope it doesn't hurt the population. I can only pray for a great spring to get the new birds hatched.

Well how was everyone elses season?

I don't know what I like best from this post. The fact you're hunting an E.P., his name is Wrigley (go cubs) or the fact you've got lots of birds.

It's been pretty tough in central Indiana. We don't have pheasant, and the quail population has been way down the last 4-5 years. It's to the point if you find a covey you hate to shoot more than a couple out of it.
it's all about habbitat.

hey where you hunting at in illinois... i also had a good year here in illinois upland hunting near lincoln. didn't get to go out as much as i wanted, but ended up seeing a ton of quail and quite a few pheasant as well. i hear yah with the precipitation on the ground; i guess all we can hope for is a nice and mild winter/ spring to get the youngings started off right. i had opportunities to tag out on pheasants multiple days as well as quail, but due to poor shooting i failed.

I am 30 miles straight north of Champaign. When I say straight I mean it Prospect Ave is basically my road. I have never even seen a covey until this year. Man it was awesome though I wish we coudl establish a population. In my area we have a lot of CRP. And the farther north you go from my house the more there is. Livingston county prolly has the most CRP in any county I have seen. But cover don't really matter when there is a flood.

Lots of quail in southeast Illinois. I jumped several coveys just while out running traps. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone with a bird dog that wanted to go.

yea, i've jumped just about every quail and pheasant i've seen from CRP fields... that's the type of cover that gets em away from predators and through the tough winters.