Pheasants in your area

I posted this on Iowa Trapper Talk and now here. What are your thoughts.

In NW Iowa we had good nesting weather last spring and we saw good numbers of pheasant brood. Then when hunting season got here I rarely saw a rooster or hen. My friend talked with a Conservation officer that confirmed what I just said. He could only say he did not know where the birds had gone.

I can only speculate but could all the aphid spraying that farmers do in the corn and bean fields have anything to do with this. I also do not see the number of small birds at my bird feeders that I used to see.

I had a friend of my sons say to me how all the spraying the farmers are doing has cut down on the number of mosquitoes we have. He worked for a farm chemical company.

I do know that the chemical companies suggest that no one enter theses sprayed fields for a week after spraying. My acreage had aphid spray drift onto it from a field sprayed a couple of years ago. I was told to not eat any of my garden produce by both chemical company and state investigator.

I understand that aphids hurt the yields of beans and corn but these chemicals also kill crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies, and other foods of birds.

We need to have someone such as ISU investigate to see what these chemicals are doing to the birds and people of our state.

Anybody else notice the same as I have?

The pheasants here in Northern Utah started declining in the early to mid '70's foxes started showing up and they stopped raising sugar beets up here. When raccoons made there way here, there was a significant dip in pheasant numbers. Then with habitat disappearing and all the predators combined, skunks, coons, fox, hawks, coyotes feral cats, our pheasants are nearly gone. To have any kind of a wild pheasant shoot around here you've got to be real lucky or know someone with a good stretch of river bottom. You can also go to a preserve, but who wants to do that? As far as where they go if you're seeing good numbers of broods in the spring, I don't know. I haven't seen more than a brood or two a year since 1990. I sure hope you guys figure it out. There's nothing like hunting wild roosters in the fall.

When I started hunting in the 70's the central valley of California was a pheasant paradise. Not like Kansas, Nebraska or the Dakotas, but it was very good with a 4 bird limit and plenty of roosters for somebody who knew how to hunt. Mostly rice but lots of sugar beets and a fair bit of corn and set aside ground. Ever since it has gone downhill.

I have a good friend who has farmed 1300 acres of ground for 50 years, (rice and walnuts), who is an avid pheasant hunter and even with 200 acres of refuge ground manicured to raise pheasants he can't improve the numbers on his place. He's lucky to kill 4 birds a season, and back in the day they'd kill 20-30 birds a weekend with friends all season long.

Pesticides, West Nile, too many raptors, etc. Not a good trend.

Pete

I'm seeing more rooster around here, I only have 23 acres but have left a lot of edges left alone around our fields and two swamp areas. Leaving these locations seems to really make a difference over a few years. We have coons, skunks and feral Cats, but no Spraying that I know of.

I saw more pheasants this year than I have in many many years here, granted even in a down year I walk up pheasants on public grounds without a dog, this year I was flushing pairs and triples and even had a dozen go up one time while walking to my canine sets. I could have limited almost every time if I was carrying a shotgun.

Pheasants eat insects and weed sprouts kinda like chickens do; so, get rid of the weeds by spray and get rid of insects by spray (or really by any means) and there won't be food. No food means fewer birds mature and fewer birds are in good shape for winter carry over.
Not surprising that you see a connection.
When it's all said and done they are still an invasive species.

Just about any pheasant you see around here are released birds. Our quail disappeared in the 70's & never have recovered. Wild pheasants were hit almost as bad. I have a couple of friends who buy a few every year, pheasants mostly, to release on their farms.
A lot of our problem is there are no fencerows or small woodlots left for them to nest in. The coyote & coon numbers have been high, so nesting hens are hit hard. Throw that in with chisel plowing as soon as the crop is out & Lord knows what damage spraying might be causing, as nobody cultivates crops anymore.

around here they r on up swing I believe, but predator on down swing [the air born ]ones really mad differents also coon fox skunk's

I see down years then years where the numbers are up. I don't know if spraying is killing them or not. I would say in my area more are taken from their natural prey. Eagles and hawks are all over they get a lot of them.

Today I sent the day at the ranch and I would guess I seen 60 to 80 roosters and not many hens. It isn't unusual to see a few hundred when drive in and taking a walk. There is a lot of birds around this winter. I have been getting some grain and spread a few bags on a ridge and they have been enjoying the little extra help this winter.

Absolutely more birds in the grasslands where there is no farming pesticides.

We use to hunt Colorado and Kansas boarder years ago and it was crazy good hunting as soon as the spraying started and weeds were gone so were the birds. Seeing the same thing in Wy and Mt. now when you don't have good habitat and you start spraying its not good.

I’m a pheasant hunter, pheasant guide, and farmer. I love bird hunting as much as I love trapping. I spray about 25,000 acres per year, and have great pheasant numbers. I also take great pride in how I spray. Most insecticides that are sprayed are done late in the growing season after the chicks are 1/3 grown or bigger, and have more food sources. Insect numbers usually don’t meet spraying thresholds until crops are in the later stages. Insects are very important when the chicks are small. It’s my opinion that it has more to do with cover. Cover is the most important part of raising birds. That’s one reason why South Dakota has so may birds, lots of cattails. Farming fence row to fence row and spraying in between will limit the amount of cover, thus reducing bird numbers. In my opinion spraying gets a bad wrap. No-till farmers and minimum till farmers are trying to conserve soil moisture, limit soil erosion, and limit nitrogen runoff into streams, in the public’s eyes they are darned if they do, darned if they don’t.

One more comment. GMO’s also get a bad wrap. When I came back to the farm after college in 1998 we used thousands of pounds of insecticides in April while planting corn, and then thousands of pounds of insecticides for corn bore and root worm in June and July. Very bad stuff!!! One teaspoon could kill 10 head of 1000lbs cattle. I got sick many times handling it, and my dog almost died by just getting it on his paws. Since BT and rootworm GMO corn hit the market I haven’t touched the stuff and glad for it. Billions of pounds less insecticides being used because of GMO corn.

I love to pheasant hunt and I have thought about this for the last 10 years. Here in NW MO it has been a steady decline in pheasant numbers. The last 3 years they have been about non-existent in the places I hunt. This is several farms and a variety of habitat(strictly row crop, 40-200 acre native grass, mixed). Something is going on as it is the same with turkeys. We used to be loaded with turkeys and the last 5 years it has gone downhill fast. The MDC is currently trying to figure out the turkey situation in NW MO but is keeping it low key. The farms I hunt have not changed one bit. Some will say "Oh you just don't notice the change." Oh I am correct. One farmer pushed in every fence, ditch, drained everything. I mean every ounce of land was farmed but for years we would still find good numbers of birds in the remaining habitat. This is a few thousand acres like this. This year nothing. Another farm is 200 acres of native grass. The same stand and acreage for 25 years. Fact is something is going on and I don't know what it is. I have thought several times if it is found out it maybe major news. I have a farm, several family members have farms but these chemical and seed companies would sell their souls to the devil. Massive amounts of chemical that are in our drinking water. Seed coatings. Genetic modification. Something is not right.

Yeah the Pheasant and Turkey here in North Mo. Have been on a steady decline. They keep selling those turkey tags though...
They said bird disease and Bad hatches years ago..
I think the chemicals are effecting thier eggs.
15 Years ago I lived in the Best Turkey hunting country in the World with Hundreds of birds, Today not so much, but they are still here. Same with Pheasants.

Between our families land and our neighbors land located in southeast iowa we have very good pheasant habitat because we are in crp program and we have a lot of birds because of it, id say between us and the neighbors we have atleast 500 acres of crp and in southeast iowa crp in large quabtities doesnt seem that common which is why there are hardly any birds in general, but where the good cover is there are lots of birds, i dont think spraying affects them unless the birds are living in the fields because lack of cover. One thing i think greatly helps the population that we do is plant a few acres by our crp in corn/beans or milo as a foodplot, i think since we started this like 4 years ago it has increased winter survival leading to a greater population, sometimes ill jump 30 out of one of our little plots and we harvested roughly 25 roosters last season but theres plenty more around, these plots probably arent very effective if u have rediculous deer population as they will wipe it out and ruin it but our deer population gets put in check so our plots last all winter for the pheasants and other critters. Plus i trap the predators hard around are crp which also influences survival heavily i believe

I hear you NMOcats. 10 plus years ago the turkey hunting was unbelievable. I mean unbelievable. I am glad I got to hunt it. Sad for the younger folks it is gone(hopefully just for now). I was able to learn a ton by having so many birds.

My dad said the numbers hed see in fields was huge years ago. Now he says he hardly sees any compared to what they used to be. Our theory is the recent spike in bobcat population is taking a toll on the turkey, some might say habitat loss but some of these areas he talks about that used to be great havent suffered from habitat loss

Here in Eastern Washington we had exceptional pheasant hunting in the 60s, 70s, and the 80s. When they quit farming sugar beets and increased the alfalfa farming, our bird hunting collapsed. My brothee raises about 5,000 acres of hay and he says there are many many nests get swathed when the chicks are small.

I’m in NW Iowa too.

Sac/Ida County area. Pheasants are plentiful. Have been since summer, and late summer, and I saw dozens every day when we were harvesting corn and beans. Saw pheasants all throughout November when I was running traps. Have seen hundreds grouped up all winter near big cover like usual.

They have been spraying aphids for a long, long time.

Another bad conspiracy theory against the farmer harming wildlife with no real facts to back it up.

3 months of zero dew here then hail that wiped out the crops, corn beans all over the ground where I trap and no birds to eat the bounty.

Southeast Iowa here. Almost none here.I have only seen 1 since last summer.

I am always interested to hear about what others are experiencing in terms of game bird populations. My farm is in SE Iowa, Davis County, and when I first bought it about 17 years ago there were so many turkeys there it was borderline against the law. Nowadays...it is probably about 20% of what it used to be AND that is after things have gotten a little better over the past couple of years. It is true that we had 4 out of 5 very wet springs/early summers going back about 7 years ago now and that clearly had to hurt bird populations...BUT...the dramatic decline in particularly turkey populations correlates almost perfectly with when we started seeing, and getting pictures of, bobcats more and more.

It is my opinion that bobcats are a pretty key part of the decline. I have had conversations with multiple DNR agents and they politely suggest that I don't know what I am talking about. But we have found many adult turkey carcasses in the last 5-6 years. Either they are dying from a disease and then getting eaten OR they are getting caught and eaten by something...and I think that something is probably bobcats.

Same here, there are up and down years no matter what goes on with the pheasant. Everyone in the world was trying to figure out why the quail declined over the last 30 years in Oklahoma, everything under the sun was blamed. Two years ago, we had a quail crop like no other, out of blue, in places there hadn't been quail in forever. So much for the theories lol. This year was down again, but still birds around.

I live in south dakota but am from nw iowa (buena vista/ clay co). I dont pheasant hunt in south dakota—- its terrible. Either public or get the cash out. I saw plenty of birds in iowa last couple years- all private land. Everyone i work with drives 2-3 hours to hunt at lodges their buddies own or on one piece of family farm and make fun of me for goin back to iowa. I am toying with moving back to iowa so i can actually have some birds near me.

I live in NW Missouri. I think there are several issues to the Pheasant and Turkey decline. First off fescue grass and Gamebirds don't mix. Chicks cant get through it. A lot of Cattle and row crop farmers are plowing fence line to fence line. They need WSG to survive. Predators are at crazy levels. Coyotes, Raccoons, opossum. I trap all I can but I have a small place. I think a bigger problem is the Raptors. We have lots of big Hawks and Owls. You don't have to go very far to see them on the telephone poles. Their always in trees above my fields. There numbers are really up. The chicks of all game birds have a very low chance of surviving. MDC is only concerned about selling tags. I would end the fall hen season or at least cut it to one bird. Just like our deer population. It is going down but they keep hammering the Does. I hardly ever spray, planted WSG but if everyone around you doesn't its hard to build up the population. Thanks for getting me spun up Beeman:)

I have not seen one pheasant in over 20 years in my area.

Since the bird population has declined here and the lack of income from paid hunters drops slash and burn abounds and if you look at the wheat fields they go fence to fence now with little grasslands left for the birds.

If your not releasing birds you can't run hunts in many places today.

Ohio here, we have pockets of birds in cover. Cover is what is missing here. Overgrown farmlots, fence rows and CRP are rare as hens teeth. Trees and brush seem to be public enemy #1 with farmers. And I am one, but don't subscribe to that mindset.

I haven't seen a pheasant in years.......but plenty of turkeys