Leavenworth county pheasant hotspot

carptom1

carptom1

Well-known member
So I was traveling up 5 hwy the back way into leavenworth today and about ran the truck off the road. Along the north side of 5 hwy I see two cocks standing next to some cut corn. They were good looking long tails. I stopped and tried to take a picture but they were having none of it. Over the years I have probably seen 7-8 birds. Saw a hen about 5 years ago right outside of basehor. I am assuming they are some escapees. The two today looked pretty good with some long tails.
 
Leavenworth county should have a good population of healthy wild pheasants. Leavenworth county is surrounded by counties with a few wild pheasants.

East of Leavenworth county across the Missouri River in Platte county Missouri, they have a healthy population of wild pheasants there. Those wild pheasants can easily fly over the Missouri River into Kansas. They also have a Pheasant Forever chapter in Platte county.
 
The closest I've killed wild pheasants to Kansas City was 5 miles south of Atchison. Pretty cool to kill birds that close to the big city!
 
carptom1 said:
So I was traveling up 5 hwy the back way into leavenworth today and about ran the truck off the road. Along the north side of 5 hwy I see two cocks standing next to some cut corn. They were good looking long tails. I stopped and tried to take a picture but they were having none of it. Over the years I have probably seen 7-8 birds. Saw a hen about 5 years ago right outside of basehor. I am assuming they are some escapees. The two today looked pretty good with some long tails.
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You have a cross street for us?
 
Sounds good to me.

Hey guys, I am looking for land up that way, so if you ever hear of some for sale that you aren't going to buy, let me know.
 
Your probably going to need someone to manage the game on it so that it doesn't get out of hand. I know it's a dirty job that nobody would want to tackle but I'd volunteer for it.

Land is high $$ up in that area. Wy, LV, DG, SN, JO, JA, AT and JF counties fetch a premium.

In a few years I'm going to hopefully be looking for a place near Russell KS with a nice chunk of land. I surely do love the Smokey Hills. Beautiful country out there. I just want to get away from the big city counties. I have a pretty nice place here but it's been closing in kind of tight for a few years now.
 
Why don't we have pheasants in the eastern half of the state? I have hunted pheasants in places with less cover and worse winters???

Rut
 
There are in the NE part of the state. Granted not all that many but I remember a time when it was just as common to encounter a rooster as it was a quail. Used to load with 7.5 shot just in case. Now the birds just aren't there. May have to do with human population increase, lack of good habitat on not just one farm but a bunch of farms. In order to have birds cover has to be good on adjacent farms as well. At least to support any numbers.

Troy would know better than any of us though.
 
The people of eastern Kansas that want to have a healthy wild reproducing population of wild pheasants will have to do what the citizen of the Texas panhandle did in the early 1960's, in order to get wild pheasants started.

They were told back than (1960) that wild pheasant would not survive south of the Canadian River and south of I-40 ( old Route 66). Look at article below it gives more of the story:

http://amarillo.com/stories/2001/12/02/whe_legionsofspo.shtml

Note from the article that they released thousands of wilder and more predator wary and alert strains of the "ringneck" pheasants, like the Manchurian pheasant the Sichuan also called Strauchi pheasant (the article called them Asian blackneck pheasant) and the Afghan Whitewing pheasant (also called the Bianchi pheasant). These wilder strains will not let a predator get anywhere near them. And they will not stand on the side of the road like a dodo bird to get picked off by road hunters.
The true pheasants strain are all subspecie of the same specie therefore hens of all of these pheasants are almost identical. After 50 years all of the pheasant will look like regular ringneck (full rings) pheasants but they wili inherit the wild wary/alert genes of the Afghan whitewing pheasant and others.

Fat tame pen raised pheasants will not work, they will just make the predators fat, fat predators have baby predators.
You need slim alert pen raised pheasant with the good sense to crouch at the first sign of danger, duck and hide quickly from predators.

A good friend of mine was involved in the panhandle release years ago and he told me that they released over 22,000 pheasants over a 10 year period, the best results were seen in spring releases.

Now wild pheasant are seen all around Lubbock. Look at the link below:

http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/...53/Went_to_Plainview_this_weekend#Post5464453

Missouri, also released wilded and more wary/alert F1 strains the Korean ringneck pheasants ( identical to the Chinese ringneck but more wary of predators). look at link below:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/3799981?sid=21105065961821&uid=2&uid=70&uid=2129&uid=4
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...ZYfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=U9QEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2121,4626279
 
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I shot many limits (4) of pheasants between Wathena and the intersection of 36 and 75 through the 1980's. I thought there were more birds there than in Jewell, Smith counties west. Always got into plenty of birds north and south, or right on "old" 36! Quail too! but not as many as Jewell and Smith, a day of 10 coveys of quail was an off day! A two man limit, 3 day limit, of 48 quail makes a great bird dog. It those days we thought we harvested a surplus of the population, now I am afraid it would be greedy, under the circumstances, or maybe my age!!! I would rather point them and go home thinking they out there, live, on the range!
 
Northeast kansas was as good as western kansas is now, probably better. It was not uncommon to shoot birds in the areas around Hiawatha and Atchison. We would quail hunt as a boy and often shoot pheasants as a bonus. I limited more than once in that area. I hardly think platte county mo has a healthy pheasant population, they are a rarity here. I have lived in leavenworth county for 25 years and I always travel back roads when i can. My kids have grown up looking for wildlife while we travel. We have seen a lot. I have seen 6 pheasants here in 25 years. I am assuming they are escapees from someones training or pens.
 
You've got to have the right conditions -- CRP/grasslands and crops together. A patch or two of CRP surrounded by miles of pasture won't get it. Multiple large patches of CRP interspersed with corn and/or wheat fields will bring them in and/or keep them.

In NE Kansas, near NE border a couple weeks ago I hunted a 240 acre plot of CRP that had corn stubble to the east and southeast, CRP to the north, and lots of corn stubble within a mile or so. Good setup, and there were birds.

Similar situation in NW MO early in the season, and saw lots of birds. About 80 acres split about 50/50 of CRP and corn that was still standing. CRP to the north, more crops nearby. I think this has been in CRP for 15+years, maybe more.
 
I grew up hunting the deserts of Utah and shot birds out of a single ditch winding through miles and miles of sagebrush. When my family comes to visit me in eastern KS they cannot believe that there are no pheasants here. People would line up a day before the hunt to try and get access to some of the areas out here that for some reason have zero birds. The place I am from in Utah had an occasional field here or there, usually a hay field and we would walk the ditches around it, I drive by 10X the amount of food and cover every day and have never once seen a pheasant. I understand that released birds have a very low survival rate, but with all the pheasants Kansas (used to have) has out west, why didn't they migrate this way?

Rut
 
carptom1 said:
Northeast kansas was as good as western kansas is now, probably better. It was not uncommon to shoot birds in the areas around Hiawatha and Atchison. We would quail hunt as a boy and often shoot pheasants as a bonus. I limited more than once in that area. I hardly think platte county mo has a healthy pheasant population, they are a rarity here. I have lived in leavenworth county for 25 years and I always travel back roads when i can. My kids have grown up looking for wildlife while we travel. We have seen a lot. I have seen 6 pheasants here in 25 years. I am assuming they are escapees from someones training or pens.
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I used to ride the railroads in a railroad car, ( my uncle was the chief engineer), hunt along the tracks when there weren't trains coming! Many times down the rails in Platte county, always saw pheasants! originally it surprised me, in the 80's and 90's it had a stable population, big corn fields, cattail swamps, and a lot of cover along the rail road right of way. Now because of the patriot act it's illegal hunt there. The weather, fall tilling, spraying, has had an impact. Did you know that that the Army, which owns a vast acreage on the Missouri side east of Leavenworth leased the crop ground, a lot to Leavenworth guards, ( maintenance supervisors), who in their lease had to raise and stock pheasants! I had a farmer who showed me the lease. I don't know if they still do. Officers would go there for a hunt and relax on I believe a 3000@ preserve. On course private, the armed guard outriders patrolled, and it had a boundary that said, "U.S. government facility", no trespass! Still and was an open county for pheasants. Also it shocked me to find reports on the upland game summary reports pheasants in Cass county, Mo. not many, but in my life, I can't believe there there!
 
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Eastern Kansas Pheasants

I cant tell you how many times I filled a limit on pheasants east of Holton Kansas on family ground. Add excellent quail shooting and it was a true mecca for bird hunting. that was in the '80's and 90's. There were lots of birds on adjoining properties as well.
Killed a few roosters at Valley Falls while quail hunting. I think Valley Falls could be productive again if Kansas Fish and Game weren't so enamored with deer and turkeys. They just don't manage for quail anymore.
 
Perry needs some help for sure. It could be good again with minimal work. Was there a couple weeks ago after a fresh snow and only saw a handful of pheasant tracks and no quail tracks. Plenty of deer tracks though. I think part of the problem is it has become so overgrown with brush and trees.

Perry has turned into the Dead Sea even for waterfowl. Use to be pretty good for ducks but lack of water, lots of pressure from Topeka and KC have done it in.
 
Maybe the quail turned into dreaded 'woods quail" only come out at daybreak retreat to inner forest, flying out and in for 200 yards. I am just sort of kidding!
 
OandN there is truth to that. I have found that on public areas the quail will be a bit deeper into the "edge" the later the season gets. I've found them in the timber on more than one occasion. Don't think this is really preferred habitat as much as being forced into it.
 
Somewhere since the 80's a combination of weather events, advancing plant succession, and changing land uses (cropping patterns, waste ground, etc) has led to a decrease in our early successional stage wildlife species. I'm sure you can probably add in the quail eye worm to the mix, but overall it is largely habitat. CRP came in in 1985 and the resulting habitat was great for 3-7 years. Once it aged past a certain point, it became less productive. Add to that the fact that woodlands in eastern Kansas have expanded near 30% since the time period we're talking about and it's easy to see that quail and pheasants are taking a back seat in available habitat to the deer and turkey. Without some serious plant community change, this trend will continue. I am giving a talk the 28th to all our managers in the state on prescribed burning topics. Two of the pictures in the power point are of my headquarters in 1936 and 2013. In 77 years the change is remarkable. Scary to think what the next 77 years will hold! In managing native warm-season grass, time since fire is critical in maintaining that habitat in a prairie format. The longer it has been since fire, the less likely it will remain prairie. Go back to some of your childhood haunts and see what has happened to the habitat. That grass/shrub drainage you hunted quail and pheasants in is probably now a mix of mature elms and cool-season grass. We brought it to this point and we're the only ones that can turn back the clock!!!
 
Someone mentioned in a post about SE KS a while back saying that the habitat hadn't changed much and why the decrease in quail. I've looked at arial views of places we used to hunt in the 70s and 80s and from above I can see a substantial difference in the amount of timber and brush that has over grown.

I sure hope the manager for the perry wildlife area will be in attendance at your talk Troy. On the other hand I think that one person managing a large wildlife area is nearly impossible. Coordinating everyone on short notice to assist in burning would be hard to do. Taking into consideration wind speeds, wind direction etc and the fact that not always are weather forecasts accurate for the day.
 
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