Everybody, rank in order first to last the issues which have contributed to decline of Missouri's Pheasant and quail hunting. This will include decline in bird numbers and issues affecting the loss of hunters as well. Feel free to ad other issues I may have missed. 1.) Rotten nesting season weather, too cold, too wet! 2.) Lack of Habitat, nesting cover. 3.) Lack of Habitat overwinter cover. 4.) Lack of habitat, brood cover. 5.) Lack of habitat, food and or water sources. 6.) lack of predator control. 7.) Lack of hunter access to areas which provide reasonable possibility of success. 8.) Farm practices emphasizing chemicals, pesticide and herbicide use. Too start the ball rolling, I rank the issues in this order 1.) rotten nesting weather, 2.) & 3.) tie Lack of undisturbed nesting cover which has adjacent brood cover . 4.) Hunter access. 5.) Predator control. I tend to discount farm practices, herbicide, pesticide, because our pratices are no different from our neighbors who have significantly better populations than we do. Opinions welcome.
Ranking the Issues of decline in Mo.
- Thread starter oldandnew
- Start date
missourihunter85
New member
1 - The more and more popular practice of "clean farming". There are no buffers between field and wood lines anymore. Farmers try to squeeze every last ear of corn they can into a field.
Not saying I blame the farmers by any means. That's how they make their living.
I think the conservation has hit a home-run with CP-33, hopefully more people will enroll their property in this program.
2 - The weather. I've never been to South Dakota so truthfully I have no idea about the weather there, but I would think that the ice storms that we have got in the last few years, and the extreme amount of rain in the spring can't help at all, and I would think something that bad would have a huge negitive effect.
Not saying I blame the farmers by any means. That's how they make their living.
I think the conservation has hit a home-run with CP-33, hopefully more people will enroll their property in this program.
2 - The weather. I've never been to South Dakota so truthfully I have no idea about the weather there, but I would think that the ice storms that we have got in the last few years, and the extreme amount of rain in the spring can't help at all, and I would think something that bad would have a huge negitive effect.
kansasbrittany
Banned
They should care about blue cat fishing as well if they wanna make $. You've got some whoppers in that state!
I would assume that the situation in MO is much like parts of E KS, where our quail and chicken populations have been declining for quite some time. More trees, cleaner farming, bigger fields.....can easily be summed up by saying not enough variety of quality habitat. The turkeys and deer flourish where there are large stands/expanses of trees, but upland birds need a variety of grasses and broadleaf plants.
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I think I can sum it up in one word and that word is habitat. You can have all the nasty weather you can get, within reason, and if you've got good habitat, the birds will weather the storm. If you dont, it doesn't take much of a bad weather event to really inflict some damage. Same with predators, if you've got good habitat and cover, the easier it is for the quail to escape the predation. It all points back to habitat. JMO.:thumbsup::cheers:
carptom1
Well-known member
i would agree it is habitat. People act like there has only been blizzards and ice storms the last couple of years. I can remember a lot of times hunting the Iowa/missouri border and having some of my best hunts. Sometimes in a blizzard. It is going to take a true commitment on behalf of the state to get that done. The weather is horrible in south dakota. But the difference is there is tons of great cover to winter the birds. We hunted there in mid december last year and saw several hundred birds in two days of hunting. I for one would pay an increased license fee to hunt closer to my house. But it has been going downhill for years. You have to give the farmers some incentive to "leave a little for the birds" or not farming ditch to ditch. What i really miss is the quail. As much as i love pheasant hunting, i would gladly go move 4-5 coveys of 15 or 20 birds. I have a great spot up north but i can walk around and not see anything out behind my house. I used to make the 1.5 hr drive northeast and never failed to shoot a limit of quail. Same with se ks/ sw mo
We can all agree that without habitat we will have no birds. What about the areas of Missouri, where we have habitat, yet we have very few birds? I hunt areas with super pheasant habitat, where virtually everybird is a 2nd or 3rd year bird, obvious to me we haven't had a good hatch in a while. Weather has been against us since 2007. Here we are again, winter and 7 inches of snow on the northwest third of the state. Will spring be early, warm and dry? not based on the last several years, leaving us with prospects for a poor hatch following another vicious winter, especially for quail.