1-13-13 flushing survey

bauerline

bauerline

Well-known member
I met up with a another member of our PF chapter and we made the drive to help out with the flushing survey in the Hegins-Gratz WPRA. The group I was in went to a farm that did not get any pheasants when birds were released 2 years ago. We managed to push out 2 deer, about 4 or 4 rabbits, 2 hen and 2 rooster pheasants. The farm beside the fields we were working still had corn up (a lot) so there is a good chance there are more birds in the area. Nittany and Blitz did get a chance to work some wild birds without leaving the state and I got a picture of this point:

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I plan to help out with some future surveys next month.
 
I'm not sure how the other groups did. If I get any info I will share it with you. It was nice to get the dogs on some wild PA pheasants:cheers:
 
I wrenched my back pretty good at work last week, so I had to miss it. We really look forward to this event every year. So like it or not you're our link! LOL. Was it a good turn out? How was the cover on the farm you worked and surrounding farms? Did your dogs "pin" them wild birds?
 
Those V's are perfectly colors so that you CAN'T SEE THEM in the grass.
My hunting partner has some good V's, if you could ever actually see them :D
 
Sorry to hear about the back problems. I hope things get better for you.

The cover on the farm is good with a good bit of warm season grass. I think the number of deer and rabbits we found is a good sign. I would bet there were more birds in the uncut corn fields. It would be interesting to see what happens when the corn is cut. Most of the surrounding area was made up of cut fields of row crops or the uncut corn. The farm was the best area of habitat in the area.

I saw the first rooster fly into a field we were walking. The dogs picked up the scent but it flushed without a point. I'm not sure if one of the other dogs had a point on it or not. It was at this time the second rooster flushed wild. After this we worked a different area and a hen flushed. I could not see if the dogs were on point or not but they and another dog were close. The dogs did get a solid point that I took a picture of. They ended up tracking a running bird about 100 yards before it flushed well ahead of the dogs. They gave the dogs good work and I was happy to see it.
 
The dogs are hard to see at times and that's why I put the colars on them. My phone doesn't take the best pictures either.

I wish I could run them out west sometime. I would like to make a trip to KS but that will have to wait.
 
bauerline said:
The dogs are hard to see at times and that's why I put the colars on them. My phone doesn't take the best pictures either.

I wish I could run them out west sometime. I would like to make a trip to KS but that will have to wait.
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Think you would enjoy running them out here. Just pick a decent year, this was not the year to make the long drive on.
 
Also heard another group flushed 12 hens and 12 roosters. Things sound good and there has only been one release of birds and that was two years ago. It may get even better after another release or two.
 
It would be easy money to bet on there being birds in the standing corn, they were in there. I hope others realize the significance of the birds being in areas where they were not released, that's why I asked about the surrounding farms.That's really the key to the success of the program. Never the less, some real encouraging reports.
 
While its nice and also necessary to have large managed switch grass fields as your "core" area for the pheasant recovery, it's all the farms of different sizes enrolled in C.R.E.P. that I think will determine the success of this plan. These type of farms are what most closely resemble the landscape of the 60's- 70's, when they were enrolled in the Soil Bank Program.
With any luck, this area should receive some more WILD birds from out West this year. Sure sounds pretty good!
 
Here are the numbers from the flushing survey:

Group 1: 2 M 2 F
Group 2: 13 M 10 F
Group 3: 15 M 30 F
Group 4: 14 M 29 F
Group 5: 2 M 8 F
Group 6: 5 M 0 F

Some groups flushed more than one area.

Total 52 M 79 F

I think more site will be flushed over the next two weeks. I'm not sure how the numbers compared to last year but I though people would like to see this info.
 
HollowWatcher said:
Those are some good numbers! I bet those people in group 3 were very happy!
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Wish I could tell you. I was in group 1 with 4 birds:(

In all seriousness, I think it was good to find those 4 birds. It was the first time birds were found on the farm during the flushing survey which means they are spreading. I think with a good spring the numbers will get better.
 
Absolutely... finding those 4 birds in an area that was not part of the original release area is great. Remember, these are now pheasants that were born in Pa. and have spread. Just like a hunting situation, you didn't find all the birds, and I'm sure birds have spread to areas that are not surveyed. That was the result of just ONE release! This is really good stuff!
 
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