A pheasant reward?

landman

landman

New member
I attended a seminar at Pheasant Fest where the speaker said that pheasants usually move only about 1.5 miles for winter cover but in extreme cases, such as this year, they may move 3 or more miles to find suitable winter cover.

Given that theory, it is possible that landowners who have worked hard at improving habitat on their own land, like Uguide and Benelli Banger, may draw pheasants from longer distances causing higher than normal concentrations on their land during the winter. It is likely then that those same pheasants may stay put and not move back to their summer home after the winter is over? Afterall it is a better home and its a long way back. The result then is that those areas with the best cover will have more nesting hens in the spring and those areas lacking good habitat will be left with far less.

Something to chew on and for some, a reason to celebrate.
 
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benelli-banger said:
huh...interesting! Hope so....:eek:
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Well, let's say you were a young pheasant and you were hatched on some land that did not offer very much in the way of habitat, especially winter habitat. It's your first winter and it is a bad one, so bad that you leave your comfort zone in search for something better. You go further and further, with only hope that something better is over the next hill and then - there it is - the garden of eden. A place with big tall bluestem, switchgrass, Indiangrass, forbs, shrubs, cattails, medium size trees and foodplots. It's heaven on earth and suddenly the winter doesn't seem nearly so bad.

Now its spring - do you go back from wince you came? I don't think so.
 
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I think the roosters will move out since they are territorial. This year all the birds are in my nieghbors shelterbelt and you never find a one there during normal weather.

Birds are yarding up like deer this year and in that case I think they will move back whre they find good spring habitat.

This winter has been a real habitat buster.

It would be possible and wise for a person to design all aspects of pheasant habitat to sustain significant bird numbers on there property all year long through all weather extremes.
 
@landman - :thumbsup: Sure makes me wish I had the time or money for another piece of land!

I can tell you it mostly definitely works exactly as you say. I did it small-time on a mere 40 acres for almost 10 yrs in PA for deer & turkeys with PHENOMENAL success!!! Most prolific whitetail & gobbler producing little back-40 honey-hole I have ever hunted on before or since, drawing game off all my surrounding neighbors much larger parcels of land like an irresistable magnet!

I have always wanted ever since to try the same thing with developing, planting, & flooding a main-flyway positioned piece of land of my own specifically as a mecca for waterfowl...Now that I finally live within driving distance of rooster country, oh how I would dearly love to set-up my own nearby food-plot-&-heavy-cover laden pheasant honey-hole right smack dab in the middle of several of the largest surrounding/neighboring farm operations I could find! :D

But alas, I simply don't have the time required for such an intensive labor-of-love at this particular juncture of my life, much less the money - guess I'll just have to leave all the real fun to some of you lucky dogs who are in a better position to do so! :cheers:
 
@landman--"If you build it, they will come"...especially if there is enough mix/variety of food & cover that is different from what the typical surrounding corn/wheat farmer has to offer :thumbsup:

@uguide--you are far more experienced when it comes specifically to pheasants than me, and they may well come & go on such a place as landman describes according to season & circumstance...but I would be willing to bet that in the right carefully chosen/positioned place with the right kind of food & cover (such as a mosaic/mix of standing milo, cattails, tree-laden shelterbelts & tall grass) - way more than one "connection point" between hunter & rising/falling longtail would take place over the course of the season, especially whenever weather or hunting pressure sends the birds packing for the nearest gnarly stuff & with easy-eats contained therein! :D
 
hen said:
...but I would be willing to bet that in the right carefully chosen/positioned place with the right kind of food & cover (such as a mosaic/mix of standing milo, cattails, tree-laden shelterbelts & tall grass) - way more than one "connection point" between hunter & rising/falling longtail would take place over the course of the season, especially whenever weather or hunting pressure sends the birds packing for the nearest gnarly stuff & with easy-eats contained therein! :D
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In those words, found above, lie the undisputable secret of life, the pathway to milk and honey, and the source of lasting happiness and contentment for hunter, pheasant and dog.
 
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Yup, simple shelter/safety and food. Pheasants will move on or perish. This Winter as the grasslands snowed in the surviving birds moved into the best shelter available. Those that could not get to food/shelter within say 4-5 miles probably didn't make it. I think there are some big concentrations of Pheasants here and there. And I also think hens will disperse back to existing grasslands to nest within 4-5 miles. Maybe more when finding food isn't a problem.
 
Dispersal is the key way upland game birds populate all suitable habitat. As soon as winter breaks the birds will disperse. Of course if the nesting habitat is excellent, some may stay.

Way back when - people released pheasants in a handful of places in SD -- sooner than later most of the East River side of the state was covered in them.

Late March and April snowstorms can be exceptionally dangerous to the birds this year if the birds are already dispersed. The reserves these pheasants have cannot be high.
 
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