Bird sightings

[AtTheMurph]

View attachment 9503
A little tribute to my dad.

Saw 37 pheasants in field across the road from that sign along with 10 deer.

Hunted Sunday and ran birds out ahead of me all day. Just me and dog and one "blocker" who mostly sits in the truck watching, which is fine.

Had several points on hens and only one cock gave me an opportunity, but a very long shot. it was the last place i would hunt for the year so i gave it a go and luckily dropped him into a bean field. Looked deader than a doornail, tail and one wing flopping in the air and head down on the ground.

15 seconds later it hopped up like nothing had happened and high tailed it to the next ditch about 150 yards away. My dog had never seen it and was busy working several hens. we drove over and I put him out and he pinned that bird down right away and i put it in the bag. final bird of the year.

 

[ehudgens]

Good way to wrap it up!

 

[Gettin Birdy]

Good to see you guys up North still have some good pheasants. We had good quail numbers in Lawrence County this year. We hunted one day and put up about 100 quail in 6 coveys. Where there is good cover there are birds. Winter wasn't too bad on them so should be off to good start for this year.

 

[Gettin Birdy]

Should be good year for birds. Timely rain and cover looks great where it exists. Have seen a few coveys of young quail this summer.

 

[Goosemaster]

Anybody seeing many quail or pheasants?

I drove through Illinois recently, and did not see any pheasants.

 

[AtTheMurph]

I drove through Illinois recently, and did not see any pheasants.

Plenty in IL but you need to know where to look and when.

 

[Makintrax73]

I drove through Illinois recently, and did not see any pheasants.

I've gotten permission to hunt some private CRP in IL a few times that I've seen incredible numbers. I think we stopped counting at 80 birds flushed from a quarter section in the best year I've seen there. The problem is those areas are pretty limited in scope, and good luck getting permission unless you have connections. The public land that's any good requires winning a lottery. Just driving around the state in general I almost never see one and I put a LOT of miles on my truck. Road to road farming, clean roadsides, roundup, and neonics have destroyed it here. The harvest is down 90% in the last 30 years for pheasant and quail.