Flushing Survey

bauerline

bauerline

Well-known member
2014 Wild Pheasant Flushing Surveys

Hegins-Gratz Valley & the Central Susquehanna Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas

Annual Flushing Surveys gather data on wild pheasants released in Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas. This is the 3rd year for flushing surveys in the Hegins-Gratz WPRA in Schuylkill and Dauphin counties and the 7th year for the Central Susquehanna WPRA. We appreciate all your help and support!



PLEASE NOTE: We changed 2 dates to SATURDAYS at the request of those who cannot make it on Sundays! Note that this changed one of our meeting places too.

We will also be conducting flushing surveys on TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS in February to reach some of the smaller sites. We will take 1 small group each day and travel to multiple sites. See how to sign up below.



Volunteers & Bird Dogs Needed!

Come prepared for ?not-always-easy? walking through tall grass fields and brush and spending time outdoors. Good bird dogs are welcome and essential. Volunteers without dogs are also needed to be ?spotters? along the edges of fields. Spotters are very important!



Registration Required

Please pre-register. We must organize groups ahead of time & be able to contact you in case of a weather cancellation.
Feel free to check in with us if the weather forecast looks bad.

To register, Please email or call: Colleen DeLong cdelong@pa.gov 570-380-0833

Please provide the following information:

1. Name:

2. Email:

3. Phone #:

4. Number of people in your group:

5. Number of dogs:

6. Type of dogs - flushers or pointers:

7. Weekend Dates you want to attend in order of preference. Because of the great interest and fewer farms available, you may NOT get all the dates you want. If so, we?ll contact you ahead of time.

8. Tuesday and Thursday - Do you want to be contacted about Tuesday and Thursday small-group flushing surveys in Hegins-Gratz Valley or Central Susquehanna WPRA?



As a courtesy to the landowners who allow us to meet on their land, please don?t bring your dogs out of vehicles at the meeting places.



SURVEY DATES AND TIMES:

(Rain / Snow dates will be announced as needed. In case of bad weather, Check your email or call.)

Date & Time
Locations being Surveyed
Registration Deadline
Meeting Place*

SUNDAY,
Jan 26, 2014

1:00 - 4:00 PM


Hegins & Gratz Valley, Schuylkill and Dauphin counties
Monday, Jan 20, 2014
Wenger Feeds Inc.

8959 Rte 25

Spring Glen, PA 17978

SATURDAY,
Feb 8, 2014

1:00 - 4:00 PM
Greenwood Valley, Columbia county
Saturday, Feb 1, 2014
Deihl Vault & Precast Co.

1786 State Rt 254 Orangeville, PA 17859

SUNDAY,
Feb 16, 2014

1:00 - 4:00 PM


Turbotville area, Northumberland & Montour counties
Saturday, Feb 1, 2014
Turbotville National Bank Parking Lot

4710 State Rt. 54 Turbotville, PA 17772

SATURDAY,
Feb 22, 2014

1:00 - 4:00 PM


Turbotville area, Northumberland & Montour counties
Saturday, Feb 1, 2014
*PPL Montour Preserve Environmental Center

700 Preserve Road

Danville, PA 17821

Lat 41.099017

Long -76.663563


*NEW MEETING PLACE. This address does not always take you there if you use a GPS unit.

Lat/Long Coordinates are also included to help you get there.



Thank You for your support of Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas!
 
Man...where did the time go! Always look forward to this.
 
If you are interested in the Wild Pheasant Program in Pa., this is a great event to attend.There are always a great group of sportsmen with there dogs.The Wildlife Biologists on hand are always willing to answer all your questions. Plus you'll get the chance to run your dog on some born in Pa. WILD pheasants.
 
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Is it too early on for the Franklin WPRA to do a flushing survey? I am not certain of the timeline for it but think it is behind the others?

Thanks
 
Matt,

You are correct, the Franklin WPRA is behind the others. It didn't receive the wild birds from the Mid- West due to bad weather and availabilty of birds.
 
I don't know if the Franklin area will ever get birds. They lost a lot of CREP land and things may be up in the air. I think the Hegins area only got one round of birds so far and that was two or three years ago.

I can only make one date this year and plan to go up on Jan. 26th.
 
bauerline said:
I don't know if the Franklin area will ever get birds. They lost a lot of CREP land and things may be up in the air
Click to expand...

Interesting you say that. I have been out in Franklin county 5 out of the last 7 weeks and while I have not had a chance to do much looking around I have yet to see much of anything that looked birdy at all. I was wondering if I was just in an area that wasn't very good. When I found out I was going to be out there I thought it would be neat to see first hand what you guys were doing out there. Guess not in Franklin county.
 
Drake and I are signed up for the 16th and 22nd only 15min. away for me :thumbsup: would like to have gone to Greenwood Valley also but looks like were running in a BDC event that weekend.
 
I helped out with the flushing survey today. Our group put of a total of 31 birds on the farm we worked on. There were 13 hens, 10 roosters and 8 unknown. The birds were running and I didn't see all of them. The one area we worked I saw one bird flush and when we got to the end of the field the blocker and the end said he saw 11 birds flush.

I'm not sure if Blitz pointed this bird or not before it flushed. I was walking in the switchgrass when the rooster flushed from a food plot Blitz was in.
IMG_3936_zps12bc927a.jpg


This rooster flushed without a point:
IMG_3944_zps99a07772.jpg


But the dogs did point where it came from:
IMG_3945_zpsa55a043e.jpg


We did see a few deer when we were out as well.

I don't know how the other groups did but if I hear anything I will post it. This was the only survey I can make this year.
 
Brian,

I've been waiting for the reports all day. How large was the farm you worked? Did most of the birds flush from switch grass or other?

For those of you who may not know, these are WILD PA. RINGNECKS!

Thanks for the pictures.:thumbsup:
 
Pretty much all the birds came from the grass but they were running. We walked one field without flushing a bird but the blocker saw five run out. I'm not sure how big the area was. 100 acres all together maybe but it was not all in cover. Some of the area was being farmed, too. It was spread out pretty good. I'll try to get some other pictures up later.

I heard another group put up 25 birds.
 
That's a good number of birds already, and a very good sex ratio in a non hunting situation.

It's amazing what a difference the release of wild birds make compared to pen raised.

Brian, was the farm you surveyed one of the original release sites?
 
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The other thing to remember about this WPRA is that it only got one round of birds released and that was in 2011. It still needs to have round 2 and 3 with 300 birds each.
 
bauerline said:
The other thing to remember about this WPRA is that it only got one round of birds released and that was in 2011. It still needs to have round 2 and 3 with 300 birds each.
Click to expand...

You're right, and the birds are spreading to farms where they weren't released, pretty awesome. Given the life expectancy of the ringneck, these birds are born in Pa.! All from ONE 300 bird release!
 
We were at one of the original release sites but the area did have a decrease in some CREP land. Here are a few pictures of the area:

IMG_3942_zps5fed9b57.jpg


IMG_3947_zps83fdf93b.jpg


IMG_3955_zps6a8af1bd.jpg


IMG_3951_zpsf8378d04.jpg
 
Looks like some more good news is on the horizon, it seems that another source for wild birds has been found for trapping this winter. Just what the Program needed to keep moving forward.
 
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