Habitat Habitat Habitat

[bellahunts]

Just got home from 4 day hunting trip to NW Iowa. First day spent hunting public sites with limited success. Then got permission to hunt about 250 acres of picked corn with wide strips of thick high grass along a creek and small river. What a difference that combination of habitat makes. We spent 2 days chasing at least 100 birds (probably more) around those fields with multiple flushes of a dozen or more. This area was outside the DNRs map showing the best hunting and also within the heavy snowfall area. Goes to show what heavy cover, food, and water does for pheasants even in hard winters. We saw more pheasants in those fields than I have anywhere in the last 15 years.
Attached pic is result of a 3 hour walk Sunday morning. View attachment 9506

 

[KSBrittman]

Thanks for sharing the pics and Story , dang that’s a good 3 hour hunt !!!!

 

[Open Ranger]

Very nice job guys! I was in North Central Iowa on opening weekend and we did see some birds but not like what we have seen in the past. We also hunted the public land without much success. On Sunday morning we hunted private land near crop fields that had been picked. The normal CRP land was very poor but once we pushed deeper into the field and followed the banks of the creek we started getting into birds. 100 acres of CRP land only produces 3 maybe 4 flushes however on the creek side we end up with 8 roosters. We did have three pointing dogs in the field at that time which helped us with the success we had.