How are things shaping up for the hatch?

Pheasant numbers have skyrocketed in southeast Kansas....sister just texted me a picture of a rooster walking between her bedroom window and the cornfield 30 yards away in southern Wilson county. 1 bird from a historic number of 0 can hardly be quantified...... :)

Who knows where it came from. No pay as you go preserves anywhere remotely close.
 
cheesy said:
Pheasant numbers have skyrocketed in southeast Kansas....sister just texted me a picture of a rooster walking between her bedroom window and the cornfield 30 yards away in southern Wilson county. 1 bird from a historic number of 0 can hardly be quantified...... :)

Who knows where it came from. No pay as you go preserves anywhere remotely close.
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Once in a very blue moon, I’ll see one in Chautauqua county.
 
Emergency Grazing of Crp in most of the state due to drought conditions alot of Crp WIHA was being grazed off in most od western kansas. My two best Mule deer spots are almost bare with 400-500 cattle. With Covid packing plants are backed up thus ranchers having to keep cattle longer and nothing but CRP for them to eat.
 
That's bad news. I wonder if Kansas upland hunting will continue its nosedive this year and Iowa will slide back into the #2/#3 spot for pheasant harvest.
 
cheesy said:
Pheasant numbers have skyrocketed in southeast Kansas....sister just texted me a picture of a rooster walking between her bedroom window and the cornfield 30 yards away in southern Wilson county. 1 bird from a historic number of 0 can hardly be quantified...... :)

Who knows where it came from. No pay as you go preserves anywhere remotely close.
Click to expand...
Shot one south of Fredonia 20 years ago. It had a hole in its beak, so a released bird. Flintoak is a long ways away...but you never know.
 
Mill Creek said:
Shot one south of Fredonia 20 years ago. It had a hole in its beak, so a released bird. Flintoak is a long ways away...but you never know.
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I have never shot any released birds, so hopefully not a stupid question.

Why is there a hole in the beak of the released birds?
 
My anecdote for the "bird count" this year.

I was driving back from my farm (Kingman County) on Saturday. I moved way to the right on a narrow 2-lane blacktop for a farmer going the other way with a wide load. A large covey of quail exploded out of the short cover right at the edge of the highway.

They did oil that blacktop a few weeks ago and then covered it with sand. (Just like the scene from Cool Hand Luke - minus the convicts.) Do the quail come for sand for their crops just like the doves do?
 
Fishin'Rod said:
I have never shot any released birds, so hopefully not a stupid question.

Why is there a hole in the beak of the released birds?
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They put blinders on pen-raised birds. They attached the blinders through the hole in beak.
The blinders keep the birds from pecking each other.
 
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These "blinkers" or "blinders" are used by pheasant "ranchers" to prevent pheasants from pecking at their fellow inmates when they're packed densely in pens. It prevents them from seeing straight ahead. Don't know if it prevents them from realizing how densely they are packed in or whether they just can't properly see a potential pecking target. Regardless, they are removed before the pheasants are released. Often they result in some deformation of the beak around the nasal opening.
 
Thanks for the info guys!

Conversation at local tavern:

Man 1: What did you do today?
Man 2: They set 8 pairs of steel I-beams on our bridge project. I got 'em all welded up to specs in one day. What did you do?
Man 1: I put blinders on 400 cocks. <Stammers> ... I mean pheasants!
 
Thanks for the crop info AKP. I really think the quail I saw were getting sand. I am just so accustomed to observing the doves doing it.

Last fall (before the season) there were so many doves in the middle of the county gravel roads that I had to slow down or my windshield would have "limited out"!

Just thinking out loud for people with no sand on their hunting ground. Has anyone tried dumping a trailer load of sand at the end of their favorite hedge row? If the quail and pheasants "need" it, and none of your neighbors have it, then it could keep more birds on your ground.
 
Great pics, PheasantNut.

I especially like how you got the two doves to pose for their picture!

At the rate you are going, by December you will probably have bucks posting their own pics using selfie sticks.

P.S. I like you feeder stand. 1.) Does it keep the coons out of your spinner? 2.) DIY or store bought?

Thanks, Fishin' Rod
 
Fishin'Rod said:
My anecdote for the "bird count" this year.

I was driving back from my farm (Kingman County) on Saturday. I moved way to the right on a narrow 2-lane blacktop for a farmer going the other way with a wide load. A large covey of quail exploded out of the short cover right at the edge of the highway.

They did oil that blacktop a few weeks ago and then covered it with sand. (Just like the scene from Cool Hand Luke - minus the convicts.) Do the quail come for sand for their crops just like the doves do?
Click to expand...
 
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