Keep in mind the best habitat for pheasants and quail

O

oldandnew

Active member
I am working on habitat now, we seem to get bogged down in habitat with food plots, I have this conversation with a club I belong to. One thing that is critical habitat, is what we have little of, nesting and brood cover. If you quiz biologists I am sure you will find that it's the lack of secure nesting cover, and brood rearing areas are the bigger solution, to resolve dwindling populations. That's why we see pollinator CRP initiatives, forb and legumes being managed, disking, burning , and CRP midrange management. I am sure there is satisfaction to rousting a rooster, or a covey of quail from a food plot you orchestrated. But we need birds to inhabit it! Without nesting cover and brooding cover, we accomplish nothing. Food plots are focusing on hunter driven values....it's where we harvest birds in the fall of the year. But we have to get them there first. As an aside 40 years ago, a guy who was an upland biologist, told me, that food plots are usually a waste of time, as is using feeders for quail and deer, as he said, and I quote, " I have managed these birds for 50 years, and I have never seen one die of hunger!" On the other hand, stress from severe weather, will depress the population, freezing to death, predator loss, lack of hard cover. If they have nesting and brooding cover, the respond with hyper-reproductive cycle which mitigates the dip in the population. We have bad populations now because we do not allow the birds enough brooding and nesting cover. I am investing in warm season grass, legumes, wild flowers, disked around the edges, burn a third every year. Looks pretty, my wife and daughters like the butterflies, dragonflies, goldfinches, meadowlarks, wild flowers, abloom, quail singing all spring. Beats heck out of row of milo! Food plots make shooting them easier, by making them available in a specific place, so you can shoot what's "out there", but do increase the population by much, and concentrate it so we harvest a greater percentage of what's left.
 
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Oldandnew, I agree with most of what you say. The CRP midrange management is what many do not do and the cover grows too old and unproductive. I do feel however that food plots close to cover is beneficial to the birds. It will lesson the stress on the hens if they can get food easily in bad weather years and allow them to lay larger clutches of eggs and have the strength to hatch and raise the young. Also a bird may not starve to death but is at greater risk if they have to travel a long way for food and forage out in the open for long time to fill there crop. I also find milo heads to be pretty and they come in many colors, reds, whites, blacks, and browns, and a variety of heights.
 
My place needs grass that is not so sense at ground level. Brood cover for quail is in short supply there.
Burning and pollinator plots is what I am going after this year. And tree removal.
 
Nice post Oldandnew.;)

Most of the habitat we have left for pheasants is low, wet, not farmable land. It serves a purpose in dryer years, fall, and winter, but as far as nesting cover goes, those flooding spring rains (especially since 2006) make conditions too wet for successful nesting. Not just for pheasants but many ground nesting song birds, rabbits, and other game birds too.

Looking for dryer ground, a nesting pheasant hen will settle for a smaller "slice" of habitat. The consequences is a higher chance of predation on her and her nest.

WE NEED NESTING AND BROOD REARING COVER:)
 
O & N, yer singing my song (and quite well I might add)! Glad you came out and made the thread. I've touched on it frequently before in several threads. If you don't make them in the spring and summer, the fall food plot won't make any difference ever. Better to worry about the first half of the year first and then provide some cover for the winter. If you do the brood-rearing cover right, then the food plot may already be provided. Too few folks understand succession and work to keep it at the level needed by the target species. Succession misunderstandings is the root of the "turkey are eating the quail" MYTH. They may have replaced the quail in a habitat that has moved beyond the quail's successional adaptive niche, but the quail didn't go through the turkey. Similarly, we die to have good CRP, but it alone doesn't provide sufficient brood-rearing habitat. The reason we like it is because in the winter it is often the only perennial cover available and that's where we find them during hunting season just like food plots.
 
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Win97 said:
Oldandnew, I agree with most of what you say. The CRP midrange management is what many do not do and the cover grows too old and unproductive. I do feel however that food plots close to cover is beneficial to the birds. It will lesson the stress on the hens if they can get food easily in bad weather years and allow them to lay larger clutches of eggs and have the strength to hatch and raise the young. Also a bird may not starve to death but is at greater risk if they have to travel a long way for food and forage out in the open for long time to fill there crop. I also find milo heads to be pretty and they come in many colors, reds, whites, blacks, and browns, and a variety of heights.
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That is but a subset of "food plots" and IMO is better said as "a good food source near secure winter cover". Done right, a food plot can serve as the cover as well depending on the climate. But as O&N suggests, food plots placed just anywhere aren't necessarily the best use of the acreage.

I agree with PD's words, but for those without sufficient acreage for habitat used in all seasons aren't as inclined to put in large enough portions of nesting and brooding cover, rather than cover in which they may see birds during hunting seasons after the growing season has stopped and snow/wind pounds down those habitat types.
 
Nice thread. In my opinion it is about diversity, edges, tall cover, not so tall cover, food which takes many forms from seeds to young grasshoppers. Give them variety and let them decide which to use. Which is my philosophy for all species of wildlife. Question for the guys that are talking about burning. What is it that your are trying to accomplish when you do that? Is it invasive species? I try to get all the carbon that I can into the soil to feed the soil biology rather than into the air. But things may be different than here.
 
Haymaker, NWSG species evolved under the influences of fire and grazing. You cannot maintain a NWSG prairie in the absence of fire. Both impacts are crucial for the health of the prairie. Further, from the grazing and wildlife productions perspective, maximum productivity is the result of harvesting maximum solar energy. When much of the sun's energy is intercepted by dead material, it cannot be turned into plant material which is then turned into insect and later upland bird material. Fire inhibits invasive species, reduces rodents, recycles nutrients that in many areas would otherwise be trapped above ground for years. Grazing creates the firm seedbed needed by NWSG seeds. It recycles nutrients and the hoof action also breaks up soil caps caused by rainfall. The mosiac pattern of grazing provides travel lanes for young gamebirds and provides micro-edge within the cover type. Many of the forbs add diversity not only in plant type, but also in root type. The tap-rooted forbs reach beyond where some grasses can reach to bring back up nutrients that may have otherwise been lost to the grass community. It's a cycle of rest and use. The goal depends upon where your grass stand is at the time. It depends upon how long it has been since fire, how it was grazed recently, and what pressures you plan to put on it this year and in the future. Timing can somewhat influence the plant dominance for the coming growth season. It can even make plants that would otherwise be inedible, edible.
 
Prairie Drifter said:
Haymaker, NWSG species evolved under the influences of fire and grazing. You cannot maintain a NWSG prairie in the absence of fire. Both impacts are crucial for the health of the prairie. Further, from the grazing and wildlife productions perspective, maximum productivity is the result of harvesting maximum solar energy. When much of the sun's energy is intercepted by dead material, it cannot be turned into plant material which is then turned into insect and later upland bird material. Fire inhibits invasive species, reduces rodents, recycles nutrients that in many areas would otherwise be trapped above ground for years. Grazing creates the firm seedbed needed by NWSG seeds. It recycles nutrients and the hoof action also breaks up soil caps caused by rainfall. The mosiac pattern of grazing provides travel lanes for young gamebirds and provides micro-edge within the cover type. Many of the forbs add diversity not only in plant type, but also in root type. The tap-rooted forbs reach beyond where some grasses can reach to bring back up nutrients that may have otherwise been lost to the grass community. It's a cycle of rest and use. The goal depends upon where your grass stand is at the time. It depends upon how long it has been since fire, how it was grazed recently, and what pressures you plan to put on it this year and in the future. Timing can somewhat influence the plant dominance for the coming growth season. It can even make plants that would otherwise be inedible, edible.
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Thanks for the reply. I try to take care of the build up with high density stocking or mob grazing. It works well where I can use it. However I have an ongoing battle with smoth brome grass in my native pastures, which I am losing. Do you think burning would help that?
 
Prairie Drifter said:
O & N, yer singing my song (and quite well I might add)! Glad you came out and made the thread. I've touched on it frequently before in several threads. If you don't make them in the spring and summer, the fall food plot won't make any difference ever. Better to worry about the first half of the year first and then provide some cover for the winter. If you do the brood-rearing cover right, then the food plot may already be provided. Too few folks understand succession and work to keep it at the level needed by the target species. Succession misunderstandings is the root of the "turkey are eating the quail" MYTH. They may have replaced the quail in a habitat that has moved beyond the quail's successional adaptive niche, but the quail didn't go through the turkey. Similarly, we die to have good CRP, but it alone doesn't provide sufficient brood-rearing habitat. The reason we like it is because in the winter it is often the only perennial cover available and that's where we find them during hunting season just like food plots.
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Good post Prairie Drifter. I guess I may a little greedy and want it all:) The whole pie not just part of it. I was thinking if I was doing habitat work on one or two hundred acres I would have room for a food plot too. All things need food to survive that is big reason why many birds and animals migrate. Just trying to do what I think is best for what I am trying to accomplish. Food plots can take many forms such as soil disturbance to produce ragweed to feed the quail and song birds. A corn and milo food plot can give you many pounds of food in a fairly small area compared to some things. This can feed many birds if the deer don't get it all first. :(
 
Haymaker, it's hard to knock down smooth brome with fire. It's just too agressive. I had some luck with grazing it down. I stocked a cow/calf pair per acre and 3/4 from April 1 to June 15 in NW Kansas. The cattle concentrated on the brome and never switched to the native component. After 3 years of this rotation, I had moved from a cover where you could count every meadowlark for 1/2 mile from the road to cover I was getting pointed roosters in. However, the brome was just supressed. To get rid of it you need to spray roundup either after the first killing frost when the native goes dormant and while the brome is still growing or in the spring before the native breaks dormancy when the brome is growing. I believe fall is more effective as all the brome is up and out of dormancy with plenty of leaf area to accept the chemical. You might want to remove cattle early enough to make sure those conditions are in effect.
 
I can tell Ya'll for sure. The best and most consistent wild pheasant producing areas in North America are 1st, UNDESTURBED grasslands. With coulees and areas of woody cover. Woody cover within a grassland is escentual.
You do have to have all the pieces in place.
All you guys need to do is check out areas in US, Dakotas, MT where truly wild pheasants are thriving.
Really, :eek: Gazing, burning, spraying, digging out wood cover.

Good luck with that. :cheers:

Glad this is not going on in pheasant country. :eek:
 
My area is not Pheasant country, we have a few but most are to the west of here. But Quail is the deal here. You have to burn the grass here or it will soon be of much less benefit to all the wildlife, or cattle for that matter.
 
I totally understand your desire to improve the quail habitat.
Wishing for you to have multiple broods this season, lots of points. :thumbsup:
 
There is a wide variety of habitats that pheasants can thrive in, everything from highly tilled farm ground where pheasants hang on too, to vast prairie with a little bit of woody cover and scrounge a wide area for food, even in Detroit, in a wasteland to pheasant recovery, and even highly populated New Jersey. Quail have a different set of perimeters, but we do have the luxury of an area where we can manage for quail and have decent pheasants too. Possibly a serendipity of both habitats, in the same area! Now we struggle to achieve the same. most of my pheasant hunting is a happenstance off looking for quail, with an occasional rooster pointed here and there. Sometimes a limit, some times none. But a heck of a bonus! In Montana, I shot a few roosters, sandwiched around a sharptails, a few sage grouse, concentrating on Huns. I admit, pheasant country there is a lot different than Iowa farm ground, NW Missouri WRP's. It the west hard cover is the premium component, back here with a predominant imported cool season grass, we have to reclaim the habitat all the time or the damn fescue, and brome will overcome us! Out west it's a little dry, and the cool season grasses don't have an edge, here, you can kill it, on your own property, but unless you can control the township, it will windblown in, or spread from the neighbors, or germinate from old seed, or old rootstock. Have had fescue burnt to hell, with great prairie grass stand, without sufficient maintenance, became the most glorious fescue in 3-4 years, the minimal bluestem looked like it was the invader in it's own habitat!
 
The cold, hard basics:

If the overwhelming landscape theme is the following:

Knee high to waist high healthy grass:

< 5% - not nearly enough, no excitement here

5 - 10% - marginally adequate, but huntable

10 - 15% - very adequate, should produce and maintain good bird numbers

15 - 20% - soil bank days, limits would need to increase(that's a good thing)

20 - 25% - may need assistance from the military to keep #'s in check.

25 - 50% - little, if any, further gain in numbers

50 - 100% - gradual decline in numbers

Well managed wheat and grazing land can be a partial substitute to tall grass and can be debated as to its degree of effectiveness.

I was just through NW Missouri and western Iowa. I would guess that less than 1% of that area is now grass. Pheasants? Almost extinct in those areas. And the trend towards less and less grass and MORE intensive farming will continue to erode our "island of pheasant habitat". CRP helped the "core" areas of pheasantland but the fringes kept on receding even during the past 25years or so of CRP. Some minor exceptions but overall a decline.

Private landowners can't, and should not be expected, to fight this fight. In aggregate, there is little, if any, incentive so I don't blame them. Except for a very few diehards, it won't happen on a large enough scale. Been there, tried that.

A NATIONAL GRASSLAND PROGRAM would solve it once and for all.

Haymaker, I understand and respect your position on this. I am, however, interested in your incites as to how to solve the problem as a whole, not just your land.
 
I also want to agree that a fair amount of bush/tree shelter belts, cattails, thickets, etc, etc. is a big added "octane booster". Food plots are just fun areas to hunt in the fall - plant them if you like to concentrate birds in the fall. Waste grain should provide all a pheasant normally needs.
 
A pheasant biologist once said at a seminar that the "theoretical" optimum mix would be a checkerboard of 25% grass and 75% crops. If SD had this mix, roadside counts might consistently exceed 20 million birds+.
 
Some of the misunderstanding in this thread is a matter of successional speed. When you are comparing 15 inch rainfall areas with 45 inch rainfall areas, the level of management is different. One might need a burn rotation to maintain grasslands of every 8-12 years or more while the other may need it every other year.

I know in the quail management realm, the plantations in Georgia and Florida often have the same soil as I have here, but they burn 75-95% of their plantation annually where I have a 4 year rotation. They have a 90 inch annual rainfall average to my 28.

Back to pheasants, the same philosophy is applicable to woody components, food, and winter cover. The panhandle of Texas has pheasants and rarely is a blizzard involved in limiting the population. Their need for dense woody cover and significant food plots to ensure survival is absent. Switch to North Dakota where the snow load may be in the 4-7 foot or more range each year and all of the sudden you're needing rooster igloos that will withstand both the frozen precipitation and the wind it comes in on. However, to develop any mosiac of habitat types in any of those areas and walk away with the idea that it will never change or need management is just wrong. If that was the case, we would still be dodging dino's and sabre toothed tigers. The only standard is that change is going on at all times, some places like a rabbit, some places like a glacier.
 
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I agree about nesting and brood rearing cover being the most important factor. If you were managing an area for pheasants and weren't going to use food plots, what would you plant to insure there was some food available during the winter and early spring months?
 
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