New Jersey's Wild Pheasant

FLDBRED

FLDBRED

Well-known member
Yes there are wild pheasant in New Jersey. From time to time I have made reference to wild pheasants in NJ on other threads, so I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread just for them.

Attempts to introduce the ringneck into New Jersey date back to 1790 when Richard Bache, a son-in-law of Benjamin Franklin, released some pheasants on his Burlington County estate near Beverly. Around 1800, another attempt was made by a landowner in Essex County. Both of these releases were unsuccessful. Finally in 1887, a population of ring-necked pheasants was established in Warren County on the Tranquility Game Preserve at Allamucy.

The New Jersey Board of Fish and Game Commissioners began stocking pheasants in 1897. During the first two years of stocking, there were no laws to protect the pheasant and they were legally hunted 12 months a year. In 1899 a law was passed which afforded the pheasant the protection of a closed season. This resulted in the stocked birds quickly becoming established in the better farmlands of the state.
Things are different now, yes there are still wild pheasant, but they inhabit different areas. I will give some locations and add pictures as I go along.
 
I look forward to your reports. In the past I have read about wild pheasants around the Meadowlands.
 
Yes there are wild pheasants around the Meadowlands and quite a few other areas as well. These areas are not the classic pheasant habitat as we know it.In fact the historic high density areas such as Hunterdon County no longer support many wild birds.Interestingly these areas are isolated pockets, with very little in the way of traditional nesting cover.
 
New Jersey's wild pheasants are actually a mixture of several subspecies of ringnecks that were introduced to the state at various times. For the most part they now resemble what we consider the classic ringneck.
There is at least one area however that has a population of birds that differ somewhat. I've talked about these birds in other threads so I won't repeat everything here. They are much smaller with no white ring around their neck, the hens are almost chocolate brown. I've been trying to get pictures of them, but these birds are EXTREMELY WARY!!

This morning I was able to get into the birds again. I not sure if the pictures came out, my camera has been on the blink. We managed to push the birds to a blocker, going through what only can be described as the seventh hell...real nasty stuff! Dugan, my Springer seemed to know exactly what I wanted him to do, and performed flawlessly. I'll keep trying to get the pictures to post!
 
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FLDBRED said:
I'll keep trying to get the pictures to post!
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Nice thread FLD. I was thinking about wild pheasants in NJ just the other day. Someone (it may have been you) mentioned some time ago that there's a wild population near a stadium:confused:. I search the web for info and photos but came up empty handed.

I look forward to any pictures you're able to get. Even if they aren't all too good, consider posting them anyway.;)

Do you know if those roosters still have red rumps too?

1pheas
 
1pheas4,

Still trying to get the photo's up from yesterday! These photo's were taken a few miles from the area I was in yesterday. These birds look more like the "traditional" ringneck.



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The birds in question are very dark with no white ring. I have never held one in my hand to examine it closely. I tried to set up a feeding station with corn so I could set up a trail camera, but the birds having never seen any grain crops completely ignored it.
 
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FLDBRED, interesting stuff, looking forward to more information, pics.
 
Thanks for the comments guys! Over the years I have gathered quite a bit of information on where wild pheasants still exist in NJ. I will reveal some areas so that visitors might have a chance to see some of these special birds. I will not reveal areas that are open to hunting or that might be negatively impacted by publicity.
 
bauerline said:
Are these birds wild too?

Thanks for the pictures.:thumbsup:
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YES they are indeed WILD! And although they are not the color phase of the birds previously mentioned they are every bit as special. Keep in mind, there are no and in many cases has never been any farm grain crops within miles.There is virtually none of the traditional nesting cover.These areas are loaded with every type of predator imaginable. Some of these areas are surrounded by urban sprawl and are not the continuous acreage that has been said to be vital for a population to exist.Their habitat has never been managed for them and there is no CRP or CPEP.,yet they exist and are doing well without anyone's help. So you can see why I think they are special!
 
FLD, I know of several populations of pheasants in North Central MT where there are no row crops or grain. No CRP and never has been.
These areas were stocked with pen raised birds in the early 80's for 3-4 years and no stocking since 1985. Some tough birds made it and a good healthy population of wild, hearty, predator resistant pheasants thrive.
Deep snow and long very cold Winters.
Anyway, sounds like sounds like some of the same strains of Pheasants as you may have?
 
FLD, great story. When True Pheasants subspecies cross the they inherit looks from each line. Along the predator infested Upper Rio Grande river in New Mexico there is a healthy wild population of pheasants that are made up of cross between the ringneck pheasant and the white winged pheasant (also called Bianchi pheasant) this group have been there for almost 50 years and doing fine with little grain.

Look at some of the photos below and see if they match some of your birds:
http://www.pbase.com/image/107000733
http://tonythomasphotography.com/ring-necked-pheasant-male-bosque-del-apache-march-2010http://tonythomasphotography.com/ri...tp://www.pbase.com/silverbowff/image/38925285
http://www.pbase.com/silverbowff/image/38925285To most people the first two photos look like regular ringneck pheasant but if you look carefully you can see the strong white winged line. The third rooster inherited the white wing look but after 50 years of crossing the other to roosters may be close kin. These bird are extremely wild wary of predators.

The rooster up front in your photos inherited the ringneck grey rump look but he can easily have other lines in his blood. The rooster in the back with no ring with red copper breast and flank staying in the brush has a strong sign of white winged line. But the Sichuan (Strauchi) pheasant also could be in his back ground. We would need to see a photo of his profile and rump to determine if he is of white winged or sichuan origin.

Photo of wild Sichuan (Strauchi) pheasant, note the grey rump:http://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=228616&=1258346624

It is always good to see wild pheasants making a living and surviving on their own.
 
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Ok....out of about 20 photo's these were the only ones that you can see the birds I've been talking about. Sorry for the quality, but these birds are extremely wary. They start running as soon as they hear a truck door. They don't wait to be flushed, the dog has to pick up scent from where they have been!



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whole lot of pheasants live in the Nebraska sandhills several miles from any row crop. They live in the wetter areas, cattails, eat weed seeds and grasshoppers year round, the hoppers get frozen, they eat them like that, I have seen a lot of frozen brown hoppers in the crop in Mid December, along with rosehips, and common sunflower seeds. As the weather snow and oppressive heat in the summer affect the numbers, but they are always there, sometimes a whole lot more! 2011 there were a lot, but ideal conditions, not a great 2012. I did a car tour in Detroit, a couple of years ago, there were quite of number of pheasants there too! Neither place has traditional pheasant cover, but they persist there, actually thrive!, As always, habitat is finite, in both places, so the abundance limited, and in the sandhills, a lot don't get hunted, and in Detroit, no hunting in the city.
 
1pheas4 said:
Have you ever bagged any of these birds FLD?
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I grew up hunting wild Ringnecks, Grouse, Quail, and Woodcock in NJ. At one point NJ used to harvest 250,000 pheasant a year, while stocking between 50-65 thousand a year. So it's easy to see that they had a healthy wild population. We rarely ever hunted the stocked WMA's, there was no need to. But for years now we have hunted mostly Pennsylvania and occasionally a stocked WMA in NJ to get some dog work in. Once in a while we will plan a hunt for these NJ wild birds, but honestly I like observing them almost as much.
 
Some great responses everyone and just what I was hoping for. I believe we have some very special birds that have developed in different areas around the country. These birds have adapted to their environment and need very little help from us.Some of these areas are very different from one another and so are the birds that inhabit them.
 
This is the habitat that the ringless pheasants call home. They are masters of navigating the islands and dikes, making spotting them and picture taking very difficult.

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