Pheasant population decline theory

West nile

PF president said SOUTH DAKOTA was dealing with 8 to 10 pct decline in pheasants from west nile .Also QF member in are group swears he seen a turkey eat quail eggs .
 
turkey stuff

BIRDDOG KING said:
PF president said SOUTH DAKOTA was dealing with 8 to 10 pct decline in pheasants from west nile .Also QF member in are group swears he seen a turkey eat quail eggs .
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a number of months ago we had some post on turkey eating eggs. they seemed to be all over the map. in my mind there is no doubt that it happens and possibly for a couple of reasons, first, like chickens, they will eat anything so why not eggs. two, they may do it in part cause they are hungry and also because of a competition factor, like maybe to near where they are setting up house keeping. also don't believe that the effect on pheasants and quail are anything but minimal and they are not a very big reason we are not seeing more pheasants and quail.. haven't heard of the west nile problem but suspect that it is always present to some degree.

cheers
 
mustistuff said:
a number of months ago we had some post on turkey eating eggs. they seemed to be all over the map. in my mind there is no doubt that it happens and possibly for a couple of reasons, first, like chickens, they will eat anything so why not eggs. two, they may do it in part cause they are hungry and also because of a competition factor, like maybe to near where they are setting up house keeping. also don't believe that the effect on pheasants and quail are anything but minimal and they are not a very big reason we are not seeing more pheasants and quail.. haven't heard of the west nile problem but suspect that it is always present to some degree.

cheers
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If you take the time and read the telemetry studies, there are few if any documented occurances of turkey depredating quail chicks. I believe a few instances of egg eating have occured, however, that still leaves the hen the opportunity to renest. If you look at the habitat changes since the 60's in Kansas, you can see the impact of habitat changes on production. Most of the western 2/3 of Kansas was in a wheat/fallow rotation back then, leaving half of the wheat ground in weedy stubble most of the year. That was habitat with huge diversity and a height of 4-6 feet. Compare that to the tilled of sprayed stubble with a height of 4-10 inches and the difference is gigantic! That is just 1 element. Add in the loss of "waste" ground, shelter belts, field size, crop diversity, etc and here we are! There is a villan in this scenaria and we're it, not turkeys, raptors, furbearers, or mosquitos.
 
Pesticides. Take note of all of the ground dwelling creature including our birds. I worked 20 years for a major seed producer. Pesticides have done more in my opinion than any other element to eliminate our birds.

What will happen to change this--nothing in my opinion. Too much money and businesses involved here to make the needed change. Think about what these pesticides do to us as well?
 
No doubt that pesticides play a role somewhere. However, I've been through Iowa and the landscape of row crop field after row crop field leave little "habitat" for birds to be created in. They have to BE before they are susceptible to those pesticides. Most of the pesticides are applied to ground that isn't always widely used by birds in the stage the crop is being sprayed in. Yes, residual poisoning can occur. However, in other parts of the country there is a significant amount of perennial cover that isn't being sprayed and frequently it is preferred habitat or maybe even the only habitat for much of the year.
 
There is a villain in this scenario, and we're it, not turkeys, raptors, fur-bearers . . .
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Wisdom.

Pheasants naturally know how to deal with hawks?make more babies?but not the artificial, overwhelming threats of poisoned land and devastated habitat.

"Cheap" corporate food has costs; fewer pheasants from the scorched-earth industrial agriculture seems to be just one of them.

The ray of hope is that since humans are bringing the problem, we also have the potential to fix it. Food dollars are votes; vote well farmers' markets, food co-ops, and the grocery stores.
 
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