In many, many cases, if pheasants are roosting on publicly accessible land, they might only spend an hour on that land during the day. Say 20 minutes in the morning as they walk off it to go eat breakfast at sunrise, & 40 minutes in the evening before sunset. Otherwise, if weather's not horrible enough to really make them want to stay put, they're milling around in trees, lighter cattails, grass, thickets, any place they can be safe, comfortable, & doesn't take them too awful far from their mid/late afternoon feeding spot. But they can easily spend most of their day 1/2 mile from their roosting spot. My point is, they move, almost continually, during the day, even as they feed. But if they're not feeding, they're invisible, moving (within cover) from 1 prime hangout spot to the next. So look for spots where the public cattails, big thicket, thick draw, etc. bleeds across the fence onto private land. Lots of times, most of the birds may be clear across the fence, out of reach, but sometimes you'll catch a few close to the fence. Particularly, look for these spots in the far reaches of the area, away from roads & parking areas. Almost always, being near easy food ups the odds.
And try to minimize your discouragement if you find a piece of cover with tons of fresh tracks, but no pheasants. You just missed them, that's all. Could've been by 5 minutes; could've been by several hours. But the next little spot just like it could have 50 birds in it. They're around. It's just a simple matter of finding them & trying to pin them down. Simple.
