Unexpected Pheasant

B

bpope

Member
I live in SW MO. About 30 miles south of Springfield. Buddy brushhogging on my land sent me this today. Kind of odd I thought, as I don't know of any preserves that are relatively close to my place. I walked out to look at this one and couldn't get a good look as it was pretty skittish and fast.
He did tell me he saw a rooster while mowing someone else's place not too far from mine, but who knows.
We did leave some cover for this lady to hide in, but with coyotoes around here, I don't imagine she will last long. Pretty neat and I thought I would share. Would be nice to imagine it's a wild bird, but I'm guessing highly unlikely. I will get the dog out tomorrow and see if she is still around.
On a side note, I did have a couple of nice coveys on my land when I bought it a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen them since moving onto it.
 

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I have friends who live close to you and they tried telling me they have see. Something similar as yourself, around a pretty well known attraction… hmmm??
 
bpope said:
I live in SW MO. About 30 miles south of Springfield. Buddy brushhogging on my land sent me this today. Kind of odd I thought, as I don't know of any preserves that are relatively close to my place. I walked out to look at this one and couldn't get a good look as it was pretty skittish and fast.
He did tell me he saw a rooster while mowing someone else's place not too far from mine, but who knows.
We did leave some cover for this lady to hide in, but with coyotoes around here, I don't imagine she will last long. Pretty neat and I thought I would share. Would be nice to imagine it's a wild bird, but I'm guessing highly unlikely. I will get the dog out tomorrow and see if she is still around.
On a side note, I did have a couple of nice coveys on my land when I bought it a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen them since moving onto it.
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That bush hog might have something to do with the quail being gone..
 
515wingshooter said:
What are you doing with the other 20 acres?
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Not really certain yet. It's all pretty much open rolling pasture. At one point I wanted to get flight pens, etc. and really tailor it for bird habitat. My bird dog is getting pretty old now though and I'm not really sure if I'm going to get another one for a while. I have to recoop financially from building a house and shop as first, LOL.
 
I have been keeping up with the slow expansion of the wild North American pheasant range pheasant for almost sixty years. The well groomed well feathered skittish hen pheasant in your photo is definitely a wild bird. If you can, try to protect that hen from road hunters and aerial and ground predators. Tell your neighbors about the wild pheasant and ask them to also protect the wild pheasants so they can build up a wild population.

Check the updated eBird Ring-Necked Pheasant Range Map: https://ebird.org/species/rinphe1

Zoom down into the Springfield Mo. area wild pheasants are seen all around that area.

In 1968 when I would drive would drive from Wichita, Kansas on I-35 to to Texas. Back in those days the wild pheasant range played out around Enid Oklahoma, now fifty- five years later wild pheasants are seen around Kingfisher near Oklahoma City and north east around the Pawhuska area. Wild pheasant are also found just south of Lubbock, Texas. There is no invisible line in the soil at keeps pheasants from expanding their range, its just a slow, slow process. If that hen can find a tall grassy field of undisturbed nesting cover with insects and timely summer rains chicks will hatch. Coyotes are everywhere even in the best Quail and Pheasant areas.

In am convinced the wild quail and wild pheasants help each other out. Over the years I have noticed good quail populations within the wild pheasant range of Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and the Texas Panhandle. This is a theory but with more eyes, ears and noses looking out for aerial and ground predators increases hen survival because they learn each others alert signals.
To fortify the population I would recommend releasing wary, agile and and alert strains of the Ring-Necked pheasant like the Manchurian Ringneck or the Bianchi Pheasant also called the Afghan White-Winged Pheasant. You can Google them and read up on success stories.
 
Preston1 said:
I have been keeping up with the slow expansion of the wild North American pheasant range pheasant for almost sixty years. The well groomed well feathered skittish hen pheasant in your photo is definitely a wild bird. If you can, try to protect that hen from road hunters and aerial and ground predators. Tell your neighbors about the wild pheasant and ask them to also protect the wild pheasants so they can build up a wild population.

Check the updated eBird Ring-Necked Pheasant Range Map: https://ebird.org/species/rinphe1

Zoom down into the Springfield Mo. area wild pheasants are seen all around that area.

In 1968 when I would drive would drive from Wichita, Kansas on I-35 to to Texas. Back in those days the wild pheasant range played out around Enid Oklahoma, now fifty- five years later wild pheasants are seen around Kingfisher near Oklahoma City and north east around the Pawhuska area. Wild pheasant are also found just south of Lubbock, Texas. There is no invisible line in the soil at keeps pheasants from expanding their range, its just a slow, slow process. If that hen can find a tall grassy field of undisturbed nesting cover with insects and timely summer rains chicks will hatch. Coyotes are everywhere even in the best Quail and Pheasant areas.

In am convinced the wild quail and wild pheasants help each other out. Over the years I have noticed good quail populations within the wild pheasant range of Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and the Texas Panhandle. This is a theory but with more eyes, ears and noses looking out for aerial and ground predators increases hen survival because they learn each others alert signals.
To fortify the population I would recommend releasing wary, agile and and alert strains of the Ring-Necked pheasant like the Manchurian Ringneck or the Bianchi Pheasant also called the Afghan White-Winged Pheasant. You can Google them and read up on success stories.
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This is very interesting! I would like to talk about this more with you. I will PM you my number. Here is the rooster he saw, about 5 miles east of my place.
 

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Preston1 said:
I have been keeping up with the slow expansion of the wild North American pheasant range pheasant for almost sixty years. The well groomed well feathered skittish hen pheasant in your photo is definitely a wild bird. If you can, try to protect that hen from road hunters and aerial and ground predators. Tell your neighbors about the wild pheasant and ask them to also protect the wild pheasants so they can build up a wild population.

Check the updated eBird Ring-Necked Pheasant Range Map: https://ebird.org/species/rinphe1

Zoom down into the Springfield Mo. area wild pheasants are seen all around that area.

In 1968 when I would drive would drive from Wichita, Kansas on I-35 to to Texas. Back in those days the wild pheasant range played out around Enid Oklahoma, now fifty- five years later wild pheasants are seen around Kingfisher near Oklahoma City and north east around the Pawhuska area. Wild pheasant are also found just south of Lubbock, Texas. There is no invisible line in the soil at keeps pheasants from expanding their range, its just a slow, slow process. If that hen can find a tall grassy field of undisturbed nesting cover with insects and timely summer rains chicks will hatch. Coyotes are everywhere even in the best Quail and Pheasant areas.

In am convinced the wild quail and wild pheasants help each other out. Over the years I have noticed good quail populations within the wild pheasant range of Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and the Texas Panhandle. This is a theory but with more eyes, ears and noses looking out for aerial and ground predators increases hen survival because they learn each others alert signals.
To fortify the population I would recommend releasing wary, agile and and alert strains of the Ring-Necked pheasant like the Manchurian Ringneck or the Bianchi Pheasant also called the Afghan White-Winged Pheasant. You can Google them and read up on success stories.
Click to expand...
Soil calcium is a limiting factor. It puts a limit on the hardness and thickness of the egg shell. Not the only thing but I remember a layover map we looked at in college. The soils that had the right amount of calcium was very similar to the pheasant range map.
 
esetter said:
Soil calcium is a limiting factor. It puts a limit on the hardness and thickness of the egg shell. Not the only thing but I remember a layover map we looked at in college. The soils that had the right amount of calcium was very similar to the pheasant range map.
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That is what I tell folks that always ask why there are no pheasants in my area. I also read somewhere that the calcium is in the soil that was prairie grass for thousands of years.
 
It might be a long shot, and only help a limited number, but if you could find a load crushed limestone for a driveway or just a gravel pile for the local birds. I would try it, if I had 40 acres of habitat there.
 
remy3424 said:
It might be a long shot, and only help a limited number, but if you could find a load crushed limestone for a driveway or just a gravel pile for the local birds. I would try it, if I had 40 acres of habitat there.
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Yes, that is a good idea. I do have a long gravel driveway!
 
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