Wild birds

R

ROCK

Member
Hello to all the Illinois hunters out there,always check this site to read everyone's stories and decided to jump in.I live in northern IL. and hunt in central IL.I am a wild bird fanatic and hunt alot of different filterstrip/crp farms.The last two years have been very dissapointing to say the least.A few years ago it was nothing to see 15 to 20 birds on a 1 mile creek but the last two years I'm lucky to see 5 on the same properties.Just curious how you guys are doing on wild birds this year.
 
Had a chance to get out with a friend today and hunt a couple of filter strips.Even though it was windy as h*ll the birds held tight for the most part.Saw 12 birds total,6 hens and 6 roosters.We were lucky enough to get 3 down.Nice way to start off the new year!!
 
I was out with my son and a life long friend hunting up pheasant this morning. You're right. Them crazy chickens held very tight due to the windy and 25 degree temp. My son used his new Stroeger 20ga o/u today for the first time and he banged birds like he has been shooting for decades. My buddy & I did well ourselves. Even though we both seem to argue like old men over who shot the damn bird, we still laugh like we were just kids. His chessie and my gs pointer worked very well as mine pointed and his flushed. Thank God for cold windy days when the birds hold tight and the barrels are true!!!
 
ROCK said:
Hello to all the Illinois hunters out there,always check this site to read everyone's stories and decided to jump in.I live in northern IL. and hunt in central IL.I am a wild bird fanatic and hunt alot of different filterstrip/crp farms.The last two years have been very dissapointing to say the least.A few years ago it was nothing to see 15 to 20 birds on a 1 mile creek but the last two years I'm lucky to see 5 on the same properties.Just curious how you guys are doing on wild birds this year.
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Hello From N. Illinois Rock. I feel your pain. Though this year (2009/2010) season wasn't that bad for me it wasn't that good either. How did you do this past season on the wild ones? Any better than 2008?
 
hmmmm

ROCK said:
Hello to all the Illinois hunters out there,always check this site to read everyone's stories and decided to jump in.I live in northern IL. and hunt in central IL.I am a wild bird fanatic and hunt alot of different filterstrip/crp farms.The last two years have been very dissapointing to say the least.A few years ago it was nothing to see 15 to 20 birds on a 1 mile creek but the last two years I'm lucky to see 5 on the same properties.Just curious how you guys are doing on wild birds this year.
Click to expand...
come out to gods country if you want to see and smoke ditch parrots! i used to hunt mo when i lived there lol how sad i only hunt the opener cause it opens b4 ks is only reason no wonder your not seeing many birds ill is like mo terrible for parrots.
 
1pheas4,actually 2009-10 tied for the best year I ever had.I have always kept a log of my pheasant hunts for the last 16 years and this past season,I saw the second most birds I have ever seen hunting(254)and harvested a total of 48.This past year I leased 4 crep field ranging in size from 20 acres to 140 acres and that made a big difference.
O.A.P. would love to go there but figured for the money I could hunt leased ground every weekend compared to a couple hunts in KS.Someday I would still love to try Kansas though.
 
ROCK said:
1pheas4,actually 2009-10 tied for the best year I ever had.I have always kept a log of my pheasant hunts for the last 16 years and this past season,I saw the second most birds I have ever seen hunting(254)and harvested a total of 48.This past year I leased 4 crep field ranging in size from 20 acres to 140 acres and that made a big difference.
O.A.P. would love to go there but figured for the money I could hunt leased ground every weekend compared to a couple hunts in KS.Someday I would still love to try Kansas though.
Click to expand...
you say you seen a total of 250 birds? dude late season when its really cold ive seen 200 boil out of a uncut corn field if you killed 50 some u crushed me my man good job
 
Fabulous Rock! I love to hear success stories from the flat land state (though far and few between)! I know the pheasant hunting here was getting good until '96, then a solid drop off hit. I have known doubt it's directly tied to the loss of CPR.

I noticed that our birds are still out there, but just in pockets. By the way it sounds you hit some of those pockets! :thumbsup:
 
I was tracking/logging seed records for some of our Pheasants Forever projects today. The land owner told me he had seen good numbers of hen pheasants while picking wheat earlier in the summer. The hens had 6-8 chicks each tagging along. :thumbsup:

This was out in the Huntley area in McHenry County just north of town a few miles. Nice to hear someone say pheasant numbers are good this year. This may just be a "hot" pocket area. This fall will tell.
 
I hunted Iroquois County this past weekend and saw well over 100 birds with a real high amount of cocks. Probably 60/40 hens/cocks which I think is good beyond opening weekend.
 
I have been on 3 hunts (December 2010) at 2 locations and have seen about 30 birds and we have killed 5 between my 16 year old son and myself. If you have the habitat there will be some birds, especially late in the season.
 
Was back in Iroquois County Tues afternoon for a quick hunt and saw a ton of birds. Still had snow on the ground and when I drove up there were at least 25 birds milling around the fields that I could see.

Saw at least 30-40 others on my drive in as well as 50+ deer herd.

This particular piece of ground always has tons of late season birds. Early season is a toss up.
 
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