Wild Pheasants in WV?

1pheas4

1pheas4

Moderator
Does anyone know if West Virginia has a wild pheasant population? A client sent me a pheasant (lighter in color/"Chinese" like) today that he shot in WV.

By all indications he seems to be a wild 2 year old bird:confused:. His crop is full of seeds. Not sure exactly what he's been surviving on yet. I'll find out once it's time to mount him up.

Just curious if anyone knows anything about wild birds out that way. Thanks:)
 
There was a good amount of birds in the Canaan Valley area, back in the fifty's and sixties. But that when the harvest in Pennsylvania was a million plus birds! Bird hunters fantasy, long season, lots of ruffed grouse, woodcock, in season, and pheasants in cutovers near crops, quail too! Some survived.
 
When you border a state like Pennsylvania where thousands and thousands of pheasants have been released over the last fifty years some of those birds can end up in other states.

West Virginia should easily have a scattered pockets of healthy wild pheasants. Once the pen raised pheasants survive the initial high mortality, the lucky surviver's get "woodwise" and they can live for years and travel over 15 miles in their live time.

Some of the pheasants initially stocked in southwest Kansas in 1906 help to populate the wild pheasants in the north part of the Texas panhandle north of the Canadian river. In addition some of the Oklahoma pheasants initially stocked in 1910 in northwest Oklahoma ended up as wild pheasants in the Texas panhandle. Pheasants were not stocked south of the Canadian river until the 1940's.

Maryland and Virginia also still have scatter pockets of wild pheasants.
 
YES...there is! I will PM you an exact location.
 
Thanks for your replies Preston and O&N.

Dan, I received your PM. I'll have to look at what area he came from tomorrow. His records are at the shop. Maybe you'll know something about wild birds around there.

I wanted to flesh/skin him out today to see what's in his crop but got caught up with deer today. Maybe next week?? For now he's in the freezer. I'll post what he was surviving on when I find out. For some reason I'm just curious about this guy. lol


He's a nice bird too. 22 inch tail on him.:thumbsup:
 
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Nick,
I know what you mean,sometimes these birds can really get us thinking.

Do you have any pictures of this rascal ?
 
FLDBRED said:
Nick,
I know what you mean,sometimes these birds can really get us thinking.

Do you have any pictures of this rascal ?
Click to expand...

I took two photos yesterday just for the heck of it. Nothing special but I'll post them when I get a chance.:cheers:
 
Here's a few photos of the WV wild pheasant that came in. I mentioned his crop was full. It turns out he's been feeding on wild blueberrys.

This is a wild N. American "woodland" pheasant. Something not all too common here in the U.S.

Back




Chest/belly


Top of head


Full crop


Contents of crop
 
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Are the big berries rose hips? or maybe persimmon? It's amazing what a pheasant will eat, some wildlife officer years ago, scoffed at food plots, said he never saw a healthy starved pheasant.
 
That is a good looking wild pheasant. The only reason wild pheasants don't rapidly adapt to the "woodlands" in N. America is because of our abundance of aerial and ground predators, wild pheasants will not starve to death.

But once they figure out over time how to crouch duck and hide from predators and maintain a reproduction rate in the woods and brush that is 10% above the mortality rate, you can maintain a small wild population in the woodlands and surrounding brush.

All of the white winged (bianchi) pheasants that crossed with the ringneck pheasants along the upper Rio Grande river are basically woodland and brush pheasant, very few crops in that country.
All or most the ringneck and ringless pheasants in noticed in Europe lived in or at the edge of big woods.

Since the release of the Sichuan pheasants (over 25 years ago) that quickly crossed with the ringneck, both Michigan and Oregon deer hunters are reporting more wild pheasant sightings in or at the edge of the woods.

That is good news.
 
The Yellowstone and Milk River Bottoms in MT are VERY woodsy, thisk brrush and tall trees. lots of pheasants in the woods. Same with the Missouri River below FT Peck and below the dams in ND.
 
mnmthunting said:
The Yellowstone and Milk River Bottoms in MT are VERY woodsy, thisk brrush and tall trees. lots of pheasants in the woods. Same with the Missouri River below FT Peck and below the dams in ND.
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That's a different kind of woody cover compared to the rolling wooded hill of WV where grassy areas are vertically non existent:). I think that's why this bird is unique/rare find.
 
1pheas4 said:
That's a different kind of woody cover compared to the rolling wooded hill of WV where grassy areas are vertically non existent:). I think that's why this bird is unique/rare find.
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Yeah I do realize that is a rare find and one to note.
I'm just thinking woods and pheasants.
Remember the pics of the small drainage in the foothills?
All there is, is tall grass in the brush, then turns to pine hills. MAN! you talk about pheasant production. :cheers:
 
In which county was this bird harvested?

I would guess that pheasants would be found in the northern panhandle. A lot of birds have been released the past couple of years in Washington County, PA.
 
Reilly Auld said:
In which county was this bird harvested?

I would guess that pheasants would be found in the northern panhandle. A lot of birds have been released the past couple of years in Washington County, PA.
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I'll have to look it up at the shop tomorrow. I'll PM it too you just out of respect for the gentleman who sent him in.;)
 
Since we are talking about wild pheasants in woody areas look at the link below of wild pheasants in Michigan:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=493399&highlight=sichuan+pheasants&page=11

Read the discussion a the bottom of pages 11 and 12. People are seeing an increase in recent years in wild pheasant numbers and increased brood sizes.

For some reason nobody is making the correlation between increased pheasant numbers this year with with the massive infusion of authentic wild Sichuan/Strauchi genes over 25 years ago.

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3802545?uid=3739920&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104203932263

Larger brood size is a clear indication of an infusion of wilder genes. From day one wilder chicks are wary and alert and should have greater survival.

Sometimes it takes 20 or 25 years to see the full benefits of a large infusion of authentic alert wild genes. When they first released the White Winged pheasant (Bianchi pheasant) along the Rio Grande and Pacos rivers (in the early 1960's) for first 15 years nobody noticed them but after 20 years people started noticing their genetic impact.
In the case of the Sichuan that crossed the the Michigan ringneck pheasants the average citizen will not notice a difference. Most people will only notice wilder pheasants with lighter iris seen on both wild hens and roosters and more thin ringed roosters. The same is noticed on the wild Bianchi hens and roosters along the Rio grande river.
White Winged pheasant (Bianchi Pheasant) in cottonwood tree.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartwildlife/2396822725/
 
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Preston1 said:
Since we are talking about wild pheasants in woody areas look at the link below of wild pheasants in Michigan:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=493399&highlight=sichuan+pheasants&page=11

Read the discussion a the bottom of pages 11 and 12. People are seeing an increase in recent years in wild pheasant numbers and increased brood sizes
Click to expand...

I was recently discussing this subject with a few of those working on the IL (wild pheasant) DNA study (University of IL Urbana-Champaign):). There's a small and secluded habitat area I've been observing where brood sizes are now up around 12 chicks--along with a host of other positive behavioral and characteristics. What seemed to bring this about was introducing new bloodlines to that area.

I'll start a new thread when I have some time regarding the DNA study too. It's about finished at this point. A lot of information was discovered as a result of the study. I believe a solution may be at hand. I hope!
 
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