Winter Habitat

FLDBRED

FLDBRED

Well-known member
I am often asked how I go about finding good pheasant habitat in Pa.. The kind of habitat that can support wild and holdover birds. Well there is no better time of year than right now! If the cover can't hold up now, you have no chance of at least holdover birds.
With the recent Flushing Surveys being cancelled Dugan and I needed to get out,so we headed to one of my favorite pheasant properties.This has been about as bad a winter here as you could expect, with heavy wet snow, then ice, then snow again, and bitter cold temps. Well I am happy to report the birds are doing well.The birds are hammering the food plot and seem to be in good shape.
I didn't want to stress the birds so I didn't run Dugan into the heart of their cover.But even in a hedgerow a little off from the core he got on scent and was pushing a bird till I called him off.
It's all about habitat!!

Pictures to follow!
 









This last picture shows the property next door, it was tall grass in the fall and looked like good cover then.
 
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Nice pictures and thanks for the report. I'm glad you were able to get out and find some good signs. In my experience close to home it seems the birds leave the switchgrass when the snow comes and prefer to hand out around the pine and cedar trees. Once the snow melts they will spend some more time in the grass after it springs back up.

I should check out some other areas close to home and see how things area going.
 
FLDBRED, The habitat in your pics is very much similar to that in the Dakotas and Eastern MT. As far as Winter sheltered stuff.
Gets the pheasants through the tough Winter heavy snow periods.

Grasslands are another very important part of the puzzle.

Looks from Your pics, there are some REAL positives for your birds. :thumbsup:
 
mnmthunting,
I remember as a boy, running a trapline this time of year, how important winter cover was to the pheasants in the area. It seemed like 80-90% of the birds were stacked up in the Cattail swamps when the weather got real bad.One of the first things we look for while searching for WILD birds in NJ, PA., and NY., is wetlands. Then we'll look to see if there is any nesting cover, close by. If you have those two your off to a good start. Having a "natural" food source doesn't hurt either.Nannyberry,Dogwood,Chokeberry,Wild Plum,Washington Hawthorne, etc. just to name a few.
Having said that, IT'S NESTING COVER here in the east that is the limiting factor.But when you have a winter like we are having this year it reminds you of all the factors needed for their survival.
 
fldbred, I realize that we're only getting snippets of the habitat you have, but both nesting and brood-rearing habitat seem to be missing. The cropland shown would be largely bare ground early in the brooding season and the grassland or legume type cover that would rate as nesting cover seems absent as well. The wetlands are good winter cover, but during the spring they are uninhabitable for nesting due to surface water. Again, I might not be seeing everything that is there, but that is my first impression.
 
Troy,

The pictures I took were of "winter habitat" as the Thread stated. This area has some excellent fields of switch grass that butt right up to the food plots,you might be able to see parts of them in the pictures. The food plots consist of only maybe 5 % of the area. The switch grass here has taken a pretty good hit, most of the bird sign was in the areas where the pictures were taken. The limiting factor in Pa. is nesting and brood rearing cover, so any habitat project for pheasasnts starts with that. My pictures were to show some survival spots for the birds during a bad winter. If I go back this weekend I'll take more photos of the other habitat.
 
John,

Thank You! It's been a while since I've seen a grouse at this location, it does have an EXCELLENT woodcock population during the right time of year. The farmer however has said he has seen and hears them "grouse" drumming. He hunts the neighbors property that I do not have access to, and he does pretty good on grouse. That property is overgrown fields with more woody cover.
 
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As promised I took some pictures "above" of the cover that butts up against the winter cover. There is also a large bluestem field that has been pushed flat by the weather.The birds seem to be doing very well.
 
FLDBRED said:
The birds seem to be doing very well.
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Here's too FLDBRED;). Don't ask me how or what they do to survive out there. The birds I've seen out this way somehow kept their feathers looking as they did last fall too:confused:. Despite rain, freezing rain, snow, etc.
 
I don't know what your "normal" is, but it sounds like you've had plenty of the frozen precip this winter. Good pics!
 
Nice pics, FLDBRED. The bluestem in your pictures looks better than some other bluestem I saw in one of the WPRA.
 
1pheas4 said:
Here's too FLDBRED;). Don't ask me how or what they do to survive out there. The birds I've seen out this way somehow kept their feathers looking as they did last fall too:confused:. Despite rain, freezing rain, snow, etc.
Click to expand...

You're right, there are a few places places in NJ that are just islands of cover in an urban enviroment, yet these areas have held wild pheasants for decades. They always amaze me.
 
Prairie Drifter said:
I don't know what your "normal" is, but it sounds like you've had plenty of the frozen precip this winter. Good pics!
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Thanks!
This winter has been tougher than most, although not as bad as out in the Mid-West. Just proves how tough these birds are.
 
bauerline said:
Nice pics, FLDBRED. The bluestem in your pictures looks better than some other bluestem I saw in one of the WPRA.
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Thanks Brian,

I think the bluestem does better if it is not in pure stands like in the WPRA. I was a little disappointed to see the switch grass take the hit it did, it is bouncing back quickly however.
 

Went back to the same area, it was 55 degrees today so I felt better about running Dugan. The birds were out feeding. They flushed as soon as we hit the field. There were about eight birds. We didn't push them after the flush.






This guy was CROWING for all his worth! I guess it was a long winter for him too!




Not exactly sure what they were feeding on, but this area was torn up pretty good.
 
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Great pics. I'm sure you were glad to be out. Are those birds holdovers from the state? They look good.
 
Thanks Brian, I think taking pictures behind a pointing dog might be easier. :) I must of snapped the camera a dozen times, but most of the pictures were of just the sky. These guys had been in the food plot and were on their way back.

It's an interesting area, the farmer loves these birds as much as you and I, and does a lot for them. He releases birds every few years. Sometimes the birds hold over very well and produce broods and even seem to increase their numbers. Then they disappear and he starts all over. He hasn't released birds for two years now.There is a gun club about a mile away that releases birds.
 
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