Pheasant Routes

Luckily for Iowa hunters, one route does not a pheasant season make. With a second consecutive mild winter and a decent nesting season, Iowa's pheasant population continues its rebound from the devastating winter of 2000-01. This week, wildlife workers and conservation officers from the Department of Natural Resources are quantifying that rebound, as they conduct their annual upland game surveys.

While valuable for tracking rabbit, quail and partridge populations, the focus of the 30-mile routes is on the ring-necked pheasant. And with more than 200 Iowa routes, the results are pretty dependable. High counts balance out low ones. That's good, because I rode along on one of each. When all are combined, it provides a good indication of pheasant numbers and, come this fall, hunter success as they pursue the Midwest's number one game bird.

Usually, I ride with wildlife technician Dennis Proctor. His Cedar County route loops around the area north of Tipton. Surveys start at dawn, when heavy dew in the fields pushes pheasants up to roadsides to dry off-and to be counted. The fields are late summer lush and green; pretty enough to be stamped on the back of an Iowa quarter. However, something was missing. The pheasants. "We saw only five chicks and two roosters," bemoaned Proctor of the route that averages about 20 birds. "A big reason was lack of habitat. It was basically just row crops this year, corn and soybeans. Pheasants need hayfields and other grassy areas, for year round cover and high protein insects that young chicks feed on."

The morning started well. Rarely do we count a pheasant in the route's first five-mile segment. This time, though, a pair of pigeon-sized chicks kicked up dusty puffs of gravel, escaping the slow-moving pickup. A rooster crowed his retreat, winging low across the bean rows. Two more nearly grown chicks tried hiding under a blade of roadside grass. This had the makings of a good ride. From there, though, we could have just about dozed off. There were rabbits, to be sure. We even surprised a fox trying to cross the road. However, one more pheasant chick and one more rooster were all Procter could add in the final 25 miles.

Our low count one, though, underscores the importance of getting the big picture; the combined outlook from more than 200 routes. "There are obviously more birds on this route," offered Proctor. "With the first pair of chicks, I got out of the pickup and almost stepped on one before they flushed. There might have been another half dozen that didn't come up. Just seeing chicks, tells me a brood was reared there. Other areas with good habitat will see more birds this year."

His words rang true, as I caught a ride with conservation officer Steve Schutte a couple days later. We were only a mile or two into his route south of Clear Lake, when a dark, speckled hen tried to blend into the roadside. Seconds later, the ditch resembled a grassy corn popper, as she and her 14 chicks burst skyward. It was going to be a pretty fair day.

Actually, Schutte was almost apologetic as he nodded to slopes now planted to row crops. "Counts were consistently over 100 birds on this route in the (early 1990s) 'hey day' of the Conservation Reserve Program. Most fields idled now (under new CRP guidelines) are out west and into the Dakotas. The nesting cover just isn't there. Last year, I only counted seven pheasants."

Knowing that we had just doubled the '02 count made us feel a little better. The upswing continued for the next few miles. A young rooster, lacking only the long tail feathers of a mature rooster, cackled as he 'escaped'. Just down the road, a hen bolted into the cornfield. Behind her, a feather coated Ping-Pong ball with wings, popped up, barely clearing the nine-foot high tassels. "Did you see that," laughed Schutte. "I have never seen an August chick that small. I could hear others, too, running. They must have been unable to fly."

He listed 45 pheasants by the end of the run; a number that should rank pretty close to the state average, when results come out next month. And the birds? Again, they were found next to cover. "That set-aside land provides the nesting cover," emphasized Schutte. "That's been consistent year to year. The largest number of birds came from the remaining patches of CRP."

And recalling the sparrow-sized ball of feathers, Schutte laughed. "That was a quite obvious 'late hatch' bird. I can tell hunters we will have a variety of sizes; a lot of (roosters) that won't be colored out very well, opening day."

Click Here To Return To The Previous Page