8/14/2007

Roadside Surveys Forecast Fall Pheasant Prospects
by Joe Wilkinson

From 30 yards away, Dennis Proctor could make out a head and body hunched in the roadside grass. As he stepped out of the truck for a closer look, a rooster pheasant exploded into flight, just clearing the 9-foot high corn on the other side of the road ditch.

Entering a hash mark on his chart, Proctor continued down the gravel road. He was early into his 30-mile roadside count, on a humid, dewy morning in Cedar County. This was the second pheasant; the first rooster. "You look for just any kind of movement; maybe something brown out there, when everything around it is green," explains Proctor. "If there is a rise in the road ahead, you can bet there is probably something up ahead as you go over it."

Often, it's a flock of blackbirds or a couple mourning doves. Sometimes, though, it is a hen pheasant and her half-grown brood, coming out of the wet grass to dry out on the sunny, gravel road. Other times, it is a lone rooster, a cottontail rabbit or a covey of partridge.

Rain and overcast skies in the first week of August put many of those sunrise counts on hold. "The birds want to come out of the wet grass to dry off in the sun," explains Todd Bogenschutz, upland research biologist for the Department of Natural Resources. That's when they are most visible to wildlife workers and conservation officers spread out over 210 routes through the state. "If there's no sun, there's no point for them to stay in the open," says Bogenschutz. Partway into his own route around Boone early this week, Bogenschutz postponed it because of cloudy skies.

The routes are the backbone of Iowa's annual pheasant forecast and of fall plans for game bird hunters from Iowa and across the Midwest. A boost in pheasant survey numbers means more hunters tromping the fields come late October. A noticeable downturn sends many elsewhere. In 2006, August numbers were down 22% from the year before. As a result, Bogenschultz's fall forecast was scaled back. Those figures are watched closely by hunters making vacation plans for their fall and winter. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that hunting provides a $167 million annual impact for Iowa. Pheasant hunting plays a big part in that.

This year, late March blizzards and heavy rain in April and May dampened prospects in some regions, months ahead of the August surveys. "The weather we've seen in southwest, south central, west central, central and northeast Iowa suggests bird numbers will be lower or unchanged from last year," forecast Bogenschutz in his spring nesting outlook, noting heavy rains in April and May - four to six inches above normal in many areas. On the other hand, better spring conditions in northwest, north central, east central and southeast Iowa could yield improved counts.

Iowa's best counts have come from northwest Iowa the last couple years. But we'll have to wait for that picture to form. Many of the routes are now just wrapping up, due to persistent rain and overcast early-morning skies in early August.

Results from any single route are not critical. As all come in, though, they provide a pretty accurate index of populations for pheasants, as well as partridge, quail, cottontail rabbits and jackrabbits. Proctor tallied just 10 pheasants on his 2007 Tipton-area route; down significantly from the 33 he saw last year. At the same time, his rabbit total (12) was double that seen in a typical year...and he counted perhaps an all time high when we rounded a corner and added a covey of 14 partridges to an earlier pair seen a few miles away.

Overall, though, the pheasant numbers on his route were closer to its long-term average. "It's all habitat, or lack of it," underscores Proctor. "Most of the ground here is in corn and soybeans. The grassy cover, even the ditches, has been mowed. There's just not a lot of habitat. There has to be nesting habitat, and over-wintering habitat to see more birds in August."

Bird counts generally are higher on Chuck Steffens' southern Iowa route, which covers the corners of Wapello, Mahaska and Keokuk counties. "I saw 38 this year; up from the mid 20s average there," reports Steffens, wildlife biologist from the DNR. "I'd say we had a reasonably good hatch here this year." He also lauds the 'hey day' of the region, which is now intensely row-cropped, too.

Bogenschutz posts statewide and regional results in mid-September on the DNR website. Go to www.iowadnr.gov and click on 'hunting & wildlife,' then 'hunting and trapping,' then 'upland wildlife' to sign on for automatic notice when the multi-page report is ready.