Attention everyone in the rockford area of Illinois. On October 10th from 930 to 2 Severson Dells Nature Center along with Pheasants Forever will hold a work day. There will be restoration on honeysuckle, seed collecting of prairie plants, lunch and a hike.
More details to follow.
If any questions email abrentzel@pheasantsforever.org.
Migrators Big and Small — From pronghorns to hummingbirds, life gets on the move when the weather changes
Pheasant Hunting — A Game of Strategy
What’s That Tree? — Take a forest or backyard hike and find out
Wildlife Haven — How North Dakota’s Jessi Hummel, 16, built a wildlife home on the range with help from the Sakakawea PF Chapter
Go Explore! — Custer State Park
Positive Reinforcement — Pigeon Games
by Ken Solormon
Photo by Roger Hill.
If you like hunting pheasants in fall, you need to help them make it through the winter so they can nest in spring. Here’s what pheasants face when the snows fly and the thermometer drops … and how they survive to see another spring. (Also, knowing what a pheasant does on a typical day will help you hunt them):
With the first deep snow or ice storm, people start to worry about pheasants starving. Death due to starvation during inclement weather is extremely rare if pheasants have adequate winter habitat.
A pheasant’s typical winter day goes like this: If available, the pheasant will spend its nights in grassy cover or wetlands (called roosting cover). An hour or so before sunrise, they will leave the grass and head for shrub cover for protection from aerial predators (loafing cover). Here, they will be joined by other pheasants before venturing out to feed. About 30 minutes before sunrise, they will move out to feed in harvested grain fields or, better yet, unharvested food plots (feeding cover). more…
In ND we recently had a blizzard. We have had about 20” of snow in the last week!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a little concerned about the pheasants. But we put out millet bails for them to eat. Has anyone else had alot of snow recently? Are you feeding the pheasants?
By Howard (Skip) Schwartz
Talk about peculiar! How do you go pheasant hunting without a gun, using just your hands and wits? The following true story will tell you how. It took place mid-winter in rural Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, back in the 1950s. My two young brothers and I headed out to a creek known to harbor a small, scattered pheasant population. Our transportation was our legs. No lunch, no thermos, no guns! We were poor back then, looking for food and some fun. Our parents really looked forward to us bringing home some meat for the freezer. Would we succeed?
Photo by Roger Hill.
Our story begins with the three of us slowly trudging along in knee-deep snow in pursuit of our favorite game, the wily pheasant. Our “hot spot” for pheasants was a winding creek bed surrounded by harvested cornfields. Jim and I being the younger two, walked along one bank, and our older brother, Dick, walked along the other. Hand gestures were our main form of communication since any loud noise would scare the pheasants away. We moved cautiously — no voice contact and no quick moves. We looked in front of us, to the sides and down the shallow ravine. We searched, not for a pheasant at first, but its tracks. We’d learned that after a snowstorm, pheasants would look for food, but would often hole up mid-day in protected areas like ravines. Finding their tracks was key to hunting them down.
