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Pheasant season opener this weekend

PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — There will not be snow on the ground this weekend in Iowa to help make it easier to see pheasants. However, there will be rooster pheasants out and about hiding in grassland settings, along field edges, and in public land parcels with grassland and food plots. Iowa’s traditional opening for hunting pheasants began at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 30. The last day of the season will be Jan. 10, 2022 with a closing time of 4:30 p.m. According to roadside survey data acquired last August, Iowa pheasant distribution has improved in the north-central and northwestern portions of the Hawkeye State.

PHEASANT HUNTING SEASON is here. For many hunters, they’ve been waiting an entire year for this day. However, planning and preparation for another pheasant season continued all year long. Gear needed to be inspected, and perhaps, new items needed to be purchased. Likewise, shotguns were kept at the ready with practice on clay targets at a range or at sporting clay activities. Dog training is a year round endeavor to keep our canine friends healthy and eager to follow the scent trails of pheasants. Habitat projects are also a year round process to plan for, buy the seed, get the equipment in the field at the right time to prepare food plots and then perform a bit of maintenance on those plots, if needed, to make the cover suitable for nesting hens. And the best part of long term habitat work projects is ensuring adequate winter cover for these game birds when the severity of winter descends upon us in January, February and March.

Pheasant “season” is therefore a year-long endeavor spiced up with actual hunting as a reward when late October and November calendar dates say that opening day has arrived. Iowa laws and hunting regulations follow both a tradition of opening on or about late October or early November, depending upon calendar variations. And another tradition has been daily starting and ending times, namely 8 am until 4:30 p.m.

In 2021, daylight savings time changes on Sunday, Nov. 7. Sometimes, the time changeover happens on the same weekend as pheasant hunting. Regarding time to begin hunting, many states may have a sunrise to sunset rule. But to each state with its own rule setting guidelines, Iowa has an 8 am to 4:30 pm regulation for not only pheasants but also quail and gray partridge.

Another steady rule is the allowance of three rooster pheasants per day per hunter. A possession limit is twelve after the fourth day of the season. License requirements include either a resident or non-resident hunting license, habitat fee for those hunters age 16-64, and to carry proof of your licensing on your person. A blaze orange article of clothing is a must, primarily to allow other hunters to see fellow hunters, a common sense safety item. That clothing item can be a hat, cap, vest, coat, jacket, sweatshirt, shirt or coveralls. When transporting dead roosters, identification for these pheasants of either a fully feathered head, a foot, or wing must be retained. Field dressing of roosters is okay, but identification items noted above must be left attached.

BIOLOGY HISTORY: The genus Phasianus, true pheasant, is native to Southeast Asia. What we know as the ringneck pheasant in Iowa has been classified as Phasianus Colchicus Torquatus. The name suggests a cross between two true Asiatic pheasants. One is the Rion Caucasian (black-necked) pheasant native to the area between the Black and Caspian Seas. This species has ties with the true Chinese ring-necked pheasant found in eastern China and northwestern Indo-China.

HISTORY OF THE RING-NECK PHEASANT: Iowa is not the native land for ringneck pheasants. China is the natural home turf for this colorful upland bird. In 1882, a man named Owen Denny brought his collection of pheasants into the Willamette Valley of Oregon. An accidental release of caged birds happened as the result of a wind storm that opened the netting covers of bird cages. The pen raised birds were never fully recaptured. These pheasants liked what they found in the wild and prospered quite well. And later, as news of the success of pheasants spread to other parts of the country, it was another wind storm on the farm of Cedar Falls farmer William Benton in the early 1900s that caused the release of 2,000 pheasants.

In 1913, the Iowa Conservation Commission, the forerunner of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, was well into raising pheasants and stocking those birds at various release sites. Results were mixed, however, as pen raised birds were not as wise to the ways of survival at that point. Even with all of that going on, the conservation commission in 1924 and 1925 was experimenting with trapping and relocating wild birds and eggs to southern Iowa.

Iowa’s first pheasant season was a short one, from October 20-22, 1925, in several north-central Iowa counties. Hours for hunting were one-half hour before sunrise until noon with a limit of three roosters. In part, that first hunting season was in response to complaints of crop damage supposedly inflicted by pheasants. Proof was not so important, just guilt by association.

The state game farm closed in 1932. It was decided to reopen the pen raised bird program in 1938 after several bad weather years. Wild pheasants did survive and continued to expand slowly throughout most of Iowa during the 1940s and 50s. The state game bird farm closed for good in 1973 after it became clear that pen raised birds were not making viable contributions to wild populations.

Wild pheasant populations ebb and flow with changes in weather patterns and habitat conditions. Federal land set-aside programs called conservation reserve program (CRP) helped create grassland habitat between 1985 and 1996. However, as those programs have had a hard time competing with commodity prices, CRP contracts have declined significantly. Habitat grasslands are and remain a huge piece of the puzzle for pheasants.

If there is one additional factor above all others that affects pheasants to the greatest extent, it is weather. Cold snowy winters reduce marginal habitat, force concentration of birds into pockets of remaining habitat, and allow exploitation by predators more easily. Come the following spring, habitats left to serve pheasants are reduced to road ditches , terraces and grassed waterways. Spring rain runoff into waterways puts any nesting hens into a bad situation.

“The bottom line is that weather tops the list when it comes to hen survival and her nesting success,” Todd Bogenschlutz, Iowa DNR upland bird biologist, said. “Tell me the amount of snowfall, the amount of rain and the air temperature trends during the spring, and I can tell you if pheasant numbers will be up or down later that summer. Weather models are that accurate. We now have weather patterns to illustrate bird population trends, up or down, depending upon mild or severe winters, and low or heavy spring rain events.”

You can support the organization called PHEASANTS FOREVER on Saturday, November 6th. The location of a fundraising event is in Marshalltown at the Midnight Ballroom, 1700 South Center St. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $80 per adult after Nov. 2. Tickets cost less, going for $65, if you call right now to 641-751-1668 or 641-751-4487. Doors open at 5 p.m. Activities include visiting with old and new friends, playing table games, and watching for bargains at silent and live auctions. A great meal will be served prior to the auction. Funds raised stay locally within the Marshall/Tama County region of PF to help support projects and habitat programs.

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