Pheasants persist on the landscape
PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — Ring-necked pheasants continue to hang on in spite of snowstorms, and habitat fragmentation issues throughout the Midwest. Adequate habitat areas continue to hold birds as today’s images attest. The photos were taken near an “island” of good habitat in a sea of continuous surrounding corn or soybean land uses. Ring-necked pheasants are a native of Southeast Asia. This species was introduced into the United States in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 1882. An accidental release due to a wind storm opened net covers over their pens. The escaped birds were never recaptured. Long story short, they thrived. Others raised ring-necks in other parts of the USA in the early 1900s.
Ring-necked pheasants are out and about. While not particularly looking for them during this past week’s backroads forays, I happened to see several groups of pheasants.
It just reminded me of their tenacity to survive in a hostile landscape of diminished habitats, bad weather events. I was glad to see them and just know that the success of game bird populations takes time, good habitat establishment, and a few breaks from intense weather from Mother Nature.
Not all is doom and gloom for wildlife. Many land projects in the nation, the Midwest and even locally have set the stage for ensuring pheasant and other wildlife species get a fair chance at survival. At last year’s local Pheasants Forever fundraising banquet, the combined chapters of Marshall and Tama County hosted a sell out crowd of about 400 people.
National information brochures told of the history of PF, its members, supporters and partners. Since 1982, PF and their sister organization Quail Forever have worked to improve habitat on 22 million acres with 567,000 projects.
In 2021 alone, PF and QF added 10,000 projects. If all these actions were tallied up, $1.2 billion is the amount of money raised and put into action on the ground. That is quite a historical record.
To summarize, since 1982, 1,725 land acquisitions have taken place to protect and manage 218,591 acres. All land acquisitions are completed in conjunction with local, state and federal agencies.
Todd Bogenschutz is the Iowa DNR’s upland game bird biologist. He has noted and stated in the past that good habitat is key. Favorable weather events are also critical for hen survival and nesting success.
Weather is an excellent predictor of survival, and here is what is known. Snows throughout the winter of under 30 inches are best if spread out and not all at once in big storms.
Spring rains are expected and gentle precipitation is always preferred over heavy downpours. Warm spring temperatures help a lot also. Obviously what people want and what Mom Nature provides may be two different things. So us humans, and the wildlife living on the land, have to take the good and not so good times and average them out.
Biologists and game wardens conduct standard route game bird observations every August. They slowly drive standard routes, each 30 miles long, and the weather conditions are best if the night before produces a heavy dew and the early morning is the start of a clear sunny day.
Game birds will seek out roadsides to allow sunlight and warmth to dry off their feathers. Statistical counts analysis of observations is correlated with past years and past decades to establish trend lines of bird populations.
Based on data from roadside counts last fall, the results were interesting and somewhat predictable. For the biologists keeping track of trends, they divide Iowa into nine regions. In the northwest region, counts were above 30 birds per 30 mile survey route, a good trend.
West Central was next at a tad below 30. North Central Region topped 27 per 30 mile route. The Central Region had a respectful 22 +. The biggest gains were up 31 percent in the East Central Region and up 22 percent in the Southeast Region.
Bogenschutz noted that a combination of Conservation Reserve Program lands plus hay and small grain acres has stayed fairly constant at 9.2 million acres statewide. We Iowans know that winter weather has not finished its assault for the year.
Snow storms happen. Interspersed with those events will be warmer times and melting snow. Regarding where to look for pheasants consistently, those “islands” of good habitat are where I may be later this year with a camera and its long lens, or I could find myself seeing birds in cattail cover in the ditches of a rural road.
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Pheasant history notes tell the story of successes and failures over the last 100 years. A game farm with pheasants near Cedar Falls in the early 1900s had a wind storm event.
Cages were broken. Pheasants escaped into what was then a patchwork of many small farms with small grains, pastures, hay, corn and oats. The birds liked what they found and flourished.
In fact, the conservation commission received complaints about crop damage from pheasants. By 1913, the Conservation Commission had set up a system to raise birds and stock them. Results were mixed. So in 1924-25, the Commission also began trapping wild birds and taking the eggs from hens to hatcheries and the hens to southern Iowa. Results: mixed.
In 1932, the state game farm closed. Then, it reopened in 1938 after several poor winter weather years. Improved weather during the 1940s helped pheasants recover.
Through the 1940s and 50s, it became apparent that pen-raised pheasants were not contributing to wild bird numbers. By 1965, a natural increase of wild pheasants had reached a high point. Federal set aside acres (CRP) helped a lot in the years 1985 to 1996.
During the heyday years of pheasant hunting, an off take of about 1,000,000 roosters was accomplished. Long-term agricultural land use changes were, however, slowly changing the landscape. CRP programs had their ups and downs.
The trend for few hunter taken roosters took over, and in 2022, the estimated rooster pheasant harvest was 373,000. Times have changed. PF and QF continue to work with all their partners to stop that trend and make slow but steady increases.
In biology, whether it be upland game birds, deer, fur bearers, fish, or songbirds or butterflies, there are no simple solutions to complex problems. Trying to unravel wildlife management scenarios into what works and what doesn’t keeps natural history lessons on a steep learning curve.
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Deer numbers that survived all hunting seasons seem to be in line with past years. Iowans took an estimated total of 109,613 deer from the statewide population.
That number is consistent with prior years offtakes. Deer are quite capable of replacing themselves with twin fawns being a norm for adult doe deer aged two through ten.
About 15 percent of adult deer can have triplets. Iowa’s balance between total deer in the state and hunting season harvest goals has been found to be reasonable.
If the goal was to increase deer numbers across the state, management changes could allow that to happen. For now, the present balance seems to be working well.
Deer hunters will begin to back trail deer haunts and deer habitats looking for shed antlers. At this time of year, buck deer will naturally lose last year’s antler sets as the cells within the skull cap antler base begin to weaken.
The result is antlers falling off at any time or anywhere. New antler buds will soon take over as bucks begin to grow a new set of bone out of their skull.
All deer family members, moose, caribou, elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer grow new true bone antlers each year. Old antlers falling off and new antlers beginning to grow is a photoperiod related chemical change within the body of male Cervidae.
Deer antler scoring will be held on Feb. 22 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Grimes Farm. Call 641-752-5490 before 4 p.m. on Feb 17 to reserve a space limited seminar.
If you want to come to just watch, that is okay also. Several official scorers will be present to tally up a score based on Boone & Crockett/Pope & Young Club standardized methodology.
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Ice fishing houses need to be removed from state lake waters by Feb. 20. Longer days and warmer sunshine influences may begin to make lake ice more and more weak. For ice fishermen and women who venture out onto thick ice, know that not all ice is strong or of even thickness.
A constant lookout for danger zones is required. Fact: if a person falls into icy water, heat loss can kill. Cold water kills because heat loss is 32 times faster than cold air. Time in icy cold water is a ticking death threat called hypothermia. Always venture onto ice with a buddy. Have ice tongs on your person. Wear a life preserver.
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Garry Brandenburg is a graduate of Iowa State University with BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology. He is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. Contact him at
PO Box 96, Albion, IA 50005.
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- PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — Ring-necked pheasants continue to hang on in spite of snowstorms, and habitat fragmentation issues throughout the Midwest. Adequate habitat areas continue to hold birds as today’s images attest. The photos were taken near an “island” of good habitat in a sea of continuous surrounding corn or soybean land uses. Ring-necked pheasants are a native of Southeast Asia. This species was introduced into the United States in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 1882. An accidental release due to a wind storm opened net covers over their pens. The escaped birds were never recaptured. Long story short, they thrived. Others raised ring-necks in other parts of the USA in the early 1900s.
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