MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Illinois Federal Aid Project W-66-R 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
November, 1976 
Vol. 19, No. 11 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat 
R. E. Warner 
As in recent years, hunting pressure on the Sibley Study Area (SSA) and 
Ford County Management Unit (FCMU) was light during the opening weekend (13-14 
November 1976) of the pheasant season. Dry weather conditions that persisted 
through the weekend were favorable to the hunter. The soybean harvest, 90 
percent of the corn harvest, and 70 percent of the fall plowing had been com¬ 
pleted. When the pheasant season opened in 1975; the soybean harvest and 80 
percent of the fall plowing had been completed and 95 percent of the corn had 
been harvested. 
Although pheasant abundance on the study areas had declined from August 
1975 to August 1976 (MWRL 19(9):1); less effort was required by hunters to 
harvest a cock pheasant in 1976 than in 1975* On the SSA, the 71 hunters inter 
viewed were in the fields 301 man-hours and killed 31 pheasants (9*7 hours per 
bird). The hours of hunting required to kill a cock pheasant in 1962 through 
16.5; respectively. 
On the FCMU; the 58 hunters interviewed tallied 295 man-hours afield to 
bag 49 pheasants (6.0 hours per bird). In 1974, 3*1 hours per bird were 
required on the opening weekend, and in 1975 ; 4.7 hours per bird. 
Field time expended to harvest a pheasant on the SSA in 1976 was 1.6 
times as great as that required by hunters on the FCMU (9*7 hours per bird 
on the SSA, 6.0 hours on the FCMU). In 1975; 3*5 times the effort to harvest 
a pheasant on the FCMU was reqj ired by hunters on the SSA (MWRL 18(11):!). 
The greater hunter success experienced during the opening weekends on the 
FCMU in 1975 and 1976; compared with the SSA, reflects the higher pheasant 
densities censused on the FCMU in the fall in comparison with the SSA control 
area over the past 2 years (MWRL 18(9):1). 
Although numbers of pheasants declined on both study areas in 1976; 
from 1975 ; hunter success on the areas in 1 976 compared with 1975 ; do not 
largely reflect this trend. On the SSA, the decrease in the time required 
to harvest a pheasant in 1976 over 1975 is attributed to the fact that corn 
harvest and fall plowing were less advanced in 1976 than in 1975* As opening 
day progressed in 1975 , birds were scattered from permanent cover to plowed 
ground, thus limiting the availability of birds to hunters. This year, most 
farms had some unplowed corn stubble in which pheasants remained accessible 
to hunters throughout most of the opening weekend. On the FCMU; the slight 
HAIUML HISTORY SUM 
DEC 13 197f 
