ICnc^Jf ■ 
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 
January, 1977 
Vol. 20, No. 1 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habita t R* £• Warner 
Pheasant nesting studies conducted on the Ford County Management Unit 
(FCMU) from 1973 to 1976 reveal that seeded roadside cover, although comprising 
only 1.5 percent of the land area, has been the principal nesting habitat for 
pheasants in 3 of the past 4 years. However, the full potential of the road¬ 
sides as nest cover has not been realized. Some degree of early mowing (prior 
to the prescribed date of 1 August) has been documented annually for roadsides 
on the FCMU. The extent to which early roadside mowing affects nesting in 
roadside vegetation was reported in last month's newsletter (MWRL 19(12):1-2); 
the realized potential for nesting on roadsides ranged from 72.8 percent in 
1975 to 93.4 percent in 1973 (MWRL 19(12) :2, Table 3). 
This month's newsletter quantifies the number of additional nests and 
chicks that would have been produced on FCMU roadsides, 1973*76, had no early 
roadside mowing occurred. These estimates are derived from calculations 
using (1) the percentage of nesting potential realized, (2) the number of 
nests hatched on roadsides in the FCMU, and (3) the number of chicks per nest 
hatched in roadside vegetation. If no early mowing had occurred on the FCMU 
over the past 4 years, an average of 6.7 additional pheasant chicks per 
section would have hatched in 1973; 22.1 in 1974, 6.0 in 1975; and 6.6 in 
1976 (Table 1, F). 
It is estimated that in 1975 an average of 56-9 chicks were hatched per 
section in nonrow crop cover. Thus, the 6.6 additional chicks per section 
that would have hatched if no early mow'ng had occurred would represent a 
substantial addition (11.6 percent) to the number of pheasants hatched on 
the FCMU last summer. 
Table 1. Additional pheasant chicks that would have hatched on roadsides 
(per section) if no early mowing (prior to 1 August) had occurred on the 
FCMU, 1973*76. 
_ Year _ 
T973 1974 1975 wS 
A. Percentage of nesting potential realized 
on FCMU roadsides- 93-4 77-1 72.8 75-8 
mMi HISTORY SURVEY 
t FEB U 1977 
LIBRARY 
