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 
May, I 977 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat 
R- E. Warner 
One potential limitation to developing roadside vegetation as nest cover 
for pheasants is the possibility of initiating or intensifying the use of 
roads.des as travelways for mammalian species that prey a/the nest sites 
o? rate e of e ": ° f ba evaluated"n th^ b«is 
or rates of nest success and predation. 
mental "Roadsides " eSt Studies ° f pheasants on the Sibley Experi- 
mental Roadsides (searched for nests from I 963 to I 972 ) and the Experimental 
the ? ‘T rched / r0m 1966 t0 l97 °) pro ''> daa a wa y to compare nest su««I on 
F^eld located 0 - a l eas -- roa f ide (strip) and field (block). The Experimental 
in September N 6 S G ThTpi * TownShlp ’ Livingston County, was established 
in September I 965 . The 24-acre rectangular field was divided into 4n n 
tnd^O it ^tr^ h" t r ° me ’ 10 in brome - alfalfa t 10 in alfalfa-red clover, 
and 10 in timothy, orchard grass, brome, alfalfa, and red clover For the 
mitr °J. co " par, ?9 nest success and predation in the field versus F the roadside 
F,,M iS considered a " entity. This consideration 
•nd h«th did dlfSl°I ? 9 y -I- "“f 1 "?' and ratSS ° f preda t' on , abandonment, 
did not differ significantly (P^ 0 . 05 ) among vegetational plot types. 
The Sibley Experimental Roadsides in Sullivan Township, Ford Countv 
tllilll P i°!* T d ? d in l9&2 t0 a mixture ° f tim °thy, orchard grass^brome, 
seedinos lefl^ °° V ‘!'7 ** We " aS mana 9 ed control plots adjacent to the 
m W a e n r : 9 irc r ^IroI n ti:II y -| 3 «•.%,.n't^^on'orE'** 
managed control plots closely approached that of the seeded roadside plots 
Vegetation on the roadsides and in the field was dominated by bromegrass. 
nests D on i Ihe t sIblII i roadsM‘ 72 ’ ^ averase ° f 30 ' 2 percent of the Pheasant 
sts on the Sibley roadsides were successful. The averaqe for 1966-70 was 
nests^hatched • V ,h 'r ' 5 SamS 3 ~ year period > 32.5 percent of all established 
roadsides°and field 6 f xpenmen ,L a l Fie,d - Thus, for the 5 years in which both 
ideni III Ilabll M A Searched the overall success of nesting was nearly 
important ^IHolJear llells ^' 0 " ° f **" dat3 ’ h ™’ “» 
roadsIde S ilniI iCant . variat l on (£- 0 . 05 ) in the rate of nest success on the 
Field Iucl«s vIIiedT f - TO " 9 , th ? VearS l963 ' 72 - the Experimental 
is an Imnnll d t 9 "' f " can ' 1 ' y (P^O.005 among the years l 9 66-70. It 
is an important fact that nest success was unusually high(61 .5 percent) the 
mmi HISTORY SURVEY 
'JON 8 1977 
LIBRARY 
