KAIiyi HISTORY SURVFV 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Illinois Federal Aid Project W-66-R 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, 
Glen C. Sanderson and Eva Steger, Editors 
DEC 1 2 1979 
LIBRARY 
Cooperating 
Urbana, Illinois 
November, 1979 
Vol. 22, No. 11 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat R. E. Warner 
Pheasant hunters on the Sibley Study Area (SSA) and Ford County Management 
Unit (FCMU) were interviewed on 10-11 November 1979 to determine their hunting 
success during opening weekend of the upland game season. The data presented in 
Table 1 suggest that hunters spent more time per cock harvested in 1979 than in 
1978. 
The decline in hunter success this fall compared with last fall seems 
incongruent with the increase in numbers of pheasants on the study areas from 
1978 to 1979 (MWRL 22(10):1). Without exception, hunters reported sighting more 
pheasants this opening weekend than 1 year ago. Twenty-two of the 26 parties 
interviewed sighted at least 1 cock pheasant but only 14 of the parties bagged 
1 or more birds. 
The unexpected decline in success by hunters is explained in part by 
comparing the progress of farm field activities during the last 2 fall seasons. 
In 1978, the harvest and subsequent discing or plowing of row crop stubble was 
nearly completed on the study areas by the start of the upland game season. Thus, 
pheasants were concentrated in comparatively few acreages of permanent or residual 
cover and were relatively accessible to hunters. 
This fall (1979)> harvest and plowing activities were behind those of 1978, 
although they were nearly average for the last 5 years. At the start of the 
pheasant season this November, a few unharvested cornfields remained on the study 
areas, and no more than 50% of the corn stubble was plowed. Hunters located most 
of the pheasants in corn stubble. 
Because the numbers of hunters have declined in recent years, the proportion 
of residual cover actually worked by hunters in 1979 was unusually low. Pheasants 
flushed in corn stubble tended to flush wild, were assisted in manuvering away 
from hunters by strong winds, and often relocated in fields unworked by hunters. 
