HAIURAL HiSTOIIV SURVEY 
OCT 14 1982 
\ 
a 
LIBRARY 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Illinois Federal Aid Projects W-66-R, W-87-R, and W-88-R 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Eva Steger, Editors 
Champaign, Illinois September, 1932 
Vol. 25, No. 9 
Manipulati on of Pheasant Habitat - W-66-R nr- 
—-- R.E. Warner 
for cJ Pr?n9 3nd SUmmer 1982 are summarized in Table 1 
Prai rip r ! ^ Area (SSA) ’ Ford Count Y Management Unit (FCMU), and Anchor, 
/p . . G , g"' Harwood areas. Personnel from the Department of Conservation 
(Project W-85-D) assisted with the censuses. 
The average density of breeding cocks in May (Table 1) was the lowest 
recorded since all 5 areas have been simultaneously censused, beginning in 1976 
The magn.tude of declines registered by both the Hey end August counts tended to 
increase from west to east. For example, the decline in numbers of pheasants 
was greater in the Harwood and Prairie Green areas, located in Champaign and 
Iroquois counties respectively, than in areas located to the west in Ford and 
McLean counties. On the SSA and Anchor areas, brood counts were relatively 
unchanged from 1 98 1 (Table 1). y 
Table 1. The average number of cock calls per 2-minute stop (May) and broods 
observed per 100 miles along transect routes (August) on 5 study areas in east 
central Illinois, 1982. 
May Cock Calls 
August 
Broods 
Cal 1 s/stop 
(x)~ 
Decline 
(*) 
Broods/ 
100 mi. 
Decline 
(*)£ 
SSA 
1.4 
26 
1.8 
6 
FCMU 
3.6 
50 
2.5 
33 
Anchor 
1.5 
52 
3.2 
3 
Prairie Green 
4.6 
43 
2.5 
34 
Harwood 
4.4 
44 
0.6 
39 
X 
3.1 
43 
2.3 
33 
The average of the 5 highest counts per station, for 9 different cock call 
stations. 
Percent decline from 1981 for the same census. 
