Wes. ^dds 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
November 1972 
Vol. 1 5 ) No. 11 
Pheasant Populations and Land Use G. B. Joselyn 
Hunting pressure on the Sibley Study Area during the opening weekend of the 
hunting season in 1972 was relatively light but, considering the stage of the 
soybean and corn harvest, was heavier than anticipated. It is believed that 
the study area had more standing crops on opening day this year than in any of 
the previous 10 years. The year 1967 is a close second, but during that year 
the soybean harvest was completed and the corn harvest was under way before wet 
weather set in. This year, neither the bean harvest nor the corn harvest was 
completed on opening day; it was estimated that 80 percent of the soybean crop 
and 40 percent of the corn crop had been harvested. Very little fall plowing 
has been completed. 
This year, 123 hunters were interviewed on the study area on the opening 
weekend. They hunted 397 man-hours and killed 55 pheasants (7*2 hours per 
bird). In 1971, when the harvest was virtually complete and fall plowing 
well under way, bagging a pheasant took only 1.4 hours. In only 2 years since 
1962 has bagging a pheasant during the opening weekend taken longer than 7 
hours (8.0 hours in 1965* 8.1 hours in 1967)* The numbers of hours in the 
field to kill a pheasant, 1962 through 1970, were, respectively, 2.2, 2 . 7 , 2.1, 
8 . 0 , 6 . 9 , 8 . 1 , 5 » 0 , 4.3 and 4-7 hours. 
The lengthy time required to bag a pheasant this year is a direct result 
of the standing crops and the lack of fall plowing on the study area. Most 
pheasants were taken out of standing corn, where hunters reported that the birds 
were plentiful. 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat G. B. Joselyn 
In the last Monthly Wildlife Research Letter (15(10):1), it was reported 
that densities of pheasant nests this year ( 1972 ) on seeded roadside plots 
(2.5 nests per acre) represented a 29 percent decline in the rate of establish¬ 
ment from 1971 (3.5 nests per acre). The highest nest density reported over 
the past 10 years on seeded plots was 3.8 nests per acre in 1964; the low was 
1.7 nests per acre in 1 969 . Nest densities on managed control plots in 1972 
averaged 1.3 nests per acre, 46 percent less than the average of 2.4 nests per 
acre in 1971 * 
Successful nest production (1.1 nests per acre) on seeded plots in 1972 
represented a substantial increase (57 percent) over 1971 (0.7 nest per acre) 
and only the second time since 1963 that unit area production on seeded plots 
has exceeded one hatched nest per acre (there were 1.1 successful nests per 
