MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
April, 1373 
Vol. 16, No. 4 
Manipulation of P heasant Habitat 
G. B. Joselyn 
Data collected from the Sibley Study Area, 1963-72, show that on a per-acre 
basis, managed seeded roadsides produced about three times the number of successful 
pheasant nests as unmanaged roadsides. It is therefore reasonable to infer that 
seedings over a large area could nearly triple pheasant production on roadsides. 
However, the question of whether seedings over a sizable area would have sufficient 
impact on the pheasant population to justify the cost of the seedings remains 
unanswered. In evaluating the potential of managed seeded roadsides as a management 
tool, the question is to what extent they could be expected to supplement other 
production—not whether they could by themselves produce enough birds to insure a 
huntable population in a given area. 
At the beginning of this research project in I 962 , 9*4 percent of the land on 
the Sibley Study Area was in hay; by 1972 this percentage had dwindled to 2.6 
percent, with indications of further decreases in the future. Thus, it is possible 
that roadsides, only 1.3 percent of the study area, will constitute the largest 
segment of potential nesting cover for pheasants within a few years. 
In 1970, the 143.2 acres of managed seeded roadsides increased the hay acreage 
on the Ford County Management Unit (FCMU) from 402 to 551 acres (37 percent). 
At the same time, however, the acreage of unseeded roadside cover on the area was 
reduced by over 30 percent. In 1971* seeded roadsides increased the total hay 
acreage on the area from 310 to 459 acres (4G percent), but in 1972, more hay was 
present on the area than in recent years (463 acres), and the increase from the 
seeded roadsides was only 32 percent (to 618 acres). 
Changes in the Federal Feed Grain Program for 1973 portend a decline in hay 
acreage on the area this coming summer. Thus, this year the contribution of the 
seeded roadsides to total hay acreage on the area may exceed the 48 percent increase 
that occurred in 1371 • 
Ecology and Management of Squi rre~.s C. M. Nixon, 
R. E. Greenberg 
The squirrel hunting season in northern Illinois traditionally opens on 
September I, a month later than in southern Illinois. Our sample of 59 avid 
squirrel hunters in the Northern Conservation Zone averaged 2.63 squirrels killed 
per hunter trip during the hunting season of 1972 , compared with 2.88 squirrels 
per trip in the Southern Conservation Zone. Hunting success was slightly above 
average from September 1 to October 12 (2.67-2.74 squirrels per trip for each 2- 
week period) and somewhat below the season average from October 13 to November 15 
(2.33“2.34 squirrels per trip for each 2-week period). The highest rate of success 
NATURAL liiSTuii i SuRiltY 
MAY 91973 
