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MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
December, 197*+ 
Vol. 17, No. 12 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat 
G. B. Joselyn 
Data collected from 1963 through 1972 on selected roadsides on the Sibley 
study area (SSA) that were seeded to an a 1 fa 1fa-bromegrass mixture showed that 
such cover, when left unmowed, constitutes highly desirable and productive 
cover for nesting pheasants. In a pilot management program undertaken by the 
Department of Conservation in 1 968 , over 90 percent of the roadsides in and 
abutting the 16-square-mile Ford County Management Unit (FCMU) were seeded or 
treated with nitrogen, or both, to enhance pheasant nest cover. 
One of the goals of this pilot program was to study the possible effects of 
such an extensive roadside seeding on pheasant numbers in the area. Numbers of 
cock pheasants observed per mile of road driven in spring, calculated numbers 
of cocks and hens per square mile in spring, and calculated numbers of juveniles 
per square mile in August had all showed nearly the same or fewer pheasants on 
t ^ 1an on SSA or in Game Region 4, the prime pheasant range of 
Illinois, for the 4 years prior to maturity of the seedings. For the first 4 
years after maturity of the seedings, all indices for the FCMU indicated 1.5 
to 2.5 times more pheasants than either the counts at Sibley or those for Game 
Region 4. 
To conclude that the increase in pheasants on the FCMU was a direct result 
of the seedings, although tempting, was considered somewhat premature. Conse- 
quently, nest studies on the FCMU were carried out in 1 973 and 1974 and on the 
SSA in 1974 in an attempt to clarify population data and to demonstrate the 
contribution of roadsides on the two areas (seeded on the FCMU; unseeded on the 
SSA; to total pheasant production. 
Data in Table l show that seeded roadsides on the FCMU contributed sub¬ 
stantially to total production on the area during both years (10 of 26 successful 
nests per section, 38 percent of the total in 1973 ; and 9 of 15 successful nests 
per section, 60 percent in 1974). Comparison of data derived from both areas 
shows that the difference in average successful nest production per section 
between the two areas in 1974 (SSA, 7+ nests per section; FCMU, 15+ nests per 
section) was almost entirely attributable to production from seeded roadsides. 
Thus, average successful nest production from cover types other than managed 
roadside cover was nearly the same on both areas in 1 974 (SSA, 5+ nests per 
section; FCMU, 6+ nests per section), whereas the seeded roadsides on the FCMU 
produced 4.5 times more nests per section ( 9 ) than did the unseeded roadsides 
on the SSA (2). 
NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY 
JAN 1 0 1975 
