MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
December, 1 966 
Vol. 9, No. 12 
I. Pheasant Populations and Land Use 
S. L. Ettei 
The success of hunters on the Sibley Study Area during the I 966 pheasant 
hunting season was slightly higher than in 1965* Hunters interviewed during the 
I 966 season bagged a cock, on the average, every 6.2 hours, whereas an average of 
8.0 hours were required to bag a cock in 1965* Both these success rates were 
considerably lower than those in 19 & 2 , 19&3> ar| d 1964, when 3*3> 3*1> and 2.4 
hours per bagged cock, respectively, were spent in the field. 
The slightly higher success rate in 1966 did not, however, result in a greater 
proportionate harvest. To date, 20-3 percent of the tags from cocks captured in 
October and early November, 1966 , have been returned. I r. 1965; 20.0 percent of 
these tags were returned. Although these figures must be increased by about one- 
third to account for crippling loss and the failure of hunters to return all tags, 
it is obvious that the harvests were light and nearly equal in the last two seasons. 
These data tend to confirm field observations that there were fewer pheasant 
hunters in 1966 than in recent years, but that those who were in the field enjoyed 
slightly better hunting. 
During both the I 965 and 1966 hunting seasons the success rates of hunters 
were higher during the period following the opening weekend than during it. This 
is a complete reversal of the situation which prevailed from 1962 through 1964. 
These data suggest that the success rates and proportionate harvests in 1965 and 
’966 were at least as strongly influenced by the large acreages of corn which 
remained unharvested well into the hunting seasons as by the lower pheasant popu¬ 
lations of the past 2 years. 
2. Manipu!ation of Pheasant Habitat G. B. Joselyn 
For the years 1963 - 66 , the number of successful pheasant nests per acre on 
seeded roadsides (0.8 nest per acre) was at least twice that on managed and on 
unmanaged control roadsides and in each of six other cover types on the Sibley 
Study Area. Managed and unmanaged control roadsides each had 0.4 hatched nest per 
acre over the 4 years, as did strip cover and unharvested tame hay on the study 
area. Pastures (tame hay and bluegrass) produced 0.2 successful nest per acre, 
while small grains (oats and wheat), harvested tame hay, and nonagr icul tura 1 areas 
produced only 0.1 hatched nest per acre during the same period. It is particularly 
significant that per acre production in the cover type most closely resembling 
seeded roadsides (unharvested tame hay) was only half that on seeded roadsides. 
This may be partly because the cover in the unharvested hayfields on the study 
area is of lower quality than that on the seeded roadsides; most, if not all, of 
such hayfields are in the Federal Feed Grain Program, which prompts many farmers 
to use light seeding rates in their establishment, resulting in pheasant nesting 
cover of low quality. 
ifjlOiU.t 
