HISTOltY SURVEY 
JUL 1 5 1968 
mm 
Monthly Wildlife Research Letter 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
June, 1968 
Vo 1. 11, No. 6 
I. Pheasant Populations and Land Use S. L. Etter, R. E. Greenberg 
Analysis of the fates of 846 pheasant nests located in hayfields on 100, 10- 
acre plots on the Sibley Study Area during the period 1982-67 revealed that 17 
percent (144) of these nests were successful. Success rates of nests in individual 
hayfields differed considerably as a result of the farming practices to which the 
nests were subjected. Success rates of nests in unharvested hayfields, harvested 
hayfields, and hay pastures were 34, 10, and 21 percent, respectively. On the 
assumption that the success rates of nests established in harvested hay and hay 
pasture, had the nests remained undisturbed, would have equaled that of nests in 
unharvested hay, grazing and hay mowing resulted in the destruction of about half 
of the potentially successful nests in this cover type. 
Since nests located in hayfields accounted for 58 percent of the total number 
of nests found during this period, nest losses resulting from hay mowing and grazing 
are of considerable importance in pheasant production. These data demonstrate the 
drastic effect of farming operations on the nesting ecology of pheasants in east- 
central Illinois. 
2. Manipulat ion of Pheasant Habitat G. B. Joselyn 
Since I 963 , vegetation on seeded and on managed control roadside plots has been 
studied to determine changes in plant-species composition (frequency of occurrence) 
and the percentages of top cover contributed by various species. Two locations on 
each 220-yard plot (one on each half) and four locations on each 440-yard plot (two 
on each half) were selected at random. At each location three vegetative samples 
were taken (one each on the foreslope, ditch, and backs lope) with a foot-square 
quadrat during mid-July. Information was recorded on species occurrence, height, 
and contribution of each to total top cover in each quadrat. During the 5 years, 
1963-67, 1,552 quadrats were taken on seeded plots. Data thus obtained provide 
insights into vegetative changes on the plots over the 5-year period. 
Of the five species of grasses and legumes seeded on roadsides in 1962, only 
brome grass (Bromus spp.) increased in frequency of occurrence as the plots grew 
older. On 1-year-old plots, brome occurred in 66 percent of the quadrats taken, 
and increased each year thereafter to where 98 percent of the quadrats taken on 
plots 5 years old contained brome. Alfalfa ( Medicago sativa ) appeared in 72 percent 
of the quadrats on year-old plots but decreased slightly to 65 percent on plots 
5 years of age. Red clover ( Trifolium pratense ) was present in half the quadrats 
the 1st year after establishment but dropped to only 8 percent occurrence the 2nd 
year; by the 5th year, red clover was present in less than 1 percent of the quadrats 
taken. Timothy (Phl eum pratense) and orchard grass ( Dactylis qlomerata )were present 
in from 10 to 20 percent of the quadrats in each age group. 
