4 
NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY 
FuB 2 1971 
LIBRARY 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
January, 1971 
Vol. 14, No. 1 
1. Pheasant Populations and Land Use S. L. Etter, 
R. E. Greenberg 
Each summer the land use on the Sibley Study Area has been recorded on 
aerial photographs. Until this year (1970), however, calculations of the 
percentages of land in various cover types have been projected from detailed 
cover maps for 100, 10-acre plots. Recently, the acreages of all cover 
types except row crops (corn and soybeans) were calculated from aerial 
photographs for the years 1962-70. 
These data revealed that the percentages of the study area in small 
grains (oats and wheat) for the years 1962-70, respectively, were 14.9> 
13 . 8 , 8.4, 6.4, 4.5, 4.0, 6.1, 8.0, and 4.4. Percentages of the study area 
in hay and hay pastures during the same period were 12.0, 11»5> 7«0, 5»3> 
4.0, 3 . 6 , 3 . 1 , 3 . 3 , and 3 . 2 . 
Although the percentages of cover types projected from the 100, 
10-acre plots were indicative of the trend toward fewer forage crops, there 
were notable discrepancies in individual years. Thus, the considerable effort 
required to calculate all of the acreages of cover types on the entire study 
area appears to be worthwhile in providing accurate acreages for comparison 
with various indices of pheasant numbers. 
2. Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat G. B. Joselyn 
Data collected from the Sibley Study Area between 1 963 and 1970 show 
that on a per-acre basis, managed seeded roadsides produced about twice the 
number of successful pheasant nests as unmanaged roadsides. It is therefore 
reasonable to infer that seedings over a large area could also nearly double 
pheasant production on roadsides. However, the question of whether seedings 
over a sizable area would have sufficient impact on the pheasant population 
to justify their cost 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. 
