Did some pheasant hunting this morning and dropped 5 birds between me and my sister I shot 4... 

Very nice.  If that were Illinois, I'd say you'd have depleted the entire county.  I miss the days when pheasant were more common.  Beautiful birds! 

On February 9, 2016 at 1:58 PM, Ratherbfishing said:

Very nice.  If that were Illinois, I'd say you'd have depleted the entire county.  I miss the days when pheasant were more common.  Beautiful birds! 

Yea I'm in California hunting on a private ranch and there are a lot of birds out there!

We used to have tons of birds around here but with the MUCH larger farms and much less habitat, one is lucky to see one or two birds a year.  That and the coyotes (which HAVE made a comeback) have made pheasants around here pretty much a thing of the past (which I greatly mourn).  I'm glad some places still have them.  I wonder if there is any difference between our "once" pheasants and yours.

Two words: Modern Agriculture.  Its about removing marginal land (bird habitat) and turning it into crop production.  Predation and local weather (winter, heavy spring rain) can also play a role but the biggest factor right now is loss of habitat.

Yep, mostly loss of habitat.  All (most) of the farmers around here mow all the roadsides-and not just near the intersections.  Like it's going to kill them to leave a little habitat standing.  

I went out this afternoon.  It was about 10 degrees here today but there's fresh snow on the ground and there was no wind.  I got my limit of 3 roosters in about 2.5 hours.  I probably saw 50 pheasants total.  I left the house at 11 drove an hour north, hunted for 2.5 hours, and was back home by 4 with my limit.  Beats going into work!