Posts Tagged ‘Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’

Pheasant Dewy Decimal System

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

If hunters thrive on knowledge, then the annual August roadside pheasant surveys that many states conduct helps them begin cataloging information for the upcoming hunting season.

Last Thursday, I tagged along – and was put to work – during a route for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Along with Molly Tranel, Wildlife Research/Habitat Evaluation Biologist Farmland Wildlife Populations & Research for the department, I charted sightings during a 25-mile route south and west of Madelia, Minnesota’s self-proclaimed “Pheasant Capital.”

Like South Dakota, Iowa and other states, data from this individual route will be compiled with hundreds of similar routes from across the state; complete results will be available after Labor Day. We’ll have a Pheasants Forever “Storm Report” video from the ride-a-along soon, but a few photos give an indication of how the route went.

Conducting the route is condition dependent on a dewy morning with sunny skies. Such mornings filter pheasants on to gravel roads to dry off and pick up grit.

Tranel gets out to glass a freshly-cut wheat field. In addition to pheasants, the survey is designed to count a few other game animals, including mourning doves, which were found in abundance at this particular spot.

The Minnesota DNR and other states discourage mowing before August 1st to protect pheasant nests and broods. They can control it along state managed areas such as this one found on the route, but along private areas this sight was virtually nonexistent.

The route contained some great habitat along a river valley, but the only brood spotted was seen along this cut ditch between two corn fields.

A sharp eye is needed to spot pheasants during the route. Along with one brood, we charted a hen and a rooster pheasant, five Hungarian partridge, hundreds of mourning doves, waterfowl and songbirds during the survey. Can you spot the pheasant?

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