Where have all the pheasants gone?

[krawler]

Suppose i wanted to try and release some birds in my neck of the woods just to see if they would stick. Where could i buy a few dozen birds and when would be a good time to release them? i understand about natural insticts of the bird and having difficulty with them reproducing but ive often wondered why they wouldnt thrive in my hunting area. Could be a lost cause but id like to try. any help?

[Dythbringer]

Suppose i wanted to try and release some birds in my neck of the woods just to see if they would stick. Where could i buy a few dozen birds and when would be a good time to release them? i understand about natural insticts of the bird and having difficulty with them reproducing but ive often wondered why they wouldnt thrive in my hunting area. Could be a lost cause but id like to try. any help?

krawler,

I would tred very lightly doing this. While you are allowed to release up to 10 pheasants for the purposes of hunting them without a permit from the ministry, you aren't allowed to release pheasants with the intention of establishing a population without ministry approval. Also from a standpoint of releasing pheasants to establish a population, unless you have a sizable tract of suitable habitat which no one else can either hunt or have access to, those pheasants may or may not stick around and/or they may be hunted fairly hard depending on access to them.

At the very least you could be doing an exercise in futility. At the worst, you could be in hot water with the MNRF.

Dyth

[welsh]

Where there are pockets of wild birds, releasing pen-raised birds will do more harm than good.

Nova Scotia released pen-raised birds in the 1960s after their wild populations crashed, but they stopped doing this when they found that all they had succeeded in doing was to accelerate the decline of the wild birds.

[rornato]

Grew up in the Old South in the sixties. My Grandfather used to hunt pheasant and rabbit in Lambeth/Byron area before annexation.

[Couliewalker]

Where have they gone?
The way of the Dodo.
Lack of management from the Mnrf ,the taking of hens.Allowing the taking of cow moose will have the same effect on the moose population.
Back in the 40's when Minnesota had bludgeoning pheasant populations and again in the 60's they allowed the taking of one hen in the daily bag as a control to lower populations.Ont has always allowed the taking of hens.
Lack of protection from early hay mowing,too many predators ,lack of protection against herbicides,too many Liberals.
That's what happened to the Pheasant.Its not lack of habitat.Its lack of management tools,lack of protective legislation.There are no rules protecting any game animals on private property in S Ont.Fish and fish habitat yes,not the same for other wildlife.
Huns and quail have suffered the same affliction.

[outdoorlife]

While the areas offering remaining pheasant release programs are busy places, it’s mostly because there are only a couple of them. I’m grateful for them they serve as my main training ground for the dog but I spend more time hunting grouse and grouse hunting on mostly public land I haven’t run into another upland hunter with dog afield in 15+ years. I run into bow hunters, waterfowlers, rabbit hunters running hounds but never other upland hunters.

I think the problem is participation and interest. Mainly, there isn’t nearly enough of either in Ontario to drive an upland program on a large scale. Managing a game species with a put and take component or reestablishing a healthy wild population are massively time and $ consuming. We only need to look at the struggles groups like the Lake Huron fishing club are having staying viable. The fundraising and volunteer inputs required are daunting. The interest in sustainable upland hunting is fringe at best, even amongst avid hunters.

on the positive, if we few remaining upland hunters are willing to put the leg work in, there’s plenty of good grouse hunting in southern Ontario with little to no competition. For me, exploring bush lots and old logging roads is time better Spent over fundraisers and raising/releasing birds. Why try to pound a square peg through a round hole? Go with watcha got.....

[BDH]

Interesting discussion here.... South Dakota famous for its pheasants has many of its birds raised and released. This is state sponsored and to keep the important tourist business. With the biologist findings if true, the pheasant capital will be released birds only. Changing birds but New York state will not allow the release of domestic ducks on state land siting a Duck Unlimited report that a high percentage of mallards were found to have domestic DNA. As one New York bird farmer said, in the 60's they paid me to raise mallards to support the tourist trade of duck hunting , now I am being penalized by not being able to train my dog on state lands.

[fishfood]

Interesting discussion here.... South Dakota famous for its pheasants has many of its birds raised and released. This is state sponsored and to keep the important tourist business. With the biologist findings if true, the pheasant capital will be released birds only. Changing birds but New York state will not allow the release of domestic ducks on state land siting a Duck Unlimited report that a high percentage of mallards were found to have domestic DNA. As one New York bird farmer said, in the 60's they paid me to raise mallards to support the tourist trade of duck hunting , now I am being penalized by not being able to train my dog on state lands.

I dont think south Dakota had always raised the birds. I think they had a healthy population of reproducing birds before the the blizzard of 49. The blizzard of 49 virtually wiped out the entire population of them and took a deadly toll on many other live stock. They had a program where they flew food in from planes and dropped it near the heards of cattle. It was the only way reason the rest of the herds survived.

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[sabmgb]

I remember hunting pheasants with my dad and just jumping the fence after school to go hunt them. I hunted them till I was probably mid 20's. Yes the marshes and some other areas in my area still have pheasants but not many. Back then there were fence rows that were wide and creeks that had brush and weeds for 10 yds on each side. Now most fence rows are gone the ones that are still there are plowed right to the fence, creeks are plowed almost to the water edge. Can't really blame the farmer, he needs to get as much as he can out of the land he has. Government needs to maybe give a break in the tax's or something to if they leave a bit of ground for the wildlife. Everywhere I go I see more wood lots being cut down or the fence rows being pulled out

[Sharon]

Grew up in the Old South in the sixties. My Grandfather used to hunt pheasant and rabbit in Lambeth/Byron area before annexation.

and my father and me also hunted on both sides of the Winery hill.