Forecast: With a mild winter and favorable spring nesting weather, Illinois is poised to have a 2016 season at least as good as last year’s, says Stan McTaggart, agriculture and grassland wildlife program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
“Areas with good habitat could see a few more birds around this fall,” says McTaggart. A pheasant study by the University of Illinois and IDNR in east-central Illinois showed that most broods were big enough to withstand storms that occurred in July and August. Radio-collared hens had high nest success and recruitment in the good habitat provided on state habitat areas as well as privately owned and managed state acres for wildlife Conservation Reserve Program contracts, McTaggart reports.
Furthermore, an upland survey of 20-mile routes conducted during peak breeding and nesting seasons showed a slight increase in pheasant numbers, compared with the last couple of years, but less than the most recent 10-year average.
McTaggart says the annual pheasant report will be posted by Oct. 1.
“From the statewide perspective, more farm bill Pollinator Habitat has been planted in Illinois over the last year, and these new plantings can be very productive for pheasants, quail and other grassland birds,” says McTaggart. (Illinois ranks second in Pollinator Habitat acreage.) Unfortunately, he says, other grassland acres are lost to development and row crops each year as the total amount of high-quality grassland habitat continues to decline.
Field Notes: Researchers from the University of Illinois are completing a study in east-central Illinois with information on habitat requirements that they shared with wildlife managers during two “pheasant field days,” reports McTaggart. In choosing winter cover, nesting cover, and brood habitat, radio-collared pheasants preferred scattered but not dense native warm-season grasses mixed with sturdy forbs and annual weeds that stood up to winter storms but provided areas beneath for walking and nesting.
Season Dates: Area 1 (North): November 5, 2016 through January 8, 2017; Area 2 (South): November 5, 2015 through January 15, 2017
Daily Bag Limit: 2
Possession Limit: 6 for first day of season, and 4 thereafter
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