By Staff
The other day Dowagiac Police Chief, Tom Atkinson, and I were jawing the fat and, as always, the topic came around to bird hunting. I'm mostly a grouse and woodcock advocate but Tom's love affair is with pheasants. I enjoyed hearing about the latest annual hunt he and his brother, Richard, make to South Dakota "It was a great year out there," Tom said, "birds upon birds upon birds." That got me thinking about the question I'm probably asked the most – why don't we have pheasants around here any more?
Actually, there is the odd pheasant still hanging on by a toenail in Cass County and recently Berrien County has seen a minor pheasant resurgence, though inconsequential compared to the good old days. I remember those good old days back in the 1960s when you could reasonably expect to go out after school and come home with more than enough for a scrumptious dinner. Of course, those days long ago went to join the kiwi bird and aardvark.
There was much speculation about things like changes in weather patterns. "It's all them foxes," many proclaimed after fur trapping became socially incorrect. "No, it's them dad gummed hawks and owls," others countered. Herbicides and pesticides were also common fodder for speculation. Perhaps these things played some role but our weather is certainly milder than the pheasant rich Dakotas, predators and prey have been getting along well from time immemorial and herbicides and pesticides have become far more environmentally friendly. No, the answer lies where it most always does with species decline, loss of habitat.
As pointed out by Pheasants Forever biologists, pheasants require a diverse ecosystem containing special components. Specifically, they need nesting and brood raising cover, which is grasslands, wide roadsides, grassy borders around wetlands and wide, grassy fencerows. These areas must contain a variety of forbs for food and to attract protein rich insects. They must also be void of trees that provide hunting perches for hawks and owls. Most importantly, they must not be mowed or herbicided until late summer. They also need roosting cover, which is dense, brushy grasslands and overgrown fallow areas void of raptor perching trees. They need escape cover, similarly dense areas that are difficult for foxes, coyotes, dogs and cats to navigate and that provide sheltered escape routes to other safe havens. They need winter cover that doesn't pack down under snow such as dense, brushy areas, cattail marshes and/or grasses and reeds. And, of course, they need food throughout, grain fields, berry bushes and weedy areas that provide seeds and insects. If any one of these is missing from the equation pheasants can't survive.
Our landscape has changed drastically since the days of the pheasant. The change has been so gradual it is largely unnoticed but look at what we have today. Fields run right up to fences, wetlands, woodlands and roadsides. If there is some grass and brush it is very narrow, making it a death trap for pheasants when predators come a-calling. Our roadsides are continually herbicided and mowed from spring through fall. Hay is being mowed earlier and earlier, crushing eggs and dicing up the pheasant chicks.
Many folks today are planting prairie plots in hopes of drawing pheasants. It's a noble but nearly impossible task. Unfortunately, you can't just plant a few acres of prairie grasses then sit back and watch the pheasants pour in. Pheasants need all the aforementioned types of habitat and lots of it. It's the lots of it part that's tough. Even with perfect habitat just one isolated area can't sustain a viable population of pheasants. They need county sized areas of habitat. To have pheasants return farmers would have to change their practices, leaving wide fencerows and areas of fallow land and refrain from mowing hay until mid-July, none of which does much for profits. Highway departments would have to do more manual clearing of roadsides, which is costly. But who knows?
Maybe with enough people doing a little a few pheasants may be able to hang on. At the very least we're giving all the other grassland species a huge boost. Carpe diem.