A little background:
Our hunting cabin is partially surrounded by property private property open to public hunting that is held to conserve it. Most of that land is idle farmland. A wooded creek bottom surrounded by idle fields. Most of these fields are a mix of mostly golden rod, other misc weeds and some native grass with areas getting more woody with scrub pine, autumn olive, wild rose and briers. This property is perhaps a couple hundred acres of "pheasant like habitat" that is otherwise surrounded by mature forestland that wouldn't support pheasants. There are a couple of clear cuts less than 5 years old that border these idle fields that may support winter cover for pheasants and the few wild grouse in the area like it. Although not directly next to this idle farnland, there is a small (300 yard strip of woods) separating the nature conservancy property from active farm land that does occasionally grow corn on it. This area is in south central PA and thus it will in all likelihood convert back to woods one day. But while it stays "somewhat pheasant like" in habitat, my father and I decided to stock 30 pheasants on this property to hunt this year. We stocked 20 hens and 10 cock birds.
Before we stocked our own birds this year, we had seen a handful of both cock and hen birds in the area. This intrigued us as we are at least 10 miles from the nearest SGL where birds are stocked and a mountain separates that distance. I guess a few birds could funnel in over the years?
So on to my questions! Thanks for bearing with me...
Obviously, the described habitat is not ideal. Far too much mature woodland, too few ag crops, fractured habitat as in the pheasants have to utilized mature wooded areas to connect to other more "pheasant like habitats", perhaps other issues as well... But it's what I got to work with!
For those of you who are pheasant knowledgeable... With there being minimal ag crops available, what will these released birds feed on? We stocked then the day before the opener and are still flushing birds over 2 weeks later. We've only shot 6 cock birds and 4 hens. So only 1/3 of the stocked birds. I am sure hawks, owls, bobcats, etc have eaten their fair share, but some are still left... When I cut the crop open on the two birds I shot this past Friday it was full of unknown weed seeds and a few wild grapes. So it seems the birds have adapted to life in the wild. What can I expect? Will some of these birds take hold perhaps, or is this a pipe dream? Should I just realize this will be a sole stock and shoot situation?
Thanks for bearing with me through this long post, but I know there are some VERY knowledgeable folks on here who can give me some good answers...
Our hunting cabin is partially surrounded by property private property open to public hunting that is held to conserve it. Most of that land is idle farmland. A wooded creek bottom surrounded by idle fields. Most of these fields are a mix of mostly golden rod, other misc weeds and some native grass with areas getting more woody with scrub pine, autumn olive, wild rose and briers. This property is perhaps a couple hundred acres of "pheasant like habitat" that is otherwise surrounded by mature forestland that wouldn't support pheasants. There are a couple of clear cuts less than 5 years old that border these idle fields that may support winter cover for pheasants and the few wild grouse in the area like it. Although not directly next to this idle farnland, there is a small (300 yard strip of woods) separating the nature conservancy property from active farm land that does occasionally grow corn on it. This area is in south central PA and thus it will in all likelihood convert back to woods one day. But while it stays "somewhat pheasant like" in habitat, my father and I decided to stock 30 pheasants on this property to hunt this year. We stocked 20 hens and 10 cock birds.
Before we stocked our own birds this year, we had seen a handful of both cock and hen birds in the area. This intrigued us as we are at least 10 miles from the nearest SGL where birds are stocked and a mountain separates that distance. I guess a few birds could funnel in over the years?
So on to my questions! Thanks for bearing with me...
Obviously, the described habitat is not ideal. Far too much mature woodland, too few ag crops, fractured habitat as in the pheasants have to utilized mature wooded areas to connect to other more "pheasant like habitats", perhaps other issues as well... But it's what I got to work with!
For those of you who are pheasant knowledgeable... With there being minimal ag crops available, what will these released birds feed on? We stocked then the day before the opener and are still flushing birds over 2 weeks later. We've only shot 6 cock birds and 4 hens. So only 1/3 of the stocked birds. I am sure hawks, owls, bobcats, etc have eaten their fair share, but some are still left... When I cut the crop open on the two birds I shot this past Friday it was full of unknown weed seeds and a few wild grapes. So it seems the birds have adapted to life in the wild. What can I expect? Will some of these birds take hold perhaps, or is this a pipe dream? Should I just realize this will be a sole stock and shoot situation?
Thanks for bearing with me through this long post, but I know there are some VERY knowledgeable folks on here who can give me some good answers...