| According to a DNR wildlife research biologist,
pheasants follow a schedule as routine as your daily commute to
and from work. Understanding the pheasant's daily movements can
increase your odds of flushing a rooster. "Pheasants start
their day before sunrise at roost sites, usually in areas of
short- to medium-height grass or weeds, where they spend the
night." That's the word from Dick Kimmel, research biologist at
the DNR Farmland Wildlife Research and Populations Station at
Madelia. Kimmel says that at first light, pheasants head for
roadsides or similar areas where they can find gravel or grit.
Pheasants usually begin feeding around 8 a.m. When shooting
hours begin an hour later, the birds are still feeding, often in
grain fields while cautiously making their way toward safe
cover. "Look for the edges of picked cornfields," says Kimmel,
who regularly hunts southwestern Minnesota with his English
setter, Banjo.
By mid-morning, pheasants have left the fields for the
densest, thickest cover they can find, such as a standing corn,
federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields, brush
patches, wetlands, or native grasses. Kimmel says the birds will
"hunker down here for the day until late afternoon."
It's next to impossible for small hunting groups of two to
three hunters to work large fields of standing corn. Pheasants
often run to avoid predators, a response that frustrates dogs
and hunters working corn, soybean, and alfalfa fields. Groups of
two or three hunters usually have better success working grass
fields, field edges, or fencerows. Other likely spots during
midday are ditch banks and deep into marshes. Remember: The
nastier the weather, the deeper into cover the pheasant will go.
But eventually, pheasants have to eat again. During the late
afternoon, the birds move from their loafing spots back to the
feeding areas. As in the morning, birds now are easier to spot
from a distance and are more accessible to hunters. "That's why
the first and last shooting hours are consistently the best
times to hunt pheasants.dds.
We hope you enjoy these great Pheasant hunting tips. |