New to Pheasants - Questions and Pictures

[jtkMI]

Hello all,

I am new to the forum, and just beginning to dabble with hunting pheasants. I'm from Michigan, and we certainly do not have a strong population, but there are opportunities. I have only ever hunted the December season here. Before this year I had taken a few of the put and take birds, but this year (through much scouting) I have found some wild birds to chase.

I do not have a dog, and so far my hunting has been a solo endeavor. I have connected on one rooster, but have been seeing quite a few birds. I have a few questions and some pictures to share as well.

1) My flush rate has been far more hens than roosters. My two best days were 9 hens to 1 rooster and 5 hens to 2 roosters. From what I have read, this pretty typical in good habitat? Is this pretty typical?

2) I've found some scratching in high traffic areas and wondered what the pheasants could be eating here this time of year. I'll attach pictures. Might it just be them gathering grit?

3)I've hunted one of my spots 3 times and the newer one I've found only once. These are all public areas. Is it good to limit pressure on the birds this time of year with the weather? Or is that not really a concern?

Thanks in advance. I'll share some pictures here of the cover I've been finding birds in as well. We have quite a bit of snow on the ground.

 

[Golden Hour]

1. Those are typical hen:rooster ratios. It is also worth mentioning that roosters are runners and just because a guy is seeing a lot of hens, it is not an indication that the roosters are all gone. They're likely around somewhere.

2. Pheasants will eat a variety of foods. In the pic, I'd guess they were foraging for some type of seed. Perhaps frozen insects. Not sure, but they certainly scratch the ground up in search of food and grit.

3. Pheasants are a lot tougher than folks give them credit for. Most times I don't go hunting because of the cold/weather, it's because I don't want to deal with it as opposed to it being dangerous to the birds. At the end of the day, it is up to the hunter to use his/her sense of whether or not what they are doing is harmful to the birds as there are too many variables to set a standard of "don't hunt if its less than XX degrees" or "don't flush the birds from cover if it's snowing".

Good luck!

 

[Goosemaster]

Get a dog and move west.

 

[ben ji]

The first year I went hunting was without a dog and I would just walk the thick spots of CRP and try and get anything that flushed. I know I got at least one but I was hooked.

The next year I got a bird dog and saw 10x as many birds at the same spot vs walking it solo, plus it makes it a lot more enjoyable watching the dog work. If you are serious about it a dog is a must.

As for roosters vs hens I feel like they tend to group up by sex alot more in the winter. If I flush one rooster there is typically 1-2 more around or flushing at the same time. Hens will tend to stay hidden until the last possible second, sometimes they will be within kicking distance before they flush and scare the shit out of you...The roosters don't have as good of camo as the hens so they probably took off running first and now there are 3-4 of them grouped up 50-100 yards away from where you flushed the hens at.