Pheasants - $6m question

Wolfhillbilly

This may or may not have been debated on here before but I'll bring it up anyway - straying pheasants - what the hell can you do about them?
This year has been a very poor one on my shoot which has been going now for about five years. We put down about 60 birds a year and just shoot roosters and the hope was that there would be a wild 'stock' built up. This hasn't happened but most years we get about 2-4 birds each week along with a few snipe and woodcock - which is all we're after, big bags aren't what we're about (it's myself, father and one mate).
This year has been woeful though. Very poor return, just one or two hanging around from last season, the new birds are not staying in the area at all and we have done nothing different; feeders are all in the same places, birds came from same breeder, same amount of vermin control etc. but even the feeders that have held birds for the past few years aren't producing this year. There has been minor change to the terrain in that we have lost a few rushy fields but in an area of about 4-500 acres this shouldn't have made that much difference.
We tried that spice stuff that is out into the feed but it hasn't worked so we are now trying to put reasons to why this year has been so poor.
A buzzard as been a regular visitor - would that disperse birds from the area? There may for some reason be an increase in the fox population but there is no evidence to suggest this.
Any thoughts or similar experiences welcome!!

cavan shooter

My season wasn't the best and talking to lads (Cavan and North County Dublin) things werent much better putting it down to wet weather. There is also a train of thought that if you buy in cocks match the feed they have been getting or at the earliest opportunity they will head in the direction of their previous homestead.

As for predation my father reckons that you can shoot too many foxes, opening the turf up to new comers trying to stake a claim. He argues shoot younger foxes and leave the older ones to stake and fight their claim less damage in the long run.

Wolfhillbilly

Definitely this season has been the wettest for a while and certainly the wettest since we started on this shoot. I'd have thought that the wet weather would have meant that the birds would stay closer to the feeders? and there is also plenty of cover. I was interested to see if any strayed back after the recent snow, but just one bird came back, an old cock bird which hadn't been seen since the third week of the season (October). He wasn't one of this year's birds as he ahd a white ring.
The birds we let out are bought as poults in July and then put in a pen at the shoot (Fermanagh/Tyrone) and let out in Oct-November.

meathstevie

Hasn't been an undiveded succes around here either but if it's only the wet weather and foxes the hare population should be reduced as well but they're thriving. The only thing I can see being done as a possible solution is continious feeding all through the year and increase the number of hens. If there's plenty of feeding around cocks won't fight over territory and just concentrate on the thing they love with their hens. If your shoot consists mainly of grassland spring time mowing might be a problem as well. See if you can convince a few farmers to start cutting from the center of their fields, at least this will save your adult birds. As for feeding : I bought a small bag of anis seed a few days ago and I'm going to try mix a bit into a couple of feeders and see if this has some succes. I know a couple of gamekeepers on the continent who've been very succesfull with it.

mallards

Im in Tyrone too and noticed the same problem. But we discovered that the birds were bunching up in to packs of a dozen or so. We had been out two weeks running without a sight of a bird then ran into a large flush of them. Great fun but hardly what we wanted. Check the feeders are they being used? Your birds could still be around but giving you the slip! Try going out earlier in the morning and ambush them!

Mallards

Wolfhillbilly

Only some of the feeders are being used. There was always a couple of feeders that were used more than the others but even those ones are only being used occasionally this year which leads me to think that foxes are keeping the birds away.
Yesterday I found three different lots of feathers where birds have been picked up by foxes so it seems I have a fair bit of vermin control to do.