Last years Pheasants... where are they

mightyabhabelle

Hi,

normally at this time of year as I drive around the country I would see the bigger pheasants from a year or 2 ago... strutting along the fields and I would be eyeing them up for first shoot of the season. However this year I have seen very few of them. Maybe a few hens but thats it.

Has anyone else seen them same as I,m wondering did the bad weather last year really hammer them or maybe the extended season... just curious... rgds M

steyrman2

hi i have being out the last few mornings running the dogs and finding plenty of birds with a good mixture of mature and younger birds plenty of hens . There is not as many stubbles around this year and cover is scarce but heavy ditchs and drains has the birds one corner i hunted had over 15 birds mostly cocks so the season around me is looking good

pheasntstalker

i found the same myself when out running the springer,very few cocks around but plenty of hens then maybe as i live in a housing estate on the f£$kers are letting bangers off morning noon an nite:mad::mad: the feilds i shoot are down the back of the estate plus the just build a ring rd splitting the lands ,might have something to do with it as with the rest off my permissions there seems to be few cocks around so would weather be a facter? i wonder

mightyabhabelle

pheasantStalker... lets hope we get an invite from Steyrman2 lol:D:D

This is really unusual for our club, so I wonder did the bad weather last year hammered them.... at this point in time I will take a road kill if I get it

Spunk84

I've seen some very impressive cocks around with hens and poults. Have 2 big cocks and a **** load of poults behind the house doing wonderful. As for the rest of the GC land I've seen maybe dozen good cocks mooching around as well. If GC didn't put feed out during the bad weather then they would of lost alot of their birds. I came across alot of dead birds last year on permissions that weren't GC lands, very sad to see and it shouldn't of happened if feed was put out.

mightyabhabelle

Good to hear spunk. Yeah in fairness we had out the feeders and the club didn't shoot on the extension as we thought the birds got it tough enough. Ah well good to hear all is well. I think one of the lads might have hit the nail on the head thought. We don't have a lot if stubble fields this year emmmhh

Spunk84

Myself and others maybe shot once or twice in Jan and when the extension came round we didn't even bother shooting it was that bad. I think i shot less than 10 birds last season and let an awful lot go because they were battered, no tails under weight and such. Sometimes you just have to give the birds a chance instead of killing them off. If a pheasant made it threw that weather then he will be a powerful and reproductive bird for the next year.

charlie10

i have been out a lot lately with the pointer and one particular bit of ground that had oats on it in the summer is rocking with phesants alot of hens and a couple of cracking cocks ,met a fella today that had a tail dragging behind him :Dhopefully ill meety him tuesday. our club released no birds this year due to a f£$K up but there is still a load of wild birds around. overall though the ratio of cocks/hens would be in my opinion 1/5 respectivly.

Birdnuts

Alot of hens and poults around these parts too - guess the more handsome and bigger cocks are more likely to fall to the gun each year so fewer make it into their second season. Mind you I saw some fine specimens on nearby stubble during my visit to relatives just outside Enniscorthy this weekend

PS: Of the cocks I notice more and more American blues which I'm told are particualry intolerant of other males in their territories - could be a factor in some areas if the ratio of cocks to hens appears to be out of kilter.

Octopus

Weather is still very mild so birds will only feed for a short time. they'll spend more time sitting up in the ditches at the moment.
Also as the weather has been so mild and as we had an indian summer (for a short time) there's still a lot of growth. More cover.
Also a lot of birds will be in clutches, you could cover several ditches and see nothing then one ditch will have all the birds.
They'll spread out after the first few weeks.

Wait till we get a few frosts and the cover dies back and the birds are hungry.

kildare.17hmr

just in from a ramble there since just before 7, saw 6 cocks 2 which were particularly big. Also saw 4 hens. I am the only person that shoots the area so looks like it will be good for me but unfortunately i have to work tomorrow and prob Wont get out tomorrow eve ether