Young phesants,

snipe49

Any of u Lad seen young wild phesent yet. This weather's not great wet grass and very little fly hatching.

.338lapuamag

Seen two yesterday In the long grass.usually don't see any until the end of July

snipe49

.338lapuamag wrote: »

Seen two yesterday In the long grass.usually don't see any until the end of July

Hope this weather improves for them.

mallards

Seen a few newly hatched ones a few weeks ago but the showers we had up north over this weekend couldn't have done any good. I read somewhere that newly hatched chicks survive better in this weather as they can all get warm and shelter under the hen. The problem is when they get to be a few weeks old and they are too big to all shelter under her at the same time but haven't got a good enough coat of feathers to tough it out on their own.

tomtucker81

Was in a field this evening for a short walk, heard pheasant from 3 different locations. AND.... while crossing over a large stream/small river, I encountered mamma duck and several chicks paddling and running around in the shallows. Delighted to see them!!

rugermk3

I haven't seen any yet,

Wolfhillbilly

mallards wrote: »

Seen a few newly hatched ones a few weeks ago but the showers we had up north over this weekend couldn't have done any good. I read somewhere that newly hatched chicks survive better in this weather as they can all get warm and shelter under the hen. The problem is when they get to be a few weeks old and they are too big to all shelter under her at the same time but haven't got a good enough coat of feathers to tough it out on their own.

Are there any wild pheasants left in Tyrone?

mallards

There would be, but with so many shoots releasing birds, it's hard to know exactly what is truly wild. I see the very odd one up on some ground I hunt for grouse and there wouldn't be a released pheasant for miles so I'd fancy they are pretty wild. A lot of areas would support breeding and rearing cover so any released birds have a small chance of raising a clutch the following year.

djflawless

All I've seen so far is young duck on ponds, as in ponds where you pay to fish etc
Havant really been through the fields much.just sitting in ditches for Mr Charles

Sull576

Sorry for a late reply but I nearly drove over three or four and a Pheasant hen on a tractor while checking water. Very plentiful around my area can hear a Pheasant everyday

TriggerPL

Do kangaroos count ?

Kiltris

For the first time in about ten years I can actually say that pheasants are plentiful in my area. I think its a mixture of vermin control, a good pheasant release programme and plenty of hoppers out with the last few years.

snipe49

Kiltris wrote: »

For the first time in about ten years I can actually say that pheasants are plentiful in my area. I think its a mixture of vermin control, a good pheasant release programme and plenty of hoppers out with the last few years.

Are they young birds.

Kiltris

snipe49 wrote: »

Are they young birds.

Yea I've seen maybe 8-10 young clutches in the last 2-3 weeks. Oddly enough I saw very young chicks with a small petite hen on Monday evening crossing the road above our house, I thought they were small anyway for this time of year. How late in the year do the last clutches hatch out?

Also we have a neighbour at home who always rings us before he mows his silage, he cuts a 16acre field for bales and gets us to run a few of the dogs through it to see if we can lift a few birds out of dangers way. This year there was 3 cocks and 6 hens in that 16 acres which I thought was impressive enough.

snipe49

Kiltris wrote: »

Yea I've seen maybe 8-10 young clutches in the last 2-3 weeks. Oddly enough I saw very young chicks with a small petite hen on Monday evening crossing the road above our house, I thought they were small anyway for this time of year. How late in the year do the last clutches hatch out?

Also we have a neighbour at home who always rings us before he mows his silage, he cuts a 16acre field for bales and gets us to run a few of the dogs through it to see if we can lift a few birds out of dangers way. This year there was 3 cocks and 6 hens in that 16 acres which I thought was impressive enough.

Well done lad. And give that man a pat on the back from me for letting u flush the birds before he cuts, good on him.

minktrapper

Seen 5 young ones today with their mother.In fact every field I go in to there seems to be pheasants in it.Maybe all the vermin shooting and trapping is paying off.

Kiltris

snipe49 wrote: »

Well done lad. And give that man a pat on the back from me for letting u flush the birds before he cuts, good on him.

Yea there's very few as considerate as him, but he understands our game and appreciates the amount of work i do and have done. I keep the crows away from his yard and drop on a bottle of "orange" at christmas, keeps the whole thing sweet!

garyc007

ya seen loads,good to see. my friends cat found a nest and took a few up by his tho,if id my way the cat would be the one disapearing!

Barneyc

Should be plentyful this year, espicaly in areas where vermin controll is carried out

djflawless

Our patch is looking fairly good now.plenty of released , strong birds are starting to attract last years/some wild ones.
Out of 300 we got from bob leahy we lost 3 to unknown circumstances the 1st week.
And every bird after has absolutely thrived!
1st Nov has me very excited this year

Capercaille

Good weather for last two summers has led to a large increase in chick survival for ground nesting birds.