Minnesota pheasant hunters were stymied by too much standing corn to begin the 2019 season and icy field conditions to end it, but those who went out in November and the first half of December enjoyed some success and were encouraged by what they saw.
"Bird numbers seemed really solid,'' said Scott Rall, president of the Nobles County chapter of Pheasants Forever. "On a scale of one to 10, I anticipated a four this season. It ended up an eight.''
Teri Boltjes of Fairmont, a pheasant hunter who conducted a women's learn-to-hunt class in Martin County, said she was worried that 2019's cold, wet spring would put a major dent in ringneck abundance. So she was surprised to see "lots of birds'' after farmers caught up on their weather-delayed corn harvest.
"It's not overly high numbers, but there were a good number of birds,'' Boltjes said.
Similar field reports were welcomed by the DNR after the agency observed a 17% statewide decrease in the average number of pheasants observed in its preseason roadside count survey. The 2019 Minnesota pheasant index was 11% below the 10-year average and 60% below the long-term average, but the survey showed that certain areas contained plenty of hens and roosters.
Nothing has changed for Minnesota pheasants in the big picture. The birds have lost huge amounts of grassland habitat because of losses of farmland acreage set aside for wildlife under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Minnesota hunters used to bag 350,000 roosters per year, but that number has dropped by more than a third. Nesting habitat is the key to pheasant numbers.
DNR Upland Game Project leader Tim Lyons said he is expecting a mild harvest decline for 2019. Results, including the number of hunters who participated, won't be available until later this year.
"I think it is going to be a little down,'' Lyons said. "It's kind of what we expected.''
