The mantra for Minnesota pheasant hunters this fall: "It could have been worse."
Despite a nasty winter, poor spring nesting weather and loss of habitat, the state's pheasant population remains about the same as last year, confounding wildlife biologists, who figured the population would decline.
"This was a pleasant surprise," said Kurt Haroldson, Department of Natural Resources pheasant biologist.
The bottom line: Haroldson expects hunters will harvest about 400,000 ringnecks this season, the same as last year. That's not bad by Minnesota standards, but it's not close to the 500,000-plus birds that hunters bagged annually in 2003 and from 2005 to 2008.
The pheasant index, based on August roadside survey results released Tuesday, was about 63 birds per 100 miles, statistically the same as last year. The bad news: The population remains 22 percent below the 10-year average.
Since 1987, when the effects from the federal Conservation Reserve Program kicked in, Minnesota hunters have averaged about 400,000 pheasants annually -- about what they should shoot this fall, Haroldson noted.
The wicked winter in the southwest -- the state's prime pheasant range -- clearly hurt the birds there, Haroldson said. The number of hens were down there, he said.
"The only good thing about last winter was it ended early," he said. A warm March melted heavy snows quickly, which helped pheasant survival. "That's the only explanation I could come up with on why we didn't see a greater decline," he said.
