Melanistic Pheasants
- Thread starter stubblejumper
- Start date
They get better with age
SJ is there any way to tell if this was a second year or older bird that has had time to dine on the local feed ?
Pretty looking bird and would make fine table fare or an great wall mount.
Congrats and thank you for sharing.
Rob
badgreenbird
Regular
- Location
- Dawson Creek, BC
If they get past the first day or two, they wise up pretty well! Only once did I (presumably) just miss the truck by a day... birds were perched in the trees peering down at the dog. But every other time I've hunted the closest release site, the birds have actually been pretty wily and flew well!
I have found that unless you are hanging around the truck as birds are released, most fly just fine. And some run until they are out of range and then fly. And a day or two after a release, they act a lot like wild birds.
the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
ACA took over the release program. They changed the system to no longer put out scheduled release dates because release staff were in danger of being shot and some were hit by pellets by people shooting birds as they were released from the truck! I can't even imagine standing there gun in hand waiting for someone to open crate doors and shoot birds exiting the crates. I've never gone to shoot pheasants at a release site as like you to me it's shooting not hunting and cramming that many hunters into a 1/4 to 1/2 section of land all trying to get the limited number of birds available that week is far from safe imo. If they set it up that the sites are only allowed to be hunted every second week and released birds on the weeks between and the sites are limited to number of hunters it might at least disperse the birds a bit and give more of a hunting experience. Better yet is find a source like South Dakota and make a deal to import wild pheasants and start a reintroduction program with closed seasons and let the birds establish themselves the way Ontario did by trading the state of Michigan moose for wild turkeys. That program was extremely successful for Ontario hunters.
That's insane! Who would want to wait while the birds are being released and shoot them? Not my idea of hunting. Is the release program not aimed at building a sustainable wild population? Seems incredibly wasteful to just breed them and have the majority shot right away. The release program run in my area has no release dates, the location of the releases aren't posted or made public. The idea is to build a wild population. Tough going around here due to the winters but it's worth a try.
"Is the release program not aimed at building a sustainable wild population?"
No, it is not. Only roosters are released, they are strictly put and take sites like stocked trout ponds, winter survival rates are extremely low especially in the north.
As someone who has hunted pheasant release sites, opposed to someone who has not hunted releases sites but has far out suggestions to improve the experience ( how can you know what it is like if you have not experienced it?) hawks, eagles, foxes and coyotes pick off many roosters released onto the site.
There would likely be no birds on site after releasing and not hunting them for a week. It is what it is and for someone without a dog it is a blast, as well as I am sure it is a blast for dog and dog owner on any given day.
No, it is not. Only roosters are released, they are strictly put and take sites like stocked trout ponds, winter survival rates are extremely low especially in the north.
As someone who has hunted pheasant release sites, opposed to someone who has not hunted releases sites but has far out suggestions to improve the experience ( how can you know what it is like if you have not experienced it?) hawks, eagles, foxes and coyotes pick off many roosters released onto the site.
There would likely be no birds on site after releasing and not hunting them for a week. It is what it is and for someone without a dog it is a blast, as well as I am sure it is a blast for dog and dog owner on any given day.
As someone who has released at least 5000 birds (yes that's right) I can tell you the days of the fat chicken pheasant that doesn't move even when the dog picks him up are over, at least in MY club. We release every Friday our fields are closed to all members until Saturday SUNRISE. This lets the birds climatize better into the fields and also keeps the idiots in our club at bay.The pheasants we release are smaller faster birds than the one's from yesteryear and are imho as close to wild birds as one can imagine. We have seen many survive the winters as the farms we lease land from let us know how many the see at spring plant. In an effort to try and start a resident population we will be releasing hens which are protected in the next few years. These birds are willy and have watched several fly right out of sight as the jumped into the air when I parked my vehicle at the end of the hedgerow. cheers RD
the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
No it is not. It is strictly a put and take system the same as trout stocking in most waters.
https://www.ab-conservation.com/programs/wildlife/provincial-pheasant-release-program/
The pheasants in Canada came with the Chinese when they came to Canada (immigrants) in our founding years.
Rob
The site that I go to is not 1/4 or 1/2 section , it is 1-1/2 sections, with a great deal of bush, which the birds are driven into within the first hour or two. So a dozen hunters or more can be spread over that 1-1/2 sections, and not be in each other's way. After the initial release, the birds are dispersed over a considerable area, and after a few hours, it takes a good dog to find any. Yes there are idiots that flock to the release truck, most have no dogs, and will even ground swat birds if they can, but the rest of us try to avoid being anywhere near the truck. I spent over 20 days at the site this year, and I actually saw the truck twice, once it arrived when I was headed back to my vehicle with a limit of birds, and the other time, when it was leaving the site, and I went to the far limits of the site to avoid the area, where the birds are actually released. This morning was an example of how tough it can be to find birds only a day after a release, I did find two birds in over two hours, but I only heard four other shots, during that time period. So six shots from over a dozen people in over two hours, that doesn't sound like the easy shoot that many people imagine it is. As for releasing one week, and hunting the next week, the predation due to coyotes , hawks and owls would likely claim over half of the birds, and some more would leave the site, so that idea is not at all practical. No it isn't quite like hunting wild birds, which I also do ,but once those birds are in the brush, they aren't nearly as easy to find as many people think. Basically, the release sites provide an opportunity for many people to hunt birds, without having to travel hours to get to where the wild birds live, and they do reduce hunting pressure on the wild birds.
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We also feel predation and luckily we have a member who delights in hunting coyotes.Last year he had 50+ .The hawks and eagles take their share as well but these newer birds are much hardier than the fat roasting birds of old.Any of you that watched the Sumas prairie in BC last year get flooded out that is where we release.After the water receded I turned 4 birds out duck hunting from a field that had 3 ft of water in it a week before ,I was literally shocked.
