Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss A fun Saturday morning!

Unfortunately I couldn't make it up to PA in time to meet up with the rest of the mid Atlantic members, I was 24 hours too late... Saturday was the opener of pheasant season in PA and my dog Shanny and I had a great morning hunting with my dad though...

Looks like you were actually shooting at something CJ vs...

Pheasant hunting is super fun! Especially if you have your own dog!! I sure didnt know PA had pheasants?

We have grouse also.

We just got electricity last year.

We're still waiting for electricity in the backwoods of Indiana!

Did anyone know Cape Cod had more quail per acre than anywhere else in in the U.S.?

CJ How's the pheasant population this year in your area?

CJ,

Are they periodically planted pheasants, put and take, or wild and reproducing?

That doesn't look like pheasant habitat to me! Nice colors on them.

Back in the 60's and 70's PA had a thriving wild pheasant population. Hunters took in excess of over half million birds annually. By the 80's, changes in land use and other factors led to the wild pheasant population in PA to crash and crash hard. There were pockets of wild birds, but they were few and far between. A few years ago the Pennsylvania Game Commission started 3 "Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas" or WPRA's. Anyways, they worked hard with private land owners, mostly farmers to improve habitat and then trapped and transferred birds from Montana and the Dakotas. So far the plan seems to be doing well. The birds are coming back strong in those areas and spreading into other areas. Where I hunt is mostly put and take with a few hold over birds. A couple years ago I saw a hen with chicks, but she was most likely a hold over bird who got lucky. Habitat where I hunt is too fragmented for pheasants to do well. Too many trees and not enough fields. Once the leaves are off the trees, I will pound the ground more for grouse. Shanny doesn't care, she likes to flush and retrieve them all.