State biologists begin their spring pheasant breeding counts in the next few days with fingers crossed.
“I’m not expecting good news,” said chief pheasant biologist Larry David. “But I don’t think it’ll be bad news, either.”
Certainly not as bad as the 37 percent drop in breeding counts last spring. That was followed by a 50 percent decline in August’s counts of mature birds and chicks. The result was a sorry pheasant season, with harvests down as much as 30 to 60 percent on some state hunting areas. Overall harvest figures will not be available until July.
“Even the guys with good pheasant habitat had a harder time shooting their limits,” David reported. “Some took two or three times as long in the field.”
While David expects winter mortality in Illinois to be moderate, the number of carryover birds still could be low. “We surely didn’t have the mortality of North and South Dakota and Minnesota last winter, but our numbers had been down,” David said. “Even if our carryover is good, I don’t think we’ve recovered. I’d be pleased if we turned out to be where we were last spring.”
Meanwhile, Illinois approaches the 1,200-acre mark in high quality public pheasant habitat, with 168 acres scheduled to be added by two plots in Tazewell and Douglas Counties. These are a 90-acre field near Hindsboro east of Arcola in Douglas County and a 78-acre spot 4 miles north of Manito in Tazewell County. They would bring to nine the choice grassland locations purchased with state Pheasant Stamp funds that are available free to hunters on a limited permit basis.
The DNR last year opened a 240-acre spread near Victoria in Knox County and the 80-acre Hallsville area in DeWitt County. They joined the splendid 316-acre Kaecker site in western Lee County, an 80-acre Steward area in eastern Lee County, 120-acre Perdueville in Ford County, 88-acre Workman in Vermilion County and 86-acre Saybrook in McLean County. All are high-quality restored grasslands with food plots beside private farms. Pheasants hatched miles away find their way to these remarkably rich habitats, which are hunted only every three or four days during the upland season.
Details for permit applications and available hunting dates will be published this summer in the DNR’s Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations.
Noise pollution: When the DNR sends 32 biologists into the field to count pheasant clucks (and also tune an ear for dove, quail, crow and turkey calls), they are increasingly defeated by competing man-made noises.
“It’s getting harder and harder to do this, with all the homes being built in rural areas,” said John Cole, the DNR’s upland game manager. “Why, we’ve had to change some of our routes because of new roads with heavier traffic. The old routes got so noisy we couldn’t hear anything very well.”
Biologists try to run the same 20-mile routes each spring, stopping every mile to listen for gamebirds. They turn off their engines, walk some distance from their trucks and wait for bird noises to resume before beginning their timed counts.
“It’s gotten harder to hear the small things out there,” Cole said. “It’s really tough when a farmer’s planting in a field or his grain dryer is running. You can’t believe how far sound carries in the country and how dominant some of those outside sounds can be. A plane flying overhead can ruin a count. A car going down the road.”
Even, to some extent, wind chimes clanging tunelessly from some back porch. More and more people seem to place greater value on meaninglessly gonging rods of metal than the subtle symphony of nature.
Don’t tell the seagulls: For those who’d like an eyeful of fingerling coho and chinook salmon, the DNR has scheduled afternoon stockings of 660,000 fish at three Lake Michigan sites over the next week. The first batch goes into Jackson Park’s inner harbor Thursday, followed by Friday deliveries to Jackson and Diversey Harbor, south of Fullerton Avenue.
The schedule for next week: Monday, Diversey and Waukegan’s south harbor; Tuesday, Diversey; Wednesday, Waukegan; Thursday, Diversey. DNR officials expect most loads to arrive between noon and 1 p.m., but they could be later. For exact times, call 847-294-4134 each morning. And, yes, those ravenous seagulls will be tying on their bibs.
Cash ‘n’ carry: If you want to know if that old lure or reel in your attic is worth any money, have it appraised and even auctioned Saturday at the National Fishing Lure Collectors Club’s annual Antique Fishing Tackle Show and Exhibition. The show is open to the public for $7 (kids are free) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Schaumburg’s Marriott Hotel. More than 50 collectors will display thousands of vintage pieces. Call 773-463-2126.
