Hegins Valley Pheasant Survey

[Dutch]

Results of a flushing survey from the Hegins valley WPRA:

Hegins-Gratz Valley Wild Pheasant Recovery Area (WPRA) on Sunday! Hello Everyone,
Many thanks to the wonderful group leaders, volunteers and bird dogs who braved some misty, foggy weather to help us conduct wild pheasant flushing surveys in the Hegins-Gratz Valley Wild Pheasant Recovery Area (WPRA) on Sunday!
43 people and 28 dogs helped survey.
The goal of flushing surveys is to flush a sample of the birds to determine the overall sex ratio. The sex ratio is then factored into population density estimates.
The numbers of male and female pheasants flushed are listed by group number and group leader below. A few more sites will be surveyed over the next few weeks, including an original release site in the Gratz Valley and another site in Hegins Valley where some birds have moved to from original release sites.
Wild pheasant sex ratios for both study areas will be calculated when all flushing surveys are completed. WPRA sex ratios have been holding steady around 1:1 for most sites and most years since wild pheasant recovery efforts began. This is typical for an un-hunted wild pheasant population.
Preliminary Hegins-Gratz Valley wild pheasant flushing surveys, Sunday January 18, 2015:
M=Male, F=Female, U= unknown
03M:03F - Group 1: Brandon Black – Gratz Valley – not a release site*
12M:07F - Group 2: Kurt Bond – Gratz Valley – 2011 release site
07M:07F - Group 3: Colleen DeLong – Hegins Valley – 2011 release site
01M:00F - Group 3: DeLong (Site 2) - Hegins Valley – not a release site*
15M:19F (4 U) - Group 4: Jim Kauffman – Hegins Valley – adjacent to a 2011 release site where the CREP habitat was converted back to cropland
01M:00F - Group 5: Will Dingman – Hegins Valley – not release sites*, 4 different small areas near original release sites
*We know about birds moving to new sites that were not original release sites because of radio tracking work conducted after releases.
Please tell everyone you know in the WPRAs to contact our Pheasants Forever Habitat Biologists if they are interested in habitat for wild pheasants and other farmland wildlife! Let me know if you need contact info.
Thanks again to all the great volunteers and dogs!
Colleen
Colleen DeLong
Wildlife Biologist
PA Game Commission
570-380-0833

[Deleted]

Seems to me there is very low numbers. Not looking good.

[Dutch]

Barely sustaining itself? Maybe it will get better over time. We shall see.

Seems they still have more surveys to complete in the area, maybe more will turn up.

[Deleted]

It is a noble effort. But I really don't believe it will work.

[TusseyMtman]

It is a joke. It is not a noble effort. It is the fantasy of a few individuals and the PGC willing to do anything to sell licenses, no matter how far-fetched it is.

[Dutch]

Jan 21, 2015 8:18:17 GMT -5 @mess2 said:

It is a noble effort. But I really don't believe it will work.

It depends on the CREP program. When acreage is taken out of CREP, there is no where for pheasants to be, in large enough numbers, to be hunted.

The one farm we did a flushing survey on at Montour, was about 400 acres, we were told. Pretty much all warm season grasses.

A commissioner was there and he was placed on that farm. They flushed 160 birds. We were next to him and flushed 50?

Meanwhile, on the public land, a few miles away, no birds were flushed.

If that ONE farm were taken out of CREP, there would not be a bird left. Far to much fragmentation of habitat. JMO.

[ridgecommander]

Unless the pheasant populations in these WPRA can sustain hunting pressure from the public, the program is a total waste of time and money.

If they ever open these areas up to hunting, I would be willing to bet it would be very hard for John Q public to show up and hunt birds.

[Dutch]

I was in favor of the program in the beginning. No longer. I see them, as simple "islands" of habitat, sustained by a government program. Unless habitat exists over a wide area, and is contiguous, there is little hope of success.

[tcaddis]

It's all about switch grass. It's the key to pheasant nirvana.

[Dutch]

Yes.

[tcaddis]

Also, the cold hard facts are grouse and woodcock will never generate this kind of excitement.

Maybe it's the secretive nature of the people that pursue those native birds.

I look at like as a win win. They are happy as clams. Less people in the woods.


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